“You should never meet your heroes,” said someone, maybe Marcel Proust. Apparently, that’s because the person you imagine is rarely the person you meet. Yet in my life, I have met lots of my heroes and they’ve always been as good, sometimes even better, than I imagined they’d be.
Tony Blair, the Doobie Brothers, Tony Greig, Steely Dan, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine of the Beach Boys, Viv Richards, Sammy Hagar, Joe Vitale, Graham Nash, Keir Starmer, Roy Wood and Johnnie Walker, among others, all at least lived up to my expectations. Johnnie Walker, my first DJ hero surpassed all my expectations and it is with much sadness that I have learned today of his passing.
Johnnie first came to my attention in around 1969 or 1970 when he started broadcasting on BBC Radio 1. I loved his knowledge of music and his obvious enthusiasm for it. But above all, I loved his voice. He had a slight mid-Atlantic twang to his brushed Birmingham accent, the former being the norm among many broadcasters of the time. He spoke to me, a very young me, as a kind of friend. I always felt he was talking to me and only me, which is the magic of the great DJ.
In the 1970s, he left the BBC and went to America, only to return in the 1980s, showing up, to my amazement, at the new Radio West in Bristol, hosting a new evening show. My amazement turned to astonishment when I found that not only was Walker in Bristol, he was living on Talbot Road in Brislington, a little more than five or ten minutes from where I lived. I walked past his house every morning and evening on the way to and from work and saw him frequently. He would always bid a hearty hello. One evening, I rang the show to request a track – I think it may have been one by Big Country I was very fond of at the time – and while I was speaking to the producer before being put on air asked if I could come and sit in on his show one evening. He said yes. “Bring some beer,” was the last comment.
The night came and I arrived laden with packs of beer and I was shepherded into the studio where Johnnie Walker was in mid flow. He made it all look ridiculously easy, playing records, chatting with callers, chatting with his producer and with the rest of us in the studio, all the while passing round various unusual smelling ‘cigarettes’. I had come across an old book about the Pirate Ship DJs of the 1960s and of course there was a piece on him. To my delight, he signed it. I still have that book and photo.
In 1987, he returned to his rightful home at the BBC, hosting various shows, notably the evening Drive programme and later Sounds of the Seventies and The Rock Show.In 2002, he announced on his show that he had cancer. He left Drive but popped up on a variety of different shows until a few weeks ago when his illness, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a severe respiratory illness that can make breathing very difficult, had progressed to the extent he could no longer broadcast.
I won’t say that Johnnie Walker was influential in the music I came to love. Whispering Bob Harris enjoys that accolade, if you can call it that, but as a voice on the radio, his was simply the best. And let’s face it, you don’t last as long as he did in the cut throat world of radio unless you’re a bit good.
On 27th October 2024, he presented his last Sounds of the Seventies and played these songs:
- What Is Life: By George Harrison
- We Are Family: By Sister Sledge
- Giving It All Away: By Roger Daltrey
- Don’t Go Breaking My Heart: By Elton John & Kiki Dee
- Solsbury Hill: By Peter Gabriel
- Holly Holy: By Neil Diamond
- For a Dancer: By Jackson Browne
- Free Bird: By Lynyrd Skynyrd
- If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me): By The Staple Singers
- Sailing: By Rod Stewart
- Song For the Asking: By Simon & Garfunkel
- Starman: By David Bowie
- Into The Valley: By Skids
- Walk On The Wild Side: By Lou Reed
- It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It): By The Rolling Stones
- I Can See Clearly Now: By Johnny Nash
- Amazing Grace: By Judy Collins
Not bad, eh? And for his final Rock Show, two days before, he finished up with “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who, from theirs best album “Who’s Next?” released in 1971, rock’s finest year.
Even as death approached, Johnnie Walker never forgot about the music, nor the listeners who adored him. I’ll miss him.
I’m part of a dying breed of people who love live radio for the magic it can bring. Of course it’s about the music, but it’s also about the people who bring it to you. None were better than Johnnie Walker. Thanks for everything and rest in peace.