American blues guitarist as well known for appearance as for high-energy playing

Johnny Winter: February 23rd, 1944 – July 16th, 2014

Johnny Winter, who has died aged 70, was a high-energy guitarist who was a mainstay of the blues-rock world since the 1960s.

Winter was perhaps as well known for his appearance as he was for his playing. Tall and thin, with pinkish eyes and chalk-white skin and hair, he was – like his brother and occasional collaborator, Edgar, a keyboardist and saxophonist – an albino, a fact that commentators rarely failed to mention.

"If you can imagine a 130-pound, cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest, fluid blues guitar you ever heard, then enter Johnny Winter," Rolling Stone wrote in a 1968 article that introduced Winter, then aged 24, to the wider public and the music business.

In less than a year, he would sign a lucrative contract with Columbia Records, perform at Woodstock and be widely hailed as one of the most talented guitarists of his generation.

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John Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas, and took to music while still very young, playing clarinet, ukulele and eventually guitar. When he was 11, he and Edgar, who is two years younger, performed Everly Brothers songs at local talent shows, and by 15 he had cut his first record. Around that time he also discovered the music of blues heroes such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and their sound became his lifelong muse.

In 1977 he began a series of collaborations with Waters, producing his album Hard Again. That record, and two that followed in the late '70s, won acclaim for their raw sound, and each won a Grammy Award.

From there Winter's own albums increasingly focused on the blues. His most recent, Roots (2011), features songs by Robert Johnson, Elmore James and Little Walter.

He has been ranked the 63rd greatest guitar player of all time by Rolling Stone, and throughout his career he and his musicianship have been particularly admired by other musicians.

Roots features guest appearances by guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers, country star Vince Gill and many others, including Edgar Winter. His next release, Step Back, scheduled for next month, features guitarists Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

Winter is survived by his wife, Susan Warford, and his brother, Edgar.