Name\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Tom Johnston<\/p>\n Best known for<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Being a singer, guitar player, songwriter for the Doobie Brothers.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n Current city<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Marin County, north of San Francisco a little bit.<\/p>\n Really want to be in<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Dublin, that\u2019s a great town. I really like Dublin.<\/p>\n Excited about<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Our new album,\u00a0Walk This Road<\/a>.\u00a0We\u2019re starting the U.S. version of\u00a0touring<\/a>\u00a0on that right now. We\u2019ve been over in the UK and in Ireland for five shows.<\/p>\n My current music collection has a lot of<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Jazz.<\/p>\n Preferred format<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t really listen to streaming. I just never got into it. My daughter does. A lot of people I know do. My sister does. It\u2019s depending on what you like. I just never got into that. I listen mostly to music either off my phone, which I\u2019ve downloaded over the years.<\/p>\n I listen to some new stuff occasionally on Sirius XM in my car. Other than that, I pretty much program my own radio, if you will.<\/p>\n I remember when they came out, which was in the \u201970s. \u201cMississippi Queen\u201d was just everywhere. Corky Laing back there, banging on the cowbell. I never heard anybody playing drums quite that aggressively before. Maybe aggressively is the wrong word, but it\u2019s just powerful. This is all about power.<\/p>\n They were a good band. I never got to see him live, which is a regret of mine. I would love to have seen him live, and I didn\u2019t get to do it. [I\u2019m] a big fan of Leslie West.<\/p>\n Felix Pappalardi is a great producer as well as bass player and singer and everything else. As a unit, they were flipping amazing. They were a powerhouse.<\/p>\n That particular album just knocked me out. It was done in \u201992. He\u2019s got Steve Jordan playing drums, Marcus Miller playing bass, Ricky Peterson playing B3 and other keyboards. He also has Richard Tee on it; is another phenomenal keyboard player. It\u2019s just great.<\/p>\n If you want grooves and if you want phenomenal musicianship and stellar timing and all that stuff, that\u2019s the album. It\u2019s just incredible. It\u2019s great for working out, and it\u2019s great for driving. It\u2019s great for a lot of stuff.<\/p>\n Fresh Cream album cover<\/p>\n Fresh Cream, it just really got my attention when it came out, which I believe was late \u201966 or something like that. Songs like\u00a0I Feel Free, some of the other tunes on there. Nobody was doing that. It was a very original sound. Those guys had their own thing going on, and of course, Eric Clapton. God, so what are you going to do? You can\u2019t beat them. I have to say the whole band is a unit was just amazing.<\/p>\n One of the most lyrical blues players I\u2019ve ever heard. As soon as he plays like two or three notes, you know exactly who it is. That particular album with that song on it, as well as \u201cCrosscut Saw,\u201d\u00a0which was huge.<\/p>\n Albert King is like a standalone blue guy. I like all the Kings, B.B., Freddie, Albert. They all have their own signature way of doing things.<\/p>\n Albert, I\u2019ve never heard anybody play like that. It\u2019s a very original style of all the bends in it, and his crazy upside-down tuning and stuff on. I saw him live a couple of times, and I was blown away. In fact, we played some shows with him in 1972, I think it was.<\/p>\n That was unbelievable just getting to see him up close and live like that, playing with him. He was really something.<\/p>\n B.B., he\u2019s a blues legend all unto himself. There\u2019s a lot of songs he did that I just loved. That one [\u201cRock Me Baby\u201d] is a staple of blues guitar. Just his way of phrasing, his way of singing, too. He had a great voice. He was a cool guy.<\/p>\n As soon as you hear a couple of notes or the vocal you know who it is. B.B.\u2019s playing, like I said, has been the bedrock of electric blues for, geez, decades.<\/p>\n5 Albums I Can\u2019t Live Without:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Nantucket Sleighride,\u00a0Mountain<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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2<\/h2>\n
Upfront, David Sanborn<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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3<\/h2>\n
Fresh Cream, Cream<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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4<\/h2>\n
Born Under a Bad Sign, Albert King<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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5<\/h2>\n
Rock Me Baby, B.B. King\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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