Tributes to rock legend Wilko Johnson
THE Who’s Roger Daltrey and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page have led tributes from musicians to singersongwriter and Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, who has died aged 75.
The musician found fame in the 1970s pub-rock band who helped pave the way for British punk, and also enjoyed a successful solo career.
A statement on Johnson’s Facebook page yesterday announced he had died at home on Monday evening and thanked fans for their “tremendous support”.
Daltrey, who recorded an album with Johnson in 2014 called Going Back Home, said he was “lucky” to have known him. He said: “More than anything Wilko wanted to be a poet. I was lucky to have known him and have him as a friend.
“His music lives on but there’s no escaping the final curtain this time.”
Led Zeppelin guitarist Page said he was “sad” to hear the news, and recalled watching the Dr Feelgood star perform at Koko in Camden in May 2013. Folk singer Billy Bragg described Johnson as a “precursor of punk”, writing on Twitter: “His guitar playing was angry and angular, but his presence – twitchy, confrontational, out of control – was something we’d never beheld before in UK pop.