Geraldine's Damon Johnson returns home to play Riverfest at RiverRocks in Gadsden

If you're not familiar with Damon Johnson, his résumé as a rock 'n’ roll singer, guitarist and songwriter will be enlightening.

Johnson has been the lead guitarist for Alice Cooper; a member of Thin Lizzy; written songs that have been recorded by Stevie Nicks, Carlos Santana, Sammy Hagar, Faith Hill, John Waite and Skid Row; played and toured with, to name a few, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ted Nugent and Jeff Beck; and even dabbled in country music with the band Whiskey Falls.

And he's much more than a supporting player — he was the singer and guitarist for Brother Cane, which had a number of rock radio hits, including "Got No Shame," "That Don't Satisfy Me," "And Fools Shine On" and "I Lie in the Bed I Make" in the 1990s, and has released six solo albums over a career that began in the early 1980s.

Friday night, he’ll be in Gadsden — familiar territory, he’s a 1982 graduate of Geraldine High School in DeKalb County — with his band, Damon Johnson and The Get Ready, for Riverfest at RiverRocks, a music festival at River Rocks Landing.

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It's been a dream-come-true career for Johnson, 57, who came from humble beginnings — he grew up on a chicken farm and had to teach himself to play guitar. All he had was that he was "obsessed" with it.

"It really is the life I dreamt of when I was going to high school at Geraldine," Johnson said. "I can't believe it's all happened sometimes. … If you love it, you can do it."

Talking with Johnson, one can't help but notice how content and exhilarated his life and career continue to make him. Returning home to play Riverfest, which takes its name from the long-running, multi-day summer festival in Gadsden that last was held in 2013, clearly is a big deal for him.

"It means a lot to me to play close to where I grew up," he said. "This is the first time in a long time (I've played in Gadsden). I used to play Chestnut Station in downtown Gadsden eight times a year. Gadsden's sort of like a second home to me."

His feelings on returning and performing for the home folks?

"No pressure, just excitement," he said.

Johnson said there was a time he would have felt some butterflies, but no more.

"That's the best part about getting older – you feel that confidence, you've done the time," he explained. "You can't buy it (experience). And to get to come to my hometown, it's the best."

Earlier this year, Johnson released the album "Battle Lessons" with The Get Ready, and he said this show will feature a number of tunes from that album, along with some of Brother Cane's most well-known numbers.

"It's my favorite solo album I've ever made in my whole career," Johnson said. "The songs and especially the guitar riffs — it's the record 19-year-old Damon Johnson would have made. I'm wearing my influences shamelessly on my sleeve, everything from AC/DC to Van Halen to Zeppelin to more recent bands like Clutch and Soundgarden and Jack White, anything with a big guitar out front."

The album, along with all of Johnson's other music, T-shirts, guitar picks and other unique items for sale, the latest news on Johnson's career, music videos and more, is available on his website www.damonjohnson.com.

Since July, Johnson has held down a dream gig — playing guitar for Lynyrd Skynyrd, filling in for Gary Rossington, who is recovering from heart surgery.

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"Lynyrd Skynyrd was our Beatles when we were kids," Johnson said. "It's kind of like having a genie in a bottle pop out when I was 16 and ask, 'Hey man, what's your greatest wish?' (I would have said) I want to play guitar in Lynyrd Skynyrd.

"It's pretty much indescribable," he continued. "I've played with some legendary people in my career, but growing up in Alabama, I don't think any band occupied more musical real estate in our lives than Lynyrd Skynyrd. I still get chill bumps, every night, to step out on stage in those lights and play the slide guitar on 'Freebird.'"

Johnson added that he and his band plan to have a "tip of the hat" to Skynyrd during Riverfest.

For someone who has mixed with some of the biggest stars in music history, Johnson's musical goals remain simple. He wants to continue putting out music regularly, such as an album every 18 months to two years, or perhaps start releasing individual songs online.

Still a local boy at heart, Johnson celebrated Geraldine's 20-19 football win Oct. 15 over longtime rival Fyffe — which snapped the Red Devils' best-in-the-nation 51-game winning streak — the next day by sliding on a hoodie of his alma mater he previously had gotten from a friend in Florida for his morning run.

"That's how I felt about that," a delighted Johnson said. He hopes to send fans home just as happy after an equally extraordinary performance Friday.

Friday’s concert carries the Riverfest name by permission of the City of Gadsden, which was granted the copyright after the original event was discontinued by The Chamber of Gadsden & Etowah County.

Also playing at the event will be Robert Jon & The Wreck, a blues rock band from Orange County, California, and opening act Dashboard Jukebox featuring Gadsden’s Jon Player.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and the music begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 and are available online at https://bit.ly/3nr3RqB.

River Rocks Landing is located at 1 River Road, just off Rainbow Drive,

For more information on the event, visit https://www.riverfest.info.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Geraldine's Damon Johnson brings band to Gadsden for Riverfest