Johnny Ace Auditorium in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Day 1954. During a break between sets, he was playing with a .32-caliber revolver. Members of his band said he did this often, sometimes shooting at roadside signs from their car. It was widely reported that Ace killed himself playing Russian roulette. However, Big Mama Thornton's bass player, Curtis Tillman, who witnessed the event, said, "I will tell you exactly what happened! Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had this little pistol he was waving around the table and someone said ‘Be careful with that thing…’ and he said ‘It’s okay! Gun’s not
Johnny Vincent in Jackson, Mississippi. He moved to Jackson in the late 1940s and opened a record shop and started the Champion Records label in the early fifties. Then Art Rupe offered him a job as A&R man at Specialty where Johnny worked with John Lee Hooker, Earl King, and Huey "Piano" Smith. His greatest hit was with Guitar Slim and "The Things That I Used to Do" an R&B # 1 in 1954. He left Specialty to found Ace. Ace enjoyed several national hits in the late 1950s, such as Huey "Piano" Smith's "Rockin' Pneumonia & Boogie Woogie Flu," and Frankie