#folk guitar

Happy Birthday guitarist Davey Johnstone, born in Edinburgh May 6th 1951.

Davey was having a perfectly fine career in the folk music world before he was whisked away to a life of rock and roll with one of the worlds biggest “pop” stars Elton John, he never looked back.

Having moved to London in 1968, Davey got his first album credit that year on the Noel Murphy LP, Another Round. Noel and Davey then formed the band Draught Porridge in 1969. In 1970 Davey played on the album Seasons by Magna Carta and in 1971 joined that group as second guitarist. Their next album, Songs From Wasties Orchard, was helmed by Elton’s producer, Gus Dudgeon.

Gus asked Davey to contribute to Bernie Taupin’s solo album in 1971. Davey played guitar, sitar, banjo, mandolin and lute while Bernie read his poetry aloud. Soon after, in August 1971, Gus called upon Davey once more, this time to play acoustic guitar and mandolin parts on four songs on Elton’s Madman Across The Water album, including the intricate harmonic part that anchors the title track. A week or so later, Elton invited Davey to join the band full-time, joining drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray both in the studio and on stage — and thus was born the group that solidified Elton’s sound.

Since then Davey has  been an indispensable part of most of Elton’s albums, in Elton’s career Johnstone remains the only musician that has not been sacked by the star, that’s some fete, last year he celebrated 50 years playing with the man.

As well as Elton John over the years Davey has, however, worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Joan Armatrading and Stevie Nicks. Johnstone lives in Los Angeles with his wife. He has seven children. Johnstone released a solo album, Smiling Face, in 1973 through The Rocket Record Company and created a short-lived band called China that released an eponymous album in 1977.

On 10th June 2009, Johnstone played a landmark 2,000th show as a member of the Elton John Band at the SECC Glasgow , he is currently serving as John’s musical director, in addition to his guitar work. I looked through the credits for the Elton John film, Rocketman, due out this month and he doesn’t seem to feature in it, you will however be able to see Scotsman Richard Madden as Eltons manager John Reid, a much better casting than Irishman  Aidan Gillen, who played Reid in the Freddie Mercury bio, Bohemian Rhapsody.

I mentioned Davey’s 2,000th show, but the remarkable man has since went on to reach 3,000 plus shows with Elton John.

In February this year Davey released the album,  Deeper Than My Roots recorded during the pandemic hiatus that postponed Elton John’s Farewell Tour, it was almost 50 years after his debut album in 1973. The video features a track from the album featuring, Elliot Johnstone, Davey’s 16 year old son, who has a really mature sounding voice, the video also has a nod to his homeland with shots of Edinburgh Castle. 

Johnstone lives, as most Rock n Rollers invariably do, in Los Angeles with his wife. He has seven children