In the wake of John Entwistle’s thunderous breaks on the Who’s 1965 hit My Generation, bass solos on pop singles have remained rare. That didn't stop Texas rock icon Steve Miller from featuring bassist Gerald Johnson, on Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma, from Miller's platinum-selling 1973 album, The Joker.
Johnson, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1949, found his way to bass at age 13, while attending a Louisiana boarding school. There, at the behest of his piano-playing classmate Antoine – the son of Fats Domino – he borrowed a Fender P-Bass, turned it upside down to accommodate his being left-handed, learned Wading in the Water by Ramsey Lewis, and was hooked.
