Johnnie Johnson, the rock and roll pianist who died on Wednesday aged 80, gave Chuck Berry his first break, played with him for 20 years but was later dropped from the band for alleged drunkenness.
The two first worked together on New Year's Eve 1952 when Johnson invited Berry, an unknown "hillbilly" guitarist, to play with his band, Sir John's Trio, for a fee of four dollars, filling in for the band's saxophonist, who was ill. It did not take long for the more aggressive and flamboyant Berry to take over the band, which soon became the Chuck Berry Trio.
Johnson worked with Berry until the 1970s, his rhythmic, hard-driving bass piano chords and glissandi providing the background to Berry's guitar riffs on most of his classic hits, including Maybelline; Roll Over Beethoven; No Particular Place to Go and Rock and Roll Music. One of Berry's best-known songs, Johnny B Goode, was written as a tribute to his sideman.
Johnson played an important collaborative role in the process of composition, often hammering out the music on the piano while Berry converted it to guitar and wrote the lyrics, but Berry claimed sole credit as performer and songwriter. Thus, while the royalties rolled in for Berry, Johnson had little to show for his musical career.
In 2000 he sued Berry, claiming that the guitarist had taken all the credit for 50-odd songs they had composed together and seeking millions of dollars in royalties. The suit was dismissed on the grounds that too much time had elapsed since the songs were written.
But some rock and roll aficionados credit Johnson as the real "father of rock and roll", the title of a 1999 biography by Travis Fitzpatrick, who argued that Johnson was an equal partner with Berry. In the 1980s, he was rediscovered by Keith Richards, when the Rolling Stones guitarist became involved as musical director of Taylor Hackford's film tribute to Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1986). Richards brought Berry and Johnson together for a concert and suggested, in his contribution to the film, that Berry may have adapted Johnson's piano riffs for guitar. Later, Richards hired Johnson to play on his own solo record Talk is Cheap (1988),
Sir John's Trio left a ghostly mark in the unusual key signatures of many of Berry's best-known songs. Instead of the guitarists' standard A, D and E chords, many were written for B-flat, E-flat and F, more awkward chords for a guitarist, but well suited to the horn players Johnson employed before Berry joined the band.
The son of a coal miner, Johnnie Johnson was born on July 8 1924 at Fairmont, West Virginia. His parents bought him a piano when he was four and, as he later recalled: "the moment the movers brought it into the house, I sat down and started playing."
He taught himself by copying pieces he heard on the radio by the likes of Meade "Lux" Lewis, Art Tatum and Earl Hines. By the age of nine he was playing on local radio shows and, aged 13, started his own band, the Blue Rhythm Swingsters.
During the early stages of the Second World War, Johnson worked on the Ford production lines in Detroit, building tanks. In 1943 he became one of the first black Americans to enlist and serve in the Marines.
While stationed in the Pacific, he played in the Special Service Band, entertaining US servicemen and accompanying famous names from the jazz and big band world.
After demob in 1946, Johnson moved to Chicago to work in a car factory, moonlighting in the city's flourishing blues scene and working with the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Albert King. In the early 1950s, he moved to St Louis to work in a steel mill, playing in the evenings at the city's Cosmopolitan Club with his newly-formed Sir John's Trio.
The band was effectively taken over by Chuck Berry in 1955 after the guitarist was hired independently as the band's leader by the club owner. It seems the change came as something of a relief to Johnson, who told Berry that he did not much care for the business end of things and would be happy with someone else in charge - besides which, Berry had a car.
Johnson continued as Berry's sideman for the next 18 years and also played occasionally with Albert King and Little Richard, but his heavy drinking. always a problem, began to take its toll (Berry is said to have written Johnny B Goode because he was always warning his piano player to behave himself when they had to travel separately on the road), and their partnership ended in 1973.
After the split, Johnson joined a group called Sounds of the City which, under his leadership, became the Magnificent Five, freelancing around St Louis. By the time Keith Richards met him he was working as a bus driver for the elderly.
With encouragement from Richards, Johnson resumed his musical career in the late 1980s and released a number of records including Blue Hand Johnnie (1988), Johnny B Bad (1991), That'll Work (1993) and Johnny Be Back (1995). He performed regularly on the club circuit, making his last public appearance in February with Bo Diddley.
Johnson is survived by his wife, Frances, and by 10 children.
