MusicRadar

Eric Johnson at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio, 2010. © Amy Harris/Corbis

Eric Johnson is on the move. No, he's not playing dates - not at the moment anyhow, although he's just wrapped up the fall run of the Experience Hendrix tour and will hit the road again in January for the second leg of the Guitar Masters tour. Johnson is in the middle of packing up his house in Austin, which he sold recently, and he admits that the process is a stressful one.

"I didn't plan on moving so fast," he says. "I put my house on the market while I was on the road, not thinking that it would sell so quickly. But it did, so now I've got to get all of my stuff together and put it in storage. I'm building another place in Austin, which will take a year or two, so I'm going to have to lodge temporarily at another residence."

With his astounding new album, Up Close, just released and receiving rave notices (check out our extensive track-by-track guide, with thoughts on each cut from the guitarist himself) and a 2011 solo tour in the works, it's inevitable that Johnson's temporary residences will also include many hotel rooms. "I'll definitely be touring behind Up Close as soon as I can," he says. "I'm really looking forward to playing these new songs live."

While packing boxes and dealing with moving men, Johnson recently took some time out of a hectic day to answer questions from MusicRadar readers.

Craig Williams says, I totally love Up Close. I think it's your best album since Ah Via Musicom. Can you describe what it was like to record? You seem to labor over your albums in the studio, but from what I've read on MusicRadar, that wasn't the case this time.

"Wow, thanks so much for the compliment. I'm really glad you like it. That's true, I didn't labor over it - not in the same ways as my other records, at least. Well…different ways, maybe. [laughs] The most fun I had on Up Close was when I basically played live and saw where the songs wanted to go. I let them guide me, as opposed to the other way around. In the past, I would always try to force a song to do what I wanted, and I think that results in music that sounds sterile and artificial. On Up Close, I tried to avoid that at all costs. I wanted the songs - and the whole album, really - to feel natural and spontaneous, like people playing music together for the very first time.

"A big plus was having a bunch of other musicians and singers come in and add their own two cents to the tunes. That really made the whole studio experience joyful and fun. Recording an album definitely requires work, but I wanted to keep the emphasis on 'playing' and not 'working,' if that makes any sense."

JP Holesworth@Stratoblogster says, Jeff Beck has signature guitar models with both Fender and Gibson. If the opportunity for a Gibson EJ-335 presented itself, would you be interested and able to help create such a model?

"That's a really good question...and an intriguing one. The truth is, I had wanted to do that very thing, and there were some people at Gibson who were into the whole idea. When it got to the higher-ups, however, they kind of nixed it. It was pretty strange. I tried to get something going with the company. I talked to some of the people there, and they were like, 'Yeah, let's do it. Call this guy at this number.' So I'd call up and…I don't know, they just sort of dropped the ball on everything.

"Eventually, I blew the whole thing off, which was a drag because I love the red 335 from 1964. I was looking forward to trying to work with Gibson on some pickups and get going on a model that was really cool and special. What can I say? I guess they weren't interested in pursuing it with me. [laughs] It happens."

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