“It’s good and natural for people who love all rock and pop to step back and hear the blues innovators who lay the groundwork for so many modern styles of music. And you can be surprised by how not-academic these old records can sound.”

Johnny Iguana: Chicago-Style At Delmark

Johnny Iguana played piano on albums with Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Derek Trucks and James Cotton before releasing his own acclaimed 2020 Delmark debut: the kaleidoscopic full-band experience Johnny Iguana’s Chicago Spectacular! featuring Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Lil’ Ed and many other Chicago blues greats. A bold follow-up to his 2020 Delmark debut, “Johnny Iguana; At Delmark” (Release Day: April 11, 2025) is a solo acoustic affair, performed on Delmark’s 1917 Steinway B piano. A new chapter in the story of the venerable label’s solo piano albums, At Delmark was recorded in unedited single takes, straight to analog tape. In a world dominated by Auto-Tune and other such musical correction, Delmark Records and Johnny Iguana chose to make this album the old-fashioned way. Junior Wells, who recorded with Johnny’s piano hero Otis Spann on the Delmark classic Southside Blues Jam and who brought Johnny from New York to Chicago to join the Junior Wells Blues Band in 1994, would be thrilled by this album. Johnny’s formidable chops, deep blues knowledge and wide-ranging creativity are on full display across this set of original compositions plus Johnny’s spins on everything from Little Brother Montgomery and Jay McShann to AC/DC and Neil Young—not to mention fresh takes on classics by Delmark icons Junior Wells and Magic Sam. This is an exuberant, passionate, powerhouse outing. 

(Johnny Iguana Photo by Timothy Hiatt)

Johnny grew up in Philadelphia, where he studied piano from age eight and played in rock and punk bands before developing an obsession with Chicago blues at age 16. He moved to New York City at age 22, where he met one of his greatest musical heroes, Junior Wells. He was hired by Junior after auditioning live at the Boston House of Blues and moved to Chicago in 1994. He toured with Junior for three years, toured with Otis Rush and has since recorded on countless blues albums including three Grammy nominees. A short list of Johnny’s major musical inspirations: Otis Spann, Jay McShann, Ray Charles, Mose Allison, Bobby Timmons, Mike Watt, Bob Mould, Joe Strummer, Captain Beefheart and Junior Wells. 

Interview by Michael Limnios        Archive: Johnny Iguana, 2020 & 2022 Interview

Special Thanks: Kevin Johnson, Julia A. Miller & Elbio Barilari (Delmark Records) 

What characterize your music philosophy? When and how did the love about the piano and the 88 B/W keys come about? 

I started taking piano lessons when I was eight years old. The same teacher taught my mother and me. I think my mother got frustrated with the difficulty of piano playing and decided to stop taking lessons, but I'm told (especially by my father) that my two hands started operating independently on the piano very quickly, and I got very excited about this new power. Soon, no one needed to remind me to practice; if anything, my sister would shout down from her bedroom, "shut up!!!" I stopped going outside for sports and games and played piano for hours a day: classical pieces and also whole pop and rock albums transcribed for piano. Lessons continued until I was 13. I remember playing songs by Rush, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson…and then I got a synthesizer and started having fun with all those sounds. When my uncle Steve sent me a mixtape of Junior Wells, Jimmy Smith and a bunch of blues and R&B (Lonnie Mack, the Treniers, Otis Spann with S.P. Leary and Otis Spann with members of Fleetwood Mac…), I got obsessed with that music. Ever since then, I've enjoyed playing it all: blues some days, classical some days, original music with no specific genre some days. Very often in life nowadays, I'll be feeling down about one thing or another (or just the whole challenge of being an adult human in these times) and I'll go to the piano. I emerge with a much brighter outlook after playing and especially after writing new music.

Life is more than just music, is there any other field that has influence on your life and music?

Wait, what? There's more than music? Honestly, I'm just thinking about new songs, new tours, new recordings, new videos and new releases right now. I was an English major in college and read prolifically: American and English literature and lots of Russian literature. And I still read, especially when on the exercise bike, and it (along with everything going on in the world) gives me plenty to work with as a songwriter, but about 90% of what I'm thinking about nowadays is keys and chords.

“Combining a love of music with an expectation of success is not for the faint of heart. Even after being invited all over the world to play piano (and I'm talking about the Middle East, Indonesia, all over Japan, South America, every corner of North American and Europe)… even after receiving a whole lot of praise from music critics and music lovers… “ (Johnny Iguana / Photo by Janet M. Takayama)

Currently you’ve one more release with Delmark Records. How did that relationship come about?

Delmark was iconic for me, growing up in Philadelphia and falling in love with the music of Junior Wells, Otis Rush and Magic Sam (all cornerstones of the Delmark catalog). I played song by all of them in bands starting at age 16 and was incredibly fortunate to meet Junior and get hired by him when I was 23, then also tour with Otis Rush later in my 20s. I recorded "JOHNNY IGUANA'S CHICAGO SPECTACULAR!" with producer Larry Skoller and a host of Chicago's greatest blues musicians, and when I took it to Delmark, I was thrilled to find that they agreed it was a very special album and they wanted to put it out with the Delmark Records stamp of approval on it. And then they asked me to record this solo piano album, which is a tremendous challenge especially since I don't count myself a singer (I can sing OK, but I have a very high standard for calling someone a "singer.") Hey, it's already hard to compare myself as a piano player with my living and long-gone heroes, but at least I'm in the ball park in that regard. Not as a singer, though, so: I made an instrumental album, and to capture 100% unedited takes as an instrumentalist is a challenge… to play commandingly and engagingly all the way through and keep the groove going without a drummer. For this album, I just said to myself, "Play like you do at home. Have a SORT of plan, but let your hands go where they want to go, don't overthink it, let them lead the way, they know what they're doing." And I did that with some blues standards, rock songs I love to play in a bluesy way and a bunch of compositions I'd written (including some I had JUST written).

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album “At Delmark”? 

It was sort of sprung on me by the two label heads, Julia Miller and Elbio Barilari. They asked me to come play their Steinway for some test recordings since they had just refurbished their old tape machine. But when I arrived at Delmark Riverside studio in Chicago, they said, "Actually, we'd like to release a Johnny Iguana solo piano album, in the tradition of Delmark's decades of solo piano albums." And it just so happened that I had been playing and writing a LOT, so I pretty much hopped out of my chair and went into the live room, and we recorded "JOHNNY IGUANA: AT DELMARK" in three afternoon session…quick ones. This was the quickest creation of an album that I've ever been a part of. I probably could have practiced more and been more careful…sometimes I now think, "Oh, NOW I know how to play that song," but the point was for the listener to be a sort of fly on the wall as I just went for it, without a net, as they say. There is no editing at play here, and nothing digital…just a piano and a tape machine. No matter how I tried to sound, I sounded like myself, and I think that was the point, and I appreciated the invitation by Julia and Elbio to do exactly that.

”Delmark was iconic for me, growing up in Philadelphia and falling in love with the music of Junior Wells, Otis Rush and Magic Sam (all cornerstones of the Delmark catalog). I played song by all of them in bands starting at age 16 and was incredibly fortunate to meet Junior and get hired by him when I was 23, then also tour with Otis Rush later in my 20s.”

What touched you about the tunes by Little Brother Montgomery, Jay McShann, AC/DC, Neil Young, Junior Wells and Magic Sam, which are part of track list?

All those songs are ones I've decided to arrange for solo piano. I don't know why I gravitated toward Neil Young's "Heart of Gold"… I found a way of altering the chords to make it a piano piece, and felt it worked great that way. Bon Scott-era AC/DC is one of my favorite things and has been since I was 12 or so. My version of that is VERY faithful to AC/DC's original. I want Angus to hear it! The Jay McShann tune I've been playing live for years, usually with a drummer. McShann is massively underrated… such a masterful and, above all, joyful player. Little Brother Montgomery, Junior Wells and Magic Sam all came my way via original Delmark releases, so it felt like a double tribute: to those musicians and to the Delmark label that almost singlehandedly sparked my move from the East Coast to Chicago.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

Some people think my solo work and my recordings with my band the Claudettes stomp all over genre walls in a way that's professionally destructive to my ambitions. Injurious to my own prospects, and those of my bandmates. But when I think of my favorite artists, they sounded only like themselves, and new genre designations followed. They were like bulls in a china shop, there was no controlling them, and there IS a willful destruction to the way they went about music. And it comes out of being yourself, all the way. Maybe it's a mistake to combine all the music in my past and in my head in such a reckless, careless way, but I think it comes off as honest and, in a way, very homogeneous. I think I have a sound, and the Claudettes have a sound…one sound…even though the genre is hard to pin down. I once read an interview with an old Kansas City musician who said that once a musician turn 28 years old, or somewhere around there, people should be able to identify your playing if they walk by the club where you're playing that night. Otherwise, you've lost your way. And that has been not just a guiding principle, but the only way I really can go about the whole thing. Otherwise, music wouldn't make me happy. I know this about myself. It's a good way to remain a "cult star" only, but I'll take it. Hey, I'm on Delmark Records, I have a great world-traveling band in the Claudettes and I'm currently composing (with my music partner JQ) for one of the biggest hits on U.S. television, "The Bear." So: I've got a thing goin' on, as Sunnyland Slim said.

”Honestly, I'm just thinking about new songs, new tours, new recordings, new videos and new releases right now. I was an English major in college and read prolifically: American and English literature and lots of Russian literature. And I still read, especially when on the exercise bike, and it (along with everything going on in the world) gives me plenty to work with as a songwriter, but about 90% of what I'm thinking about nowadays is keys and chords.” (Johnny Iguana with the Claudettes / Photo by Timothy Hiatt)

What has been the hardest obstacle for you to overcome as a person and as artist and has this helped you become a better blues musician?

Combining a love of music with an expectation of success is not for the faint of heart. Even after being invited all over the world to play piano (and I'm talking about the Middle East, Indonesia, all over Japan, South America, every corner of North American and Europe)… even after receiving a whole lot of praise from music critics and music lovers… I find myself facing the reality of living in a Netflix World…a pandemic-fearing world… more people stay home and "commune" online. I find myself worrying about ticket sales and wanting top festival slots and trying to turn music into a solid income for me and my bandmates. You are made to feel it is a competition, and art as competition doesn't feel pure or right, but millions of people are competing for hundreds of spots on playlists, on stages…you have to decide: why are you playing music? To outwit someone else… to outdo someone else? Or to put what's in your mind and your heart out as sound that soothes you and others. And can you do the latter in such a way as to pay your bills? Or should you play the music that people want instead? I play music that I want to play. It often defies genre boundaries, and that DOES make the professional part very difficult. But I'm an uncommonly hard worker, I don't seem to take "no" for an answer and I keep coming back with new music that I'm excited about, and demanding that festivals, venues, labels and agents take notice. And some do!

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What is the role music in today’s society?

In the same way that my uncle Steve gently encouraged me to step back in time to discover the heroes of MY musical heroes… to listen to the blues giants who inspired all the classic-rock stars of the U.S., England, Australia and beyond… it's good and natural for people who love all rock and pop to step back and hear the blues innovators who lay the groundwork for so many modern styles of music. And you can be surprised by how not-academic these old records can sound. One day I shouted out, "this is so punk-rock!" when I listened to some '40s Sonny Boy Williamson (Sonny Boy the First). The way those musicians play in a perfectly ramshackle way, and end the tunes with absolutely zero fanfare… the blues/R&B folks might say "hit it and quit it," but Mike Watt and D. Boon of Minutemen (one of my favorite bands) urged everyone to "jam econo." Same thing: strip the music down to its bare essentials of heart, soul, simplicity, directness, emotion.

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(Johnny Iguana / Photo by Phillip Solomonson)