Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson, one of the most outstanding instrumentalists in rock over the past four decades brings his Texaphonic 2026 Tour to the Grove of Anaheim on Sunday, May 3, 2026. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 19 at 10AM via Ticketmaster. 

Texas guitarist Eric Johnson was already a legend before releasing his first solo album. By the early 1980s, celebrated guitarists were singing the praises of the skinny kid from Austin with mind-melting chops, drawing comparisons to icons such as Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix. As a member of the ’70s Austin fusion band Electromagnets, the group was famously hailed as “the Mahavishnu Orchestra of Texas.”

With the release of his highly anticipated 1986 solo debut Tones, the underground guitar hero emerged fully formed onto the world stage. The album landed Johnson on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, which praised it as a “majestic debut,” and earned him his first GRAMMY® nomination for the track “Zap.” His follow-up, 1990’s platinum-selling Ah Via Musicom, cemented his status as an international guitar phenomenon, featuring the GRAMMY® Award-winning instrumental classic “Cliffs of Dover.”

The New Age Music Guide once observed that “Eric Johnson plays guitar the way Michelangelo painted ceilings: with a colorful vibrancy that’s more real than life,” while Rolling Stone included him among the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 21st Century. A dynamic vocalist as well as an extraordinarily gifted guitarist, pianist, and prolific songwriter, Johnson has appeared on the covers of countless guitar magazines worldwide while earning widespread critical acclaim.

Since 1986, Eric Johnson has released seventeen solo albums, along with notable collaborations including Eclectic with jazz guitarist Mike Stern and the platinum-selling G3 Live with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. He has received eight GRAMMY® nominations and numerous industry accolades, including a 1992 GRAMMY® Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Cliffs of Dover,” lifetime induction into the Guitar Player Gallery of Greats, and recognition by Musician magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century.

In his hometown of Austin, Texas—a city renowned for its guitarists—readers of the Austin Chronicle repeatedly voted Johnson Best Electric Guitarist and Best Acoustic Guitarist, also naming him Electric Guitarist of the Decade and one of the city’s top five Musicians of the Decade. In February 2024, he was honored with induction into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association Hall of Fame.

In 2023, Johnson completed his Treasure Tour, a 67-date U.S. run spanning spring and fall. In early 2024, he joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for the G3 Reunion Tour, with a new live album from the tour scheduled for release in January 2025. Additional highlights include appearances at the Backroads Blues Festival in New York, performances on the Experience Hendrix 2024 Tour, and a return for the Experience Hendrix 2025 Tour across the eastern U.S., Northeast, and Canada.

Over the course of more than four decades, Eric Johnson’s prolific musical journey has crossed genres including rock, blues, jazz, fusion, soul, folk, new age, classical, and country. As Johnson himself puts it, “It really boils down to the music and the song at the end of the day. The most important thing for me is to grow musically and make a more expansive and meaningful artistic statement with every new project.”