I thought we should reproduce what he said here. He wrote it the first evening that he had The Gimme Shelter One at home with him, before taking it to Birmingham for the Official Launch:
"Having this "Fella" here with us tonight has really brought a lot of things home for me. Chief among which is the fact that I literally owe my entire existence to my late Father. That may sound blatantly obvious but read on, it's more appropriate to this whole thing than you may think.
In 1958 my Grandfather decided he'd had enough and left my Grandmother with my late Father aged 10, my Uncles both aged 5 and my Auntie aged 2. He left them on a park bench with only the clothes they were wearing and walked away from them, knowing they had nowhere to go that night except the Shelters.
With four young children my Grandmother had to knock on that door and ask for help that night.
They lived in one room with no carpet or furniture and they slept on blankets. Each day there was no food and my Grandmother had to leave my two Uncles in the care of their 10 year old big brother (My Dad) while she went out to 'Find' food. They drank water from old jam jars and ate whatever their mum would come home with. They had the same one set of clothes they were left in for a whole year while they lived in that one room with, in those days an outhouse for a toilet and no proper facilities.
My Grandmother was an amazing Woman and eventually she met a lovely man who took her and the four children in and gave them all a nice, comfortable home and the Father Figure the children so desperately needed.
My Dad became an adult in that year, becoming the 'Man of the House' and so from that moment on, the other three children looked up to him in a way that only people who have been through hell together can do. The remained in awe of him for the rest of his life. Everyone did.
In 1963 after he had been playing at the Cavern Club in Matthew street, he made a decision on his way home, carrying his Futurama guitar that only had two strings left on it (Because he couldn't afford strings) that he would change things.
The very next day he went to the Army Recruitment Office and joined up.
He could give my Grandmother one less mouth to feed AND he could send money home every month to help her. He joined the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers and served 12 years until just after I was born in 1972 and he Demobilised in late 1975. By this time he had met my Mum, saved up, got married and bought our first house, the one in Liverpool that we moved into when we left the Barracks at Waterbeach, Ely.
In those years in the Army he had rebuilt his Mothers life, his own life and that of his Brothers and Sister, along with help from my Grandmother and her new partner but he had also made a life for Himself, My Mum, my Brother and ME.
We lost this Hero in 2001 to Pneumonia, brought on by an immune system deficiency which was in itself due to over use of steroids to combat Multiple Sclerosis. He took too many steroids to give him a quality of life while he was still the age I am now, rather than live a longer life as a cripple.
He gave his entire life to all those around him and all because he was left in that position at the age of 10. Overnight he became the Man we all spent his entire life Loving and being in awe of.
He gave everything he ever had and Died with almost no savings and very few possessions but he left me a few of them and one of them has become very special over the 14 years i have been without him.
Among a few other personal items, he left me his R.E.M.E cap badge from his duty in the Army.
It has been on my Guitar strap for years, as some of my closer friends will know.
The 'Gimme Shelter' Guitar arrived here today to be taken in by me and my Family for the night and has sat staring at me on a stand all night, but it arrived without a strap.
It simply can't go on tour like that............
My Father gave everything he ever had to those around him and he gave me far more than the literal life I have, he gave me a future which he literally built up from a park bench at the age of 10 years old !
The very least I can do is give this "Fella" something he needs and he can wear my Dad's Cap Badge as proudly as I have all these years."
For Lance Corporal Phillip Michael Johnston. R.E.M.E
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