Loss of eyesight doesn't stop music in Valley bass player

Johnny Walter said people are having trouble getting used to the fact that he is legally blind, since they have seen him for years with regular sight.

Walter suffers from a detached retina in one eye and a retina that could detach at any time in the other. He said there are ups and downs to being blind - mostly downs - although the upside is he's playing his bass more.

"I've only been blind for about a year and two months," he said. "People are used to seeing me with the Blue Dogs, Free Range and Say La Vee, and I could see fine."

Walter, 54, is a member of two bands now, the Bar BQ Boys and Genoa Jazz Club. He has lived in Indian Hills for 13 years, and he said people who knew him from before sometimes don't know how to act around him.

"I have trouble with people saying 'Hi Johnny,' and I have no idea who they are," said Walter, who performed with the Bar BQ Boys at the Coyote Sports Bar & Grill on Friday.

Walter has dealt with a detached retina in the left eye since March 2006.

"Right away, with detached retinas, you just see black in front of you. It's like an eclipse," he said.

He has undergone four surgeries on his left eye, the last one a disaster.

"The retina surgery just went bad," said Walter. "It feels like a screwdriver is going into my eye. I'm using a patch that's morphine. I've only been on it a couple weeks now."

His right retina is in imminent danger of detaching, too.

"They think the right eye maybe was traumatized because of what the left eye went through," he said. "I can see about a foot away in the right eye."

Holding a magnifying glass up to his right eye he can write checks, although it is still out of focus.

"I have quite the magnifying glass collection now," he said.

He said there is a reason he always wears sunglasses when performing now.

"I have a problem with light," he said. "I have to take care of the right eye. Anything might trigger the right retina to detach."

Walter was told that his right retina would detach in one month. That was three months ago. Doctors won't perform another operation until the retina in the right eye fully detaches.

"They just don't want to mess with the eye because it's the only thing I have," he said.

He has sought three opinions on his condition, and is hoping to get a fourth at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., soon.

"Last year I went for my second opinion at the University of California, Davis. They told me there was nothing they could do," said Walter. "I recently got a third.

"I'm starting to get the feeling from them maybe I should get used to not being able to see. In the meantime, one door closes and another opens. I'm getting into my music."

He said the Bar BQ Boys band members help him out by practicing at his house, picking him up for performances and carrying all his equipment.

"I don't move around so well," he said. "It takes me forever to get packed up and ready to go.

"It's not bad. The band is wonderful. The worst part is there's a 2004 Fat Boy in my garage. It's my dream motorcycle. I bought it brand new in 2004. I put 30,000 miles on it."

The Bar BQ Boys consists of two employees of GE Energy, where Walter worked until he went blind - Bobby Smile and Paul Cutunilli.

"We played at Relay for Life. We met there and we started playing together," said Walter. "We realized we had an upright bass, a mandolin and a guitar and we just needed a banjo to play bluegrass."

So they added Michael Chambon to make the band a foursome.

"If this isn't the best harmony in the Valley, I don't know what is," he said of their two lead singers, Cutunilli and Chambon, whom he calls by the nickname "Bone." He compares their voices to The Everly Brothers.

Of Smile, he said, "He plays a mean guitar."

Smile, Walter and Becky Tonkinson, also an employee at GE Energy, make up the trio, the Genoa Jazz Club.

Walter said being blind hasn't really made him rely on his hearing more.

"I always did before," he said. "As a musician, you already have a heightened sense of touch and hearing. It's irrelevant."

Of the things that have become more difficult, he got quiet and said, "It has a trickle effect."

Now at gigs people lead him to the stage and help him off. He said he prefers a "sighted" guide since a cane can get in the way in a crowded bar.

"I'm a guy who's only been blind for the year. I can use all the help I can get," he said.

He played the electric bass for 25 years until about five years ago he made a switch to the stand-up bass. While playing, he sometimes gets a "vertigo feeling" and is afraid he may lose his balance.

"There's something wrong with the nerves," he said. "I'm seeing a neurologist. I'm just a mess."

He said playing the bass may actually allow him to continue performing longer than if he played a different instrument - since it's fretless, he doesn't have to rely on his sight for finger positioning and its height and size may provide stability.

"It's kind of like hanging onto a tripod," he said. "Of all the musical instruments I can think of, upright bass and harmonica are the best for someone who's going blind."

Walter said the pain started after his third operation.

"I went to the hospital because I was bleeding in the eye," he said. "During the surgery something happened, like a crushed nerve or something. They don't know.

"I used to get really frustrated, sad and mad about it. But what can you do? There's some purpose for it."

Walter, a Vietnam War veteran, said his purpose may be to play his music for other veterans. He said he especially enjoys when the Genoa Jazz Club plays for veterans at the Douglas County Senior Center or at the VA Medical Center in Reno, who remember the light jazz songs the band performs.

"I mostly would like to thank everybody who likes to come out and see us play," he said.

Tonkinson, the singer in the Genoa Jazz Club, said she is planning to hold a fundraiser for Walter.

"I'm going to have a benefit for John," she said. "He needs a lot more than the insurance will cover.

"It's so sad. He is so nice," she said. "One year ago he was riding his Harley to work. We're just hoping for the best."

-- Jo Rafferty can be reached at jrafferty@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 210.