Johnny Echols

Who is Johnny Echols?

Johnny Echols is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. He has played in bands with performers such as Little Richard, Billy Preston and Jimi Hendrix, and was the guitarist on many recording sessions with Miles Davis. He is chiefly known as the lead guitar player of the psychedelic rock band Love, that he co-founded as a teenager with his childhood friend Arthur Lee.

The parents of Johnny Echols and Arthur Lee were school teachers in Memphis, Tennessee, where the boys were born. Both families moved to Los Angeles where Echols received guitar lessons from a neighbour who happened to be the guitar player of The Coasters. At Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, he teamed up with basketball star Arthur Lee, Allan Talbert who played saxophone, and Roland Davis on drums. Soon, another classmate, who also played keyboards, Billy Preston, joined the group and Lee moved to lead singer. This group, called the LAGs, which is short for L.A. Group, had more talent than most of the adult bands playing around town.

The LAGs wore false mustaches to look as if they were of legal age.