early Seventies, becoming an arena-level concert draw in the process" ... [he] "made an iconic life for himself by playing the blues". Recognition and legacy Winter produced three Grammy Award-winning albums by Muddy Waters – Hard Again (1977), I'm Ready (1978), and Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live (1979). Several of Winter's own albums were nominated for Grammy Awards – Guitar Slinger (1984) and Serious Business (1985) for Best Traditional Blues Album, and Let Me In (1991) and I'm a Bluesman (2004) for Best Contemporary Blues Album. In 2015 Winter posthumously won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album for Step Back. The album also won the 2015 Blues Music Award for Best Rock Blues Album. At the 18th Maple Blues Awards in 2015, Winter was also posthumously awarded the B.B. King International Artist of The Year Award. In 1980, Winter was on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the first non-African-American performer to be inducted into the Hall. Multiple guitarists have cited Winter as an influence, including Joe Perry, Frank Marino, Michael Schenker, Adrian Smith, and Alex Skolnick. In her audiobook May You Live in Interesting Times: A Memoir (2021), comedian and founding Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman recounts losing her virginity to Johnny Winter at the age of 17 in the late 1960s. In 2008 Johnny Winter appeared (alongside brother Edgar) in the documentary film American Music: Off the Record directed by Benjamin Meade. Guitars and picking style Winter played a variety of guitars during his career, but he is probably best known for his use of Gibson Firebirds. He owned several, but favored a 1963 Firebird V model. Winter explained: The Firebird V was a departure from Gibson's traditional configuration, with mini-humbucker pickups in place of the company's standard sized PAF humbucker or P-90 single-coil pickup models. In a 2014 interview, Winter described the tone: In 2008, the Gibson Custom Shop issued a signature Johnny Winter Firebird V in a ceremony in Nashville with Slash presenting. In 1984, luthier Mark Erlewine approached Winter with his Lazer electric guitar. With its unusual design (for the time) without a headstock and having a small body, Winter responded immediately: "the first day I plugged it in, it sounded so good that I wanted to use it for a gig that night." He commented: Other guitars