I met John and Edgar back in the mid '70s at a friends bar in Jacxonville. he wasn't in great shape then either but he did get around seemingly pretty well. he was lucid and both him and Edgar were deep into the conversations. Funny guys too, now and then.
Sure he played a really hot guitar then adn I doubt his skill set has degraded much if any... albeit, that being said, he's simply not the greatest guitarsmith arounde from a purely inovative, articulate and dexterious perspective. I do enjoy his earlier work immensely, but he sure isn't the best guitar player around nor was he ever. knowing that didn't prevent me from enjoying his performances... and I went to several way back then including one where he had Rick Derringer playing with him. Later in that same bill he played with the Caldwells of Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, and others from Ozark Mt. Daredevils, Little River band. ZZ top closed that bill later that night. Weird as this may seem... KISS opened the show at 10AM that morning.
A southern rock show with KISS opening things up... Amazing, huh?
