Jimmy Ray Johnson was born in 1943 in Sheffield, Alabama. He took up the guitar as a youngster and, at the age of fifteen, earned ten dollars playing at a sock hop. His parents liked Country music, but Jimmy was drawn to black R&B music when he heard Chuck Berry.
When Rick Hall opened FAME Studios in 1961, Johnson was one of the first people to apply for a job there. He was employed to do clerical work and then began helping out in the recording studio as a sound engineer.
He was still playing guitar, as a member of the Del-Rays, alongside Roger Hawkins on drums, Billy Cofield on saxophone, and Billy Scott on organ. The group were able to record a number of songs with Rick Hall producing, including “The Girl That Radiates That Charm” in 1962 on the FAME Records label, and “Fortune Teller” in 1965.
Jimmy Johnson
Johnson was an obvious choice to join the new studio session band that Rick Hall had to set up. He played on a couple of sessions in 1965, but things really took off in 1966, when FAME welcomed Arthur Conley, Percy Sledge, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin.
Johnson often played rhythm guitar on FAME sessions, with various lead guitarists being invited to augment the band when necessary. Jimmy Johnson’s guitar work was never about pyrotechnics or grandstanding. His power lay in subtlety, in the ability to create pulse and texture that gave songs their momentum without demanding attention. In an era when guitarists often sought the limelight, Johnson understood the deeper craft of restraint. His signature style was defined by rhythmic discipline, clean tone, and an unerring instinct for what a track required, qualities that made him indispensable to the Muscle Shoals sound.
At its core, Johnson’s playing was about movement. He had a way of making the simplest chord pattern breathe, injecting a track with understated energy that pushed it forward. His rhythm guitar lines rarely sought to dominate, but they provided the invisible scaffolding that allowed bass, drums, and vocals to flourish. Listen closely to sessions with Aretha Franklin or Wilson Pickett, and it is Johnson’s steady, unfaltering groove that keeps the music grounded while giving it life.
When the moment called for it, Johnson could step into the foreground with sharp, soulful licks that lifted a song to another level. These flourishes were never indulgent; they were placed with precision, designed to heighten emotion rather than distract
