GENEVA -- Texas blues legend Johnny Winter emblazoned himself into the world's consciousness with his tattooed arms churning out lightning-fast guitar riffs and his striking long white hair flowing from under his cowboy hat.
His contrasting appearance and devotion to the blues pioneers of the 20th century turbo-charged a career in which he emulated and, ultimately, championed, his childhood hero Muddy Waters and other icons. Winters carved out a wide niche -- and became an icon himself -- starting in the late 1960s and 1970s with a sound that blues and country singer Tracy Nelson, prominent during the same era with her band Mother Earth, described as "Texas second generation."
"He did not overplay, like a lot of white blues guitarists," she said of Winter, who collaborated with the likes of Waters, John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix. "His tone was a little more modern, more electric, but I could see the influences. He stayed faithful. People idolized him."
Winter's representative, Carla Parisi, confirmed Thursday that he died in a hotel room just outside Zurich a day earlier at age 70. The statement said his wife, family and bandmates were all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists.
The cause of death was unclear and authorities have ordered an autopsy, said Zurich police spokeswoman Cornelia Schuoler. She said investigators are mainly looking at "medical causes" and there is no indication that anyone else was involved.
Winter was a leading light among the white blues guitar players, including Eric Clapton and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, who followed in the footsteps of the earlier Chicago blues masters. He idolized Waters -- and got a chance to produce some of the blues legend's more popular albums. Rolling Stone magazine named Winter one of the top 100 guitarists of all time.
Music writer Fred Schruers said Winter played a major role in introducing the blues to a new audience.
"The real legacy of Johnny Winter is that he brought the blues to an audience in tie-dye that might otherwise have neglected the entire genre -- and his timely work producing Muddy Waters only deepened that contribution," said Schruers, author of an upcoming biography of Billy Joel.
Winter had been on an extensive tour this year to celebrate his 70th birthday. His last performance was on Saturday at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria.
He had recently announced that he would follow up his 2011 album "Roots" with a new studio album, "Step Back," in September featuring collaborators such as Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, Joe Perry, Dr. John and Joe Bonnamassa.
John Dawson Winter III was born on Feb. 23, 1944 and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He was the older brother of Edgar Winter, who like him was an albino, and rose to musical fame with the Edgar Winter Group.
"Made my first record when I was 15, started playing clubs when I was 15. Started drinking and smoking when I was 15. Sex when I was 15. Fifteen was a big year for me," Winter recalled with a laugh in a documentary released this year, "Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty."
"I love playing guitar. It's the only thing I've ever really been great at," he said.
His career received a big boost early on when Rolling Stone singled him out as one of the best blues guitarists on the Texas scene. This helped secure a substantial recording contract from Columbia Records in 1969 that led to an appearance at the Woodstock Festival and gave him a wide following among college students and young blues fans.
He was one of the most popular live acts of the early 1970s, when his signature fast blues guitar solos attracted a wide following. Crowds were dazzled by the speed -- and volume -- of his guitar playing, which had its roots in urban blues but incorporated elements of rock 'n'roll. But his addiction problems with heroin during that decade and later battles with alcohol and prescription medication also drew attention.
Winter performed often with blues and rock singer Janis Joplin and the two became close during the 1960s.
Among the blues classics that Winter played during that era were "Rollin' and Tumblin'," ''Bad Luck and Trouble" and "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl." He also teamed up with his brother Edgar for their 1976 live album "Together."
He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988, and his devotion to the music never wavered.
"To me, the blues has more emotion in it than any other music I've ever heard," Winter told Guitar World. "You can tell that the people that sing and play the blues mean what they are saying."
The Purge: Anarchy‘s audience will really come out in force tonight but on the matinees, they are doing respectable numbers so it looks like maybe a $28M-$31M weekend at the moment for Universal Pictures as it is tracking to about a $12M-$15M Friday haul (includes those $2.6M late nights). The first pic, buoyed by the starpower of Ethan Hawke, took in $34M when it bowed last year.
These kind of comedies usually have a pretty strong multiple if it’s a quality film. It’s getting snarked on by the critics, but actually it’s a great couples movie (especially if you have children). And, let’s face it, if something as bad as Tammy could hold, why not Sex Tape ? It’s a heck of a lot funnier.
It has a great marketing campaign and a good distribution date to try to capitalize on the family market. I don’t expect this one to hold as well as the studio’s Maleficent or even Fox’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 as they were much better films … much, much better … and appeals to a wider age range. Right now, maybe $17M to $20M. The first one made $22.2M on its opening weekend.
Sony also just announced that its R-rated comedy romp Sex Tape grabbed $1.1M in 2,457 theaters starting at 
Disney’s Planes Fire & Rescue opened at the same time as the first installment so this is a fair comparison: It grossed about 450K in late nights starting at 7 PM, pretty much the same kind of business they did last year when it opened August 9. That opened to a $22.2M three-day weekend. We’ll see how this one fares as it heads into the family-going days of Saturday and Sunday.
The Purge: Anarchy is currently the 2nd most socially active pic in July behind Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and its YouTube views (as expected for the horror film) have popped in the last week with the domestic teaser trailer on the Universal channel getting around 7M views and a holdover trailer from last year continuing to grow every day. Its FB page just passed 2M likes and superfans are reposting materials on an average earned/owned ratio of 8 to 1, according to RelishMix. And while this one doesn’t have the social power of last year’s star power of Ethan Hawke, Michael K. Williams “is by far the most social cast member with his 118K Twitter followers,” they say.
All three bow tonight in late nights. Those late night grosses won’t say much to us about Planes, but will be interesting to see The Purge and Sex Tape‘s numbers tomorrow morning. The Purge may get a nice number tonight from horror superfans. It bows at 8 PM. Right now, Fandango is dubbing it “the biggest pre-selling horror movie” of the year, noting that at the same point in the sales cycle, The Purge is selling more advance tickets than other horror films that opened this year, including Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Oculus, and last weekend’s Deliver Us From Evil. These horror flicks usually tend to open well and then fall off quickly. The first Purge opened to $3.4M in late nights starting at 10 PM and went on to gross $34M; of course, it starred Ethan Hawke which gave it some cachet. That one was done on a shoestring and shot all in one location and ended up grossing $64.4M domestically (about 19 times its budget). This one’s budget is three times the last one … those involved with the film tell us it was around $9M, was filmed outdoors and was churned out quickly to capitalize on last year’s profitable hit. It opens in over 2,800 theaters.
Sex Tape, meanwhile cost around $43M, not counting marketing and distribution costs. The R-rated comedy is getting stung a bit by critics but most people I know who have seen this film thought it was a fun romp (once you get past the opening raunchiness). When I’m laughing aloud at a movie, to me, that’s worth the ticket price. What it has going for it is that it’s going to be the only new comedy out there and it’s much better than Tammy (now in its third week of release). The fact that audiences hung in there for Tammy‘s second weekend shows the appetite for an adult comedy. For the male audience they will be able to gawk at Cameron Diaz’s naked bod and for the female audience, they seem to swoon over Segel. Diaz and Segel last starred together in Bad Teacher and that was a winning combination, taking in a total of $100M domestically and $216.1M worldwide. The adult comedy films usually end up with a decent multiple.
nd $90M. Late nights for this one also start at 8 PM.
Carlos Boozer reportedly is picked up by the Lakers. 
Tiger Woods uses his driver on four holes and misses the fairway on five times. 
