Wilko Johnson, the guitarist for Dr Feelgood and a key figure in the British punk movement, died at the age of 75. According to a statement posted on his official social media accounts, he died at home on November 21.
Johnson was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in 2013 and chose not to undergo chemotherapy. He was given nine to ten months to live that year.
Nonetheless, in 2014, he released Going Back Home, a collaboration with Roger Daltrey of the Who. Later that year, doctors discovered that Johnson's cancer was a neuroendocrine tumor, a less aggressive and more treatable form of the disease, and he declared himself cancer-free after a major operation to remove a 3kg tumor.
"Now I'm spending my time gradually coming to terms with the fact that my death is not imminent, that I will live on," he said at this year's Q awards.
Among those who paid tribute to Johnson was Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos. "His unique, wired playing and stage presence thrilled and inspired many guitarists, including myself," he wrote on Twitter. "He was bright, thoughtful, and an amazing storyteller when I interviewed him a few years ago." His presence will be felt for many years to come."
Johnson was born John Peter Wilkinson in 1947 in Canvey Island, Essex. He began playing guitar as a teenager, but his career took off when he formed Dr Feelgood with singer Lee Brilleaux, bassist John B Sparks, and drummer John Martin in 1971.
Johnson quickly became known for his distinctive style of guitar playing, which used fingerpicking to play riffs or solos while playing rhythm, as well as his flamboyant performances, which often featured him raising his guitar to his shoulders like a gun.
Dr. Feelgood's intense, brutal take on R&B influenced the British punk music that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Johnson stayed with Dr Feelgood for their first four albums, the latter three of which charted in the top 20 of the UK albums chart, before leaving due to inter-band conflict.
Johnson left Dr Feelgood to form Solid Senders, who released one album on Virgin in 1978, and briefly joined Ian Dury's band the Blockheads, appearing on their 1980 album Laughter.
Soon after, he began to concentrate on his longest-running musical project, the Wilko Johnson Band, with whom he would go on to release seven albums over the next three decades, including the 1981 debut Ice on the Motorway, 1988's Barbed Wire Blues, and, most recently, 2018's Blow Your Mind.
Outside of music, Johnson published one book, Looking Back at Me, co-written with Zo Howe in 2012, and appeared as a guest star on Game of Thrones as Ser Ilyn Payne, a mute executioner.
Musicians expressed their admiration for Johnson and his work on Twitter.
According to Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Johnson "fought the good fight and had a damn good run." When they said it was over, you came back stronger," wrote Nottingham post-punk duo Sleaford Mods, while Johnson was described as "the unsung inventor of Post Mod, Mod."
On November 23, 2022, this article was updated to include information about Johnson's 2014 neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis.
