That feels like a low blow. I cannot claim friendship with him but we were on first name terms and I have known him for exactly as long as I have sung - I sang in public for the first time at the 2nd Wadebridge folk festival (bullied into it by another giant of the scene, also greatly missed, Mervin Vincent) and that's where I met Johnny for the first time back in about 1974. I remember even today how he made "Four and twenty Ponies" THE song of the festival that year. I learned it as soon as I got home.

I will miss his singing and I will miss him.

Chris