Paul Nelson (October 18, 1960 – March 10, 2024) was an American, Grammy Award winning blues and rock guitarist, record producer and songwriter.[1][2][3][4] He played and or recorded alongside artists such as Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and members of the Allman Brothers Band. He was the hand-picked guitarist to join Johnny Winter's band in 2010,[5][6][7][8] performing on and producing several of Winter's albums, including the Grammy Award-nominated I'm a Blues Man, Roots, and Step Back, which won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album,[9][10][11] debuted at number one on the Billboard chart for Blues Albums,[12] and Independent Albums,[13] and debuted at number 16 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, marking the highest spot in Winter's career. Nelson was also a Blues Music Award recipient for Best Rock Blues Album,[14] and was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame[15] and was a recipient of the KBA award from the Blues Foundation.[16] He received a Grammy nomination for his work as producer and performer on Joe Louis Walker's, Everybody Wants a Piece.
Career
Paul Nelson was credited as being a composer and performer for music heard on international and national television broadcasts such as NBC, TNN, and UPN, as well as for the WWE and was featured in many publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, USA Today, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Premier Guitar, Classic Rock, and Vintage Guitar magazines. His solo guitar work can be heard on his first solo CD, entitled "Look" and his Sony/EMI album release "Badass Generation" He also performed on the Halifax song "Anthem For Tonight" from their album The Inevitability of a Strange World, and featured on the Xbox 360 game Prey. Nelson also produced many albums, including 14 albums for Johnny Winter's Live Bootleg series (all breaking the top 10 in the Billboard Blues Chart); plus Martin Barre's Live at the Factory Underground.
Nelson produced and performed on Joe Louis Walker's, Everybody Wants a Piece; for which he received a Grammy Nomination, a James Montgomery album featuring Jimmy Vivino (Conan B'Brien), Mark Naftalin (Paul Butterfield Blues Band), Grace Kelly (Stephen Colbert) and the Uptown Horns (Rolling Stone, James Brown); He also produced albums for Leo "Bud" Welch album; Lance LopezLive From NYC; Tyler Morris — Next in Line, Otis — Eyes of the Sun.
Nelson executive produced and appeared in the Johnny Winter documentary Down And Dirty, directed by Greg Oliver and also appeared in the documentary Sidemen: Long Road To Glory alongside Gregg Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Elvin Bishop, Pinetop Perkins, and Hubert Sumlin.
Nelson was born in Manhattan, New York, his love for music and the guitar started at an early age listening to and playing blues, rock, pop, jazz, fusion, country, funk, and Southern rock, becoming inspired by guitar players Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Duane Allman. Wanting to pursue music as a career he enrolled into Berklee College of Music, quickly discovering Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery. It was soon after he began studying privately with Steve Vai, Mike Stern, and Steve Khan. Nelson soon built an name for himself as an "A" list session player and was on the first call list for guitar spots for many national and international performing artists this later on led to his teaming up with Rock/Blues Icon Johnny Winter.
On March 12, 2024, Nelson's management, Bullseye Management, announced on Instagram that he had died from a heart attack, on March 10, aged 63, while on the road touring.[18][19]
Selected discography
The Worldwide Mega-Book of Heavy Metal Bands (Rock & Roll Reference Series) (book)(feat. Artist)
Wacken Open Air documentory(Feat.Guitarist/interview)
