![\"Buddy-Guy-Issue-No29\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Buddy-Guy-Issue-No29.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nBy Jeff Tamarkin<\/b><\/p>\n
When blues guitar legend Buddy Guy performed\u00a0at the White House last year, the significance of the event didn\u2019t escape him. \u201cI told President Obama that where I grew up, I didn\u2019t even know what running water was until I was nearly 17,\u201d Guy remembers. \u201cI said, \u2018Mr. President, picking a guitar in the White House is a long way from picking cotton in Louisiana.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Guy has come a long way in his 77 years. Migrating from the Deep South to Chicago at age 20, he built a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile artists on the blues scene. As a member of Muddy Waters\u2019 band, house guitarist at storied Chess Records, and ultimately as a solo artist, his influence on then up-and-comers like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones is incalculable.<\/p>\n
Even as his acolytes heaped praise on him, widespread success eluded Guy until a couple of decades ago. Since then, he\u2019s picked up armloads of honors, among them a National Medal of the Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, six Grammys and induction into both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame. Today, Guy is one of the last surviving links to the classic era of Chicago blues. \u201cWhen all the greats were still living\u2014I\u2019m talking about Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Muddy, Junior Wells\u2014we used to sit and have a drink and say, \u2018If I go before you, I want you to keep that goddamn blues alive,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThen one day you wake up and they\u2019re all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that in mind, Guy has released Rhythm & Blues<\/i>, a collection of all-new recordings on two discs\u2014one titled Rhythm<\/i>, the other Blues<\/i>. Featuring guest contributions from Gary Clark Jr., Kid Rock, Beth Hart, Keith Urban, and Aerosmith mainstays Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, it\u2019s as solid an album as he\u2019s made in years. \u201cI\u2019m so excited about it,\u201d says Guy. \u201cAll I want to do is keep playing the blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why release a two-disc set?<\/b><\/p>\n
For that I have to thank my drummer and producer, Tom Hambridge. We went into the studio looking for a dozen songs, and we were getting a pretty good groove, everybody was smiling\u2014and suddenly we had 18 songs, then 22. The guys at the label called me in and I thought, \u201cLet me get ready for the pink slip.\u201d But they had smiles on their faces and said, \u201cWe want you to do a double album.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s behind the title Rhythm & Blues<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been in Chicago 57 years, and when I first came, everything was R&B. It was a fast boogie-woogie beat that black people were dancing to. Then in the \u201960s they started branding it. First it was Chicago blues, then it became West and South Side blues. But when I came to Chicago, Muddy Waters and I were playing all over the city. There was no such thing as South and West Side, Memphis or Motown.\u00a0Everything was R&B.<\/p>\n
What drew you to the guitar?<\/b><\/p>\n
Growing up, my parents didn\u2019t have electricity. We had no radio. But every Christmas, a guy would come through with an acoustic guitar playing Lonnie Johnson songs. And of course you had Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins and Arthur Crudup. A friend had an old phonograph where you used to crank the spring to play the 78s. Man, I heard that and I was walking around stretching rubber bands against my ear. My mother got a piece of screen wire to keep those Louisiana mosquitoes from lifting you off the bed. I would strip all that screen wire to try to make a guitar string. I would drive two nails in the wall and stretch it to pick at. That was the beginning of me.<\/p>\n
When did you first hear the blues?<\/b><\/p>\n
I heard it before I left Louisiana. Little Walter was from Marksville, La., near where I was born. He had already recorded \u201cJuke,\u201d and Muddy Waters had made \u201cLouisiana Blues,\u201d and Howlin\u2019 Wolf had made hit records. And there was Guitar Slim and B.B. King, too. I had thought about driving a tractor or pickin\u2019 cotton, but when B.B. came out\u00a0with \u201cThree O\u2019Clock Blues,\u201d I had to\u00a0buy a guitar, and did it on time. I tell him that every time I see him. I say, \u201cB., you\u2019re the cause of me having to pay monthly\u00a0payments for a guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s behind your trademark playing while walking beyond the stage?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
When I started, all the blues guitar players were sitting in chairs\u2014even Muddy. But I had seen Guitar Slim stand up, and I thought, \u201cHey, I\u2019m going to jump off the bar and run off through the crowd!\u201d Somebody said, \u201cHe\u2019s a nut, he\u2019s wild,\u201d but I got attention. We used to have guitar battles, trying to get that dollar a night.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t Chess Records change your style?<\/b><\/p>\n
Leonard Chess would hear me and say, \u201cThat ain\u2019t nothing but noise.\u201d I was playing with distortion, and they said, \u201cIf you\u2019re going to play like that, get out of here.\u201d So I had to play the type of blues they got rich off of, which was Muddy Waters and<\/p>\n
Robert Lockwood Jr. They weren\u2019t ready for the screaming and distortion I was doing. Around 1967, Leonard sent for me. I had never even been in his office. He said, \u201cI want you to kick me in my butt.\u201d I said, \u201cFor what?\u201d He put on a record by Cream and said, \u201cThis is the stuff you brought here and we were\u00a0too dumb to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
What else did Chess want to change?<\/b><\/p>\n
In the beginning they wanted me to play like B.B. King, and I must say nobody\u2019s ever going to fill those shoes. They even wanted me to change my name from Buddy Guy to Buddy King. When I finally met B.B. and told him, he said that his real name was Riley. So I told Leonard Chess that if I put out a 45 as Buddy King, my mama\u2019s going to have a stroke. So I stuck with Buddy Guy, and they finally accepted me.<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on the British blues-rock bands of the \u201960s?<\/b><\/p>\n
I remember when the Stones came to Chicago in the middle of one of my sessions. I had never seen a white man with hair that long. Then Clapton and Beck and all of them came along. To be honest, they did more for us than those who were ripping us off. They let the world know who we were. I\u2019ve got to give them credit for that. When the Stones started getting big, there was a TV show called Shindig!<\/i>. Mick agreed to do the show only if they\u2019d let him bring on Howlin\u2019 Wolf. Even now, sometimes a kid will come up and say, \u201cI didn\u2019t know who you were, but I read what Clapton said about you.\u201d Even at 77, I still have to prove I can play.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/b><\/p>\n
Because there\u2019s always someone who hasn\u2019t heard of me. I didn\u2019t sell a lot of records back in the day. Jimi Hendrix and the British guys got their exposure long before me. People didn\u2019t start talking about me until after those guys were selling millions of records and telling people, \u201cI got this from Buddy Guy.\u201d And everybody said, \u201cWho the hell is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
How has the blues evolved?<\/b><\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a change, but not that much. Electronics have changed more than the blues. You can hit a note on a guitar now that was the same note Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins hit, but you press a button and the guitar almost plays by itself.<\/p>\n
Why was 1991\u2019s Damn Right, I\u2019ve Got the Blues<\/i> your most successful album?<\/b><\/p>\n
They told me I could play any way I wanted, so you heard more guitar. My previous albums were OK, but they had it turned down and said that blues should be slow, quiet stuff. The other blues guys had invented that and they were doing well. Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters and Little Walter were selling tons of records, so I couldn\u2019t go to Chess and say, \u201cI can beat that.\u201d I probably could have but I didn\u2019t know then. If I did, I would have made a hit record every time!<\/p>\n
Any thoughts of retirement?<\/b><\/p>\n
You can\u2019t name me one musician who retires. We all drop onstage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BUDDY GUY A guitar icon continues his five-decade mission to keep the blues alive By Jeff Tamarkin When blues guitar legend Buddy Guy performed\u00a0at the White House last year, the significance of the event didn\u2019t escape him. \u201cI told President Obama that where I grew up, I didn\u2019t even know what running water was until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3805],"tags":[2076,7093],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11069,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions\/11069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}