Why? Because he was a very raw, wild and busy blues player with note explosions on the fretboard? I probably couldn't listen all day to him, but in reasonable dosages he was a compelling performer.
Aaand Blackmore appreciated him - which should stop any further criticism dead in its tracks.
Or because of his albino (
Is that still an allowed term or do you have to say "person suffering from albinism"?) features? While I fully understand that it is a serious genetic anomaly you wouldn't choose voluntarily for yourself, back in the 70ies I thought Johnny and Edgar always looked très cool together.
And I always assumed that The Twins in Matrix Reloaded were a tongue in cheek-tribute to the iconic look of the Winter Brothers.
When I lived in Zaire in the 70ies, albinos were somehow not an infrequent sight (or maybe they just stood out more, but there was hardly a day when you would not see one) among the Bantu population which had migrated there over the centuries (I never saw one with the indigenous Pigmy People who were the original inhabitants of the Congo). Not an easy fate. Apart from the affiliated health issues, they were often either shunned by their communities or perceived to have magical powers to the extent of their lives being endangered by attempts to sacrifice them for ritual purposes.