Yesterday evening, I had a chat online with one of my sources in Chicago. Not surprisingly, the subject of Paul Johnson’s death at the hands of Covid-19 was soon brought up – and they became quite animated when this happened.
They noted that a number of the big name DJs, and this sadly includes a number from Chicago itself, have been quite muted on his death, saying “A lot of them aren’t mentioning what killed him, a lot of them have got jack s*** to say. And some of them say he was their inspiration, or his friend or some other bull****. Him dying doesn’t fit in with their opinions on Covid, so they’re saying as little as they can”.
They also mentioned that “I didn’t know Paul that well, but I reckon he’d be pretty p***ed off at what’s going on. He wasn’t afraid to call people out for their bull****”. Which reminds me of a story from last year…
In the 1990s, Johnson released a number of records via London based label Peacefrog. Early in 2020, he contacted them to ask for the rights to his masters back. According to Johnson, Peacefrog said this was fine – my understanding is he wanted to release them digitally for himself.
During the first wave of the pandemic last year, he made an unpleasant discovery. Without his knowledge, Peacefrog had released all his music again before he had an opportunity to do it himself. As you can see here, he wasn’t exactly pleased…
Never be afraid to say what you really think…