A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker, his recording career spanned 40 years, and encompassed rhythm and blues, funk and soul music.

On June 7, 1953, Shorty Rogers included Watson as part of his Orchestra to perform at the ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert, held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, California, which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. Also featured that day were Roy Brown and his Orchestra, Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, Earl Bostic, Nat King Cole, and Louis Armstrong and his All Stars with Velma Middleton.

[6][7] Watson affected a swaggering, yet humorous personality, indulging a taste for flashy clothes and wild showmanship on stage.

[3] His "attacking" style of playing, without a pick, resulted in him often needing to change the strings on his guitar once or twice a show, because he "stressified on them" so much, as he put it.

[10] He toured and recorded with his friend Larry Williams, as well as Little Richard, Don and Dewey, the Olympics, Johnny Otis and, in the mid-1970s with David Axelrod.

[3] In 1975 he was a guest performer on two tracks (flambe vocals on the out-choruses of "San Ber'dino" and "Andy") on the Frank Zappa album, One Size Fits All.

His new style was emphatic – wearing gold teeth, broad-brimmed hats, flashy suits, fashionable outsized sunglasses and ostentatious jewelry.

Reviewing A Real Mother for Ya, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): "Watson has been perfecting his own brand of easy-listening funk for years, and this time he's finally gone into the studio with his guitar Freddie and his drummer Emry and a bunch of electric keyboards and come up with a whole album of good stuff.

[13] The death of his friend Larry Williams by gunshot in 1980 and other personal setbacks, led to Watson briefly withdrawing from the spotlight in the 1980s.

[15] In a 1994 interview with David Ritz for liner notes to The Funk Anthology, Watson was asked if his 1980 song "Telephone Bill" anticipated rap music.

[10] Watson died of a heart attack while on tour on May 17, 1996, collapsing on stage at the Ocean Boulevard Blues Cafe in Yokohama, Japan.

At around 7:40, when performing the first verse of "Superman Lover", his first song of the night, he made a gesture as if pushing the microphone stand towards the audience, with his hand on his chest and fell down on his back.

[18] His remains were brought home for interment at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California,[19] and buried in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Enduring Honor, Holly Terrace entrance.

[20] Watson stated: "I used to play the guitar standing on my hands, I had a 150 foot cord and I could get on top of the auditorium - those things Jimi Hendrix was doing, I started that shit"!

[25] In an August 1979 issue of Musician magazine Zappa said, "To me, it seems incomprehensible that a person could listen to 'Three Hours Past Midnight' by Johnny Guitar Watson and not be moved to get violent...

Watson influenced Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Etta James, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

[21] Bobby Womack said: "Music-wise, he (Watson) was the most dangerous gunslinger out there, even when others made a lot of noise in the charts – I'm thinking of Sly Stone or George Clinton".

[21] Etta James stated, in an interview at the 2006 Rochester International Jazz Festival: "Johnny 'Guitar' Watson ... Just one of my favorite singers of all time.

He could call out charts; he could write a beautiful melody or a nasty groove at the drop of a hat; he could lay on the harmonies and he could come up with a whole sound".