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I was trying for three days to get a dime to call home because my mom had a stroke and she didn't know I got broke. So, this guy led me to this famous club called the 708 and got me up on stage with Otis Rush. |
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You helped inspire the British Blues Revival and the careers of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards. How did that affect the careers of American bluesmen, and what did you think of those guys?
Buddy Guy (1968) by Dick Waterman |
Well I think that it helped Buddy Guy. It helped Ike and Tina Turner, B.B. King and all of the blues cats. I don't know if you remember, but they had a television show called "Shindig," and the Stones were getting big and they were after them to do the show. They said they would do it only if the show let the Stones bring Muddy Waters. They came back and asked, "Who is Muddy Waters?" Mick [Jagger] got angry and said, "You don't know who Muddy Waters is? We named our band after one of his records."
They were letting Americans know who we were because everyone was calling it the British Invasion. I mean Rod Stewart was singing real blues. They were playing mostly Chicago blues. I was reading the papers the other day and they had an Anniversary piece on it. I was in the studio doing a record called My Time After Awhile, and they brought these guys up there right when I was in the middle of my session. I was like, "What is this with all of this long hair?" All these guys were coming in trying to sign with Chess [even] the Beatles.
Can you describe how American artists like Ray Charles, Otis Rush and Otis Redding were different from the British artists?
When [the British bands] first recorded they were doing the songs that Otis Redding and Little Richard wrote. That was the stuff they were recording. A matter of fact, when I went to England in February of 1965 I found Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck living in a van because they didn't know that a Strat guitar could play blues. We were laughing about it because they couldn't sell a single record because they thought a Strat was just for country and western.
I just graduated from college and the music professors there taught us that the difference between American Blues and British Blues was the British Blues didn't have the tribal element that American Blues had. Would you consider this an accurate statement?
Buddy Guy |
I don't know how to answer that because a guitar is a guitar, you know? I was getting interviewed and this guy asked me what I am going to play when I get to Singapore, like I am all of a sudden going to change and play Singapore Blues. When I go to Singapore or Africa or India I will always be Buddy Guy.
What the British guys did was they played blues just like I did. I copied T-Bone and B.B., and by trying to copy them I became Buddy Guy. It's like baseball and football. Everybody can't be Joe Montana. You could be a good quarterback but you are never going to be him. I don't think anyone will be able to fill B.B. King's or Muddy Waters' shoes. Those British guys did like I did - they just picked up a guitar. I will tell you what they did do, though, which they wouldn't let us do here. They turned that amplifier up. That's what Eric and them will tell you about me when I was playing. I would blast that amp. The Chess people wouldn't let me come in the studio and do that. Well, after they heard the British guys they said, "Wait a minute. Buddy plays like that!" They said, "Hey, you've been trying to sell us this shit ever since you've been here but we've been too fucking dumb to listen." I was laughing about it because they were telling me that they would give me anything I wanted [if I'd] just to go in the studio and record my music. They ran me out of there with that feedback shit and now the British guys are selling the hell out of it.
How was Chess as a label?
Buddy Guy by Weintrob |
They wouldn't let me cut loose until just before the owner died. He gave me the rights to go in and do what I was doing but he died before we could do what we wanted to do. The Brits had it then and they were doing it. Jimi Hendrix had a room full of stacks. If you wanted to have a conversation before you went into the studio to hear Cream you'd have to talk before you went in there. I think Jeff Beck has a problem with his ears now because of that.
Are there any artists that you feel are influential in the modern era?
John Mayer. He is selling so many pop records but he is a great blues guitar player. I play at my blues club here in the month of January, and I got to the club one night and they told me I had a guest. John Mayer was on his way to California and stopped in to jam with me before he kicked off his summer tour.
Looking back on your career, could describe how you feel the music industry has changed, comparing your generation to the current one?
Buddy Guy |
As far as the blues cats, there aren't too many of us left. 30 years ago there were still a handful of us. If you go see a blues cat today I don't think that the artists have changed that much. The equipment and electronics have changed but I'm the same Buddy Guy that always was and will always be. I can't be anything else but that.
The music itself, I don't really want to criticize anything, but you would never catch a blues cat lip-syncing. When I get you in my corner, I might play a blues song different than how it was rehearsed. You could go out there and dance and not miss a beat like Michael Jackson and Madonna [but] they are not singing, man. I guess that was the change in generations. If you go see B.B. King you hear B.B. King. You are not going to hear some record being played and he is lip-syncing. And, if you come see me you're going to see some perspiration coming off of me. If I miss a note you might hear me say, "Oh shit, I missed it," because that is natural.
Would you attribute that concept to the word 'integrity'?
Buddy Guy |
I don't know how to answer that. I just know that when Muddy Waters amplified the guitar and the harmonics it was part of that time. My daughter is into hip-hop. Music is so crazy now that I can't criticize the things that make record companies millions and billions of dollars. Like I said, when I came up I was playing for the love of music. Now, you got some guy who will say, "Who is Buddy Guy?" My children didn't even know who I was until they were 21 and able to come into a blues club. I'm sure your children don't know who I am. I was all over radio and television because AM stations used to play everything. They played spirituals, blues, jazz and all kinds of stuff. That's how I knew who Muddy Waters was. Now, if you go into a record store ain't nobody going to say, "Hey let me see what Buddy Guy got out now" unless you are old enough to remember who I am. The young people will say, "I want that record I heard on the radio the other day."
Well Buddy, I know who you are and I love your music!
Well, thank you so much. I wish there was a million more like you.
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