Buddy Guy |
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Tue. July 01.2003 10:27 AM EDT |
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Buddy Guy: Last Man StandingThe blues master's new disc is an acoustic romp through the past. He talks about meeting John Lee Hooker, and developing his rep as an on-stage wild man. by Charles Bottomley & Jim Macnie |
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Buddy Guy (Linda Zacks) |
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Buddy Guy calls his heroes by their first names - Sonny Boy, John Lee, Muddy. We know them better as giants of 20th century music, legendary players who brought the blues from the southern fields surrounding the Mississippi to the northern cities
Guy became their apprentice. He was just a kid up from Louisiana when he began to make a name for himself on the Chicago blues scene of the mid-1950s. Stressing flamboyant guitar licks and outrageous showmanship, the young entertainer would jump off amps, play his guitar with his teeth, and dive into the audience. One of the eras stories - and there are loads of them - says that Jimi Hendrix would sit at the edge of Guys stage, taking notes. As the blues giants were rediscovered by a 60s counterculture seeking authenticity, Guy began to get props. He became a loyal lieutenant of the masters, a red hot string-slinger who would sit quietly in the corner until told to make his instrument come alive at Chicagos Chess Studios. He appeared on Muddy Waters acoustic Folk Singer album, a touchstone for English blues enthusiasts like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. He also joined the first American Folk Blues tour of Europe in 1965, where he met his hero, John Lee Hooker. Guy has survived the blues being rediscovered again and again. He toured with Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan at the end of the 80s, and after years away from the spotlight, released Damn Right I Got the Blues in 1991. It earned him a Grammy, and he wound up appearing on Letterman and Leno. These days, his name is in the pantheon with his former bosses. The new Blues Singer finds the 66-year-old looking over his shoulder. Unplugging his guitar, he tips the hat to his heroes with new spins on classic delta blues tunes. Recalling Folk Singers grace, the disc banks on the intimacy of acoustic music. Guys vocals simmer, and his guitar work is both tender and fierce. Clapton and fellow legend B.B. King join in the homage to giants like Texas bluesman Frankie Lee Sims ( Lucy Mae Blues), Son House ( Louise McGhee) and a brace of tunes by the late Hooker. Buddy stopped by the VH1 studios to play a few tunes, and recollect the turns of his life. He told us about interrupting baseball games to hear blues, proving his worth to the Chicago masters, and earning a rep as an on-stage wild man. See three VH1 exclusive live performances, "Louise McGee", "Crawlin' Kingsnake" and "Lucy Mae Blues". VH1: Did you first hear the blues on the radio? Buddy Guy: Sir, I didnt even have running water or electric lights, so there was no way I could have heard the blues. I was like 14 or 15 years old when I heard my first radio. It was an old battery radio - if it was raining, you couldnt hear nothing! I used to be a sandlot baseball player. If the AM station played any blues at all, I would call rain delay. I was the catcher, so they couldnt go no further. They would say, Rain delay until Buddy comes back! I would go lay down there with my ear [up against the radio]. I would try to hear [John Lee Hookers] Boogie Chillun, something from Lonnie Johnson and Lightnin Hopkins. All I wanted to hear was the guitar singing bang bang bang! [Watch Clip] VH1: Why did you decide to move from Louisiana to Chicago? BG: I couldnt find a day job. I failed the bus [driver] exam. If I had passed it, you wouldnt be talking to me now, because I would have never quit. When I first got hired to sing, I was fired. I was shy. I turned my back to the audience to start singing, and the guy said, Youre singing great! Turn around and let them see you! I started crying, put the guitar down and left. VH1: But you became known in Chicago for your wild onstage antics. BG: Everyone was sitting in chairs playing blues. All those guys could outplay me. I said, You can outplay me, but youre not gonna outdo me. You had to make your own connecting wires then. The first time I went to the music store, I said, I want a 150-feet lead wire. The guy looked at me and said, You a nut! I said, Gimme what I asked you for. There was two feet of snow outside the club one night, and I told some guy, Im gonna [start the show] outside in the car with my guitar. Bring that long wire out here and plug in my guitar. I came in the door with snow up to my knees, playing my guitar, and everyone was hollering, What the hell is going on? VH1: When did you start seeing the effect you were having? BG: Well, I dont think you see people sitting in a chair anymore, in Chicago or nowhere else. I just wanted to put some life into it. Those older guys had invented that music, and basically I was saying, I dont know anything. In the back of my head I said, You better get something somebody will like besides them. They already got that. So I kept putting Guitar Slim on them. Slim was walking the floor; thats where I get that stuff from - I added a little more wildness. I made a lot of mistakes. Once I threw the guitar in the air and somebody threw a spotlight on it, so I could catch it. When the spotlight hit my eyes, I couldnt see nothing. All I heard was bang-a-lang! When it hit the floor, somebody hollered, Did you see what he did? I jumped off the table to get it. They thought I did it on purpose! [Watch Clip] VH1: In Chicago you used to play morning shows for the late-shift workers. BG: They would line up outside. You would think it would be all customers, but it was 80 percent musicians. Early Monday morning at four oclock in the morning the musicians would go eat food somewhere and then say, Lets go jam together. Thats the only time you ever found five or seven of us on the same stage at the same time, like Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy, Junior Wells, myself, Otis Spann, and Matt Guitar Murphy. Thats how I got acquainted with a lot of the guys. VH1: What did they think about your stunts? BG: Id let em know I knew how to hit that lick. Then I would say, I cant play like you, so Ive gotta show you what else I got. I would sit in the chair and play, but Id say, This last song, Im gonna let you know I dont appreciate the chair. I would kick the chair off the stage, and walk down the bar. I remember kicking over beers and shots and thinking, Oh my God, Ive got to pay for that because I spilled it! They would say, Mister, you can come and kick another one over! Ive never seen somebody do that. VH1: Were you always that naturally flamboyant? BG: No, I was too shy. I didnt have an education and I was always afraid I was going to say the wrong thing and be laughed at. My mother had a stroke, and I had to drop out of high school and go back to chopping cotton. I was shy. Still am, but I learned that I had to get out of it a little bit. VH1: Did you choose the songs for Blues Singer with the producers? BG: Frankie Lee Sims Lucy Mae Blues was the only one I picked. Sims played by himself just like Im doing. In those days, the voices were the horns, drums, everything. The big bass singer was the bass player. Most of those old guitar players didnt have a rhythm guitar player. Your thumb had to do the picking. I lost a bit of that now. I got to get back and do more practicing. Im never gonna be that good. I do know what they was doing, but I havent learned it yet. VH1: John Lee Hooker looms large over the album. Do you have a vivid memory of meeting him? BG: I first met John Lee Hooker in Baden Baden, Germany, on the first American folk blues festival in September, 1965. I didnt know what he looked like! Back then they would never make a [true] picture of someone like John Lee Hooker or Muddy Waters - [their skin was] too dark. They would blow it up lighter. So when I saw Muddy, I said, Well, thats not the real one. Thats not the same Muddy Waters I saw in the picture! When I came down for breakfast in the hotel in Baden Baden, there was 25 or 30 bottles of whisky on this long breakfast table. Everybody was talking at once. I just wanted to meet John Lee Hooker. I heard somebody going [makes stuttering noise]. I didnt know that if you stuttered, you could still sing straight. I said, Well, I know thats not John Lee Hooker. How am I gonna meet him? So I got an acoustic guitar and started playing Boogie Chillun. The very guy who was stuttering came over and points to me like this. W-w-w-w-what you doing? You playing Johnny! I said, No, Im not playing Johnny. Im playing Boogie Chillun by John Lee Hooker. He had this high voice when he laughed: Hee hee hee! He just laughed like that for 20 minutes. It was Hooker! I didnt know he stuttered. We became friends that day. My manager always said, Dont let him get to Buddy before Buddy sings! because he could make me laugh so hard Id lose my voice. He could lie all day, man, and never tell the same thing! [Watch Clip] VH1: Is Eric Clapton still stealing licks from you? BG: Everybody steals from somebody. I talked to T-Bone, B.B. King, and Muddy and all these guys before we recorded, and I said, Look, Im ashamed of myself, because Im playing you alls music. Theyd pat me on the back and say, We stole it from somebody else, too, son. Just keep playing. VH1: Do you get a greater understanding of the blues the older you get? BG: The rings I wear say Blues. I was checking into a hotel here approximately 20 years ago. The receptionist sees the rings and says, Oh my God, blues - it will make you cry. So I said, You and your husband can have a pass to my concert tonight. The next morning when I checked out, they was crying. They said, We was so dumb. We danced all night. We thought it was just going to be a sad thing like, Oh, I dont have nowhere to go & Blues music is not like that, man. We sing the true lyrics to life. If you havent had a problem in life, just keep living. When you hear B. B. King sing, Ive got a sweet little angel, I dont think thats sad. I love the way she spreads her wings, - if you dont understand what he mean by that& [laughs] I dont think thats sad at all! [Watch Clip] |
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