{"id":60751,"date":"2025-07-28T13:42:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60751"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:42:02","slug":"michael-j-fox-does-johnny-b-goode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60751","title":{"rendered":"Michael J Fox does Johnny B Goode"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-60752\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael_J_Fox_does_Johnny_B_Goode.jpg\" alt=\"Michael J Fox does Johnny B Goode\" width=\"863\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael_J_Fox_does_Johnny_B_Goode.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael_J_Fox_does_Johnny_B_Goode-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I filmed the &#8220;Johnny B. Goode&#8221; scene, I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who taught me how to play the guitar. I told Bob (Zemeckis, the director), &#8220;When I do this scene, I&#8217;ll actually play the guitar so you can sync the visuals with the finger movements. Feel free to cut to the hands whenever you want.&#8221; Having said that, I immediately felt the pressure to make it incredibly good. So, I turned to Paul Hanson, my guitar teacher.<\/p>\n<p>I worked on that piece for about a month, and in the meantime, I worked with a coach who was Madonna&#8217;s choreographer. I told him, &#8220;I dance like a duck. I can&#8217;t dance. But what I&#8217;d like to do is bring together all the traits, mannerisms, and quirks of my favorite guitarists \u2014 Pete Townshend&#8217;s windmill, Jimi Hendrix&#8217;s guitar behind the back, and Chuck Berry&#8217;s duck walk.&#8221; We worked on all of that and put it together. Those are the moments when you can&#8217;t think, &#8220;I&#8217;m tired&#8221; or &#8220;I feel the pressure to get it right.&#8221; You just do it and have fun!<br \/>\nMichael J. Fox<\/p>\n<p>(Tom: This is what a truly great professional does behind\/before every performance or action. Imagine what the world would be like if we all did that before everything we do.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I filmed the &#8220;Johnny B. Goode&#8221; scene, I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who taught me how to play the guitar. I told Bob (Zemeckis, the director), &#8220;When I do this scene, I&#8217;ll actually play the guitar so you can sync the visuals with the finger movements. Feel free to cut &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60751\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Michael J Fox does Johnny B Goode&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60753,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60751\/revisions\/60753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}