One of two musicians with this name who played with Santana, the Philadelphia-born drummer who became based on the West Coast might just be the best-known musician with this name in existence, at least among drummers. It is a hard row to hoe apparently, despite connections to the powerful Johnson clan that once ruled parts of the Wild West. The extreme number of musicians with this name or variants thereof is best explained through the existence of a sub-cult of bands that at one time or another had more than one Johnson whose first name was either Bill, Billy, Will, Willie, or William. Santana, with whom drummer Billy Johnson played during two different periods, is not the only example.
