Alanabit,

Tommy Johnson did indeed have a drinking problem. This is outlined by David Evans in his 1971 biography of Johnson based on information from interviews with Ishmon Bracey (who recorded with TJ and TJ's brothers Mager Johnson and LeDell Johnson.

"Drinking was his weakness. That's what killed him. Tommy would drink anything that he could get to. When he was out of whisky, he would drink anything. That's the reason he put out those Canned Heat Blues. He drank canned heat, shoe polish, alcorub, till they put this business in it. He'd drink anything, denature, beer, wine, whisky, anything he'd get to. [Rev. Ishmon Bracey]" (Evans, 1971: 57)

"He believed in drinking. He loved that canned heat. He's the first fellow I ever heard tell of drinking canned heat. And he drank so much of it, he said he was going to put him out a record about canned heat. And that's where the Canned Heat Blues comes from. That canned heat, you know, it was red. It was in those little old cans. When you open it, take the top off the can. He'd strike him a match and burn it, burn the top of it. And he'd put in a rag and strain it. It's got juice in it. Squeeze the juice out of it into a glass. And then get him some sugar and put it in there. And then some water. And there he'd go. Oh, he started I don't know how many people around here in Copiah drinking that stuff. He'd have it and ask them did they want a drink of it. And when everyone taste it, he want some more. And then that other fellow, he'd see that drink, and just kept on and kept on. Oh shoot, I was drinking that stuff. It's a good drink. [Mager Johnson]" (Evans, 1971: 57)

Johnson kept drinking canned heat right through to his death in November 1956, here's how LeDell describes his final day:

"He left away from my house that night or that morning, one, and went down to Crystal Springs to play for my daughter. And he was to leave there and go away somewhere, he said. Said he was never coming back. So that was the end of him. He was just about seeing his death. He went down there to play for my oldest daughter. She was having some kind of party down there, some kind of birthday. He played practically all night for my oldest daughter, for her entertainment down there, and he died in the morning. He was full of that old denature, canned heat, and stuff. And when the party was over and everybody left, my daughter said she went in the kitchin for something and she heard a kind of scuffling and groaning, and says she broke in there and Tom was sitting on the couch, studio couch, and says when she called him and called him, and he ain't answered yet. That was the last time he played, that morning 'fore day. [Rev. LeDell Johnson]" (Evans, 1971: 85-86).