I noticed on Eric Johnsons (the other Texas guitar virtuoso, probably the most fluid guitar technique going around) wikipedia page it says that he got signed to WB in 1984 after Prince saw him play on 'Austin City Limits' (I think it was some kind of talent show) and reccomended that WB sign him.

This is from the show Prince saw him on: http://www.youtube.com/wa...yntQ-WZUI8 (not sure how to indent youtube videos). This is before he really honed his craft, and his playing is pretty raw.

Is there any more information on this? Did Prince ever actually meet EJ face to face? Did he attempt to make Eric join one of his protege bands ? I haven't been able to find any interviews from P talking about it (unsurprisngly) and the only interview I could find where Eric does was a dead link.

In any case it's a pretty cool story of Prince going out of his way to help an up and coming young guitarist (well, he was 30 in 1984, but honestly, he looks like... 14 in that vdeo) who went on to become on of the best guitarists no-one has heard of.

[Edited 5/9/13 7:06am]

Here's what i found on another website -

He had already been signed to WB before that ACL was even taped. Christoper Geppart aka Christopher Cross was the person heavily involved with him and his Warner Bros deal. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter also had goings on with helping to promote EJ back in the day. The rumor floating around when that ACL was originally broadcast was that Wendy Melvoin, then guitarist for Prince's band the Revolution, saw the show and picked up the phone to call Prince who supposedly was already watching it at his home at the same time. The story was that he then called his label rep to tell them about Eric and was told that he had already been signed to Warner Bros! I heard this story straight from one of EJ's band members in 1984 and they could not confirm it as being fact. Nobody in Prince's camp has been able to confirm this either. I found it hard to believe at the time because Prince had his own label under Warner Bros at the time and I would think that if he were interested in EJ, Tones would have been on Paisley Park instead of Reprise (which at the time was just being started again and EJ was the first artist on the resurrected label - Jimi Hendrix fans take note! This was not an accident!) Eric has never met Prince nor has any idea whether or not the above rumor is true. Makes for great folklore though!

Farfunknugin said:

Here's what i found on another website -

He had already been signed to WB before that ACL was even taped. Christoper Geppart aka Christopher Cross was the person heavily involved with him and his Warner Bros deal. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter also had goings on with helping to promote EJ back in the day. The rumor floating around when that ACL was originally broadcast was that Wendy Melvoin, then guitarist for Prince's band the Revolution, saw the show and picked up the phone to call Prince who supposedly was already watching it at his home at the same time. The story was that he then called his label rep to tell them about Eric and was told that he had already been signed to Warner Bros! I heard this story straight from one of EJ's band members in 1984 and they could not confirm it as being fact. Nobody in Prince's camp has been able to confirm this either. I found it hard to believe at the time because Prince had his own label under Warner Bros at the time and I would think that if he were interested in EJ, Tones would have been on Paisley Park instead of Reprise (which at the time was just being started again and EJ was the first artist on the resurrected label - Jimi Hendrix fans take note! This was not an accident!) Eric has never met Prince nor has any idea whether or not the above rumor is true. Makes for great folklore though!

What a bizzarre story, good myth though. Although what are the odds of Prince sitting around watching ACL? I don't live in America, but I've only ever heard of it because of the two times Eric Johnson was on it.

Would have been an interesting turn of events if he had of ended up on Prince's label.

I kind of expected it was a bit of a myth, because I couldn't imagine it being so obscure if it that was what actually happened.

[Edited 5/9/13 10:27am]