Fairmont native and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Johnny Johnson, Chuck Berry’s mentor and later piano player, was the initial inspiration for 1958’s rock and roll hit, “Johnny B. Goode,” which Rolling Stone lists as #7 greatest song of all times even though the piece was about a country boy (originally colored boy, but the wording changed so that it would get radio play) on a guitar.

Johnson had a serious drinking problem. Berry had trouble keeping him in line. When Berry issued an ultimatum that there would be no drinking in the car as the band traveled to the next gig, Johnson stuck his head out the car window to drink. The song’s title reflected Johnson's usual behavior when he was drinking.

It was Johnson, the leader of the Sir John Trio, who gave Berry his start. Johnson’s saxophonist, Alvin Bennett, had a stroke. So Johnson had guitarist Berry sub. Johnson became Berry’s mentor. The pupil became the master and Berry became the face of the group. Over the next 20 years, the two collaborated in the arrangements of many of Berry's songs including "School Days", "Carol" and "Nadine."

Berry also said the song was partly autobiographical. He was born at 2520 Goode Avenue in St. Louis.

Lafayette Leake played piano on this song. The opening guitar riff is a note-for-note copy of the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" (1946), played by guitarist Carl Hogan.

Berry wrote two more songs involving the character Johnny B. Goode, "Bye Bye Johnny" and "Go Go Go", and titled an instrumental album as “Concerto in B. Goode.”

When Chuck Berry was inducted into the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986, he performed "Johnny B. Goode.”

In 1998, Johnson told Doug Donnelly of Monroenews.com that "Johnny B. Goode" was a tribute to him. "I played no part in nothing of Johnny B. Goode," Johnson said. "On other songs, Chuck and I worked together, but not that one. We were playing one night, I think it was Chicago, and he played it. Afterward, he told me it was a tribute to me. He did it on his own. I didn't know nothing about it. It was never discussed."

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, the star of 1987’s “Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll” movie, said Berry took Johnson’s piano riffs as his own on the guitar. Johnson is the piano man in the film.

The son of a coal miner and a Fairmont Dunbar (all-black) High, Johnson began playing piano in 1928. He joined the United States Marine Corps during World War II where he was a member of Bobby Troup's all serviceman jazz orchestra, The Barracudas. After his return, he moved to Detroit, Illinois and then Chicago, where he sat in with many notable artists, including Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

Berry and Johnson played and toured together until 1973, and Johnson occasionally played with Berry until Johnson's death in 2005 in St. Louis.

Johnson is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

The Johnnie Johnson Blues & Jazz Festival is held annually in Fairmont, only a few blocks from where Johnson was born.

In 2016 it will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 9 in Palatine Park in East Fairmont.