Buddy Guy: His Story and The Story of the Blues
Buddy Guy is one of our greatest living guitarists. Not only is he an amazing guitar player, but he has also played with about all the greats like John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf, B.B. King and the list goes on. Guitar legends from all of the world have taken pilgrimages to Chicago, just to get to see him play and players like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn all cite him as a major influence. Recently he came in to the SiriusXM studios to sit down with Ron Bennington and talk about his career, his art and new memoir, “When I Left Home: My Story.” Excerpts of that interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: It’s an amazing story to see how many things just took place over your life and how many people that you had the opportunity to play with. And a young kid who just made his dreams come true and went and followed your dreams as a young man.
Buddy Guy: Yes, it’s a…sometimes I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s a dream come true. First of all, I’d never think I was good enough to be answering your questions this morning. I didn’t think I was good enough for Muddy Waters to ask me to play on his record. I didn’t think I could play well enough to go on stage and make somebody smile, so it’s a dream come true for me.
Ron Bennington: But you know the interesting thing is one song you heard as a young boy that changed your whole life, when you heard John Lee Hooker on the radio.
Buddy Guy: Yes and by the way, before he passed away, we was the best of friends. I didn’t know his status when he talked, only when he sang you knew his status. (laughs) It’s amazing man. You know I don’t have an education from a school. The best education I ever got in my life is from these great blues musicians and the rest of it in the streets.
Ron Bennington: And in a way, it’s almost as a young man, you said I’m almost gonna serve the blues. I’m going to join into this life. And whatever happens happens. It almost seemed like once you made that original idea, you never changed. You never turned back. You never doubted it no matter how bad things got.
Buddy Guy: Well first of all, things was bad for the blues even before I thought of that. No blues player was making a decent living. They were just playing the blues for the joy of the music or a drink of wine or if you played well enough and sing well enough, you could get you a good looking girlfriend. So that was the pay. And when I finally got old enough and went to Chicago which this September the 25th will be 55 years ago, at least I thought the great Little Walter who had made several hit records, the Muddy Waters, the Howlin’ Wolf– and it was like 78s. Wasn’t no 45s, 78s and I’m like saying well, they got these nice homes, I’m gonna go to Chicago. If I don’t stay, I’ll be there and saw them play it like it’s supposed to be played. Saw their homes because I was going to walk and find it. Come to find out the only one who had a home was Muddy. And I was kind of disappointed with that, but there was a little money to be made, but it was being taken from them because there was hidden fees there from writing, mechanical rights, oh there was a lot of fees that got shared, but all that was taken from them. They didn’t know it because my education I say is in the street and I learned from watching them before I got hooked up in this and right today some people are still doing that if you don’t look at the fine print.
Ron Bennington: You’re very kind in the way that you bring up a lot of different names of people that you played with and just how great they are. I mean for a young person who wants to pick up “When I Left Home”, it’s not only just your story, but it is the story of the blues.
Buddy Guy: Yes.
Ron Bennington: And there’s so many places to follow along, so many different artists and you’ve been blessed enough that you’ve played with so many of them. Is there anybody that just stands out that like oh, if you could have only seen this one guy play one more time?
Buddy Guy: I met one time, I never did see him, but after I found out, see I came up on the 45s by Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lonnie Johnson which was there in New Orleans. But I didn’t know about the Robert Johnson, he’s one of the greats that all the British guys had introduced me to. I didn’t even know who he was at first, but I did know Lightnin’ and Robert and T Bone and all of those people. And then comes the Muddy Waters and the Robert Nighthawk and people like that. That’s who I was listening to, but you never get too old to learn. When I found out about these other guys, I got the chance to play with the guy who taught Muddy a lot before he passed away, Son House and Fred McDowell. And man, every time I see Eric Clapton, he says man, you got something I don’t have. I said what’s that? And I thought he was talking money. (laughs) And he’d say you got the chance to play with some of the people I didn’t get the chance to play with, which was those great blues players.
Ron Bennington: There’s some great footage, a documentary that just came out a couple of years ago and it had sat in the can for a long time of when you were on that Festival Express in Canada and played in front of all these white kids who were just losing it. Just loving everything that you were bringing. And that was a gigantic audience that you did not even realize that you had just a couple of years before.
Buddy Guy: Maybe not that minute, but you know I was driving a tow truck in ’67 and I was afraid to lose my job because I was told by my parents to never steal or take anything and I never have. And the manager came through, he had already brought Junior Wells out. Junior had been to Vietnam and played. And he came to the station where I was and I was greasing one of those big tractor trucks and I was lying down under it. And he said you know you could lose a finger? I said who are you? And it was about 97 degrees and the truck had just come in. You can imagine how hot it was. And he said my name is Dick Waterman and I can match your pay here if you go out on the road and play your guitar. I said I don’t know. I don’t want to take that chance. And he talked to me and I said I got a 2 weeks vacation coming and I’ll take a chance on you. I’ll go out there for the 2 weeks. He said well, I’ll book you in Ann Arbor, Michigan and I’ll put you in Toronto and you let me know how you feel. And when I got to Toronto, I had never saw 30,000 people. And when I walked on the stage, I heard voices saying “Now that’s the Buddy Guy”. And I’m like saying now “Where’s the other one?” They had a few guys out there calling…(laughs)
Ron Bennington: …using your name…
Buddy Guy: Yeah, they had a few guys. As a matter of fact, my good friend Junior Wells said that, because I had made the “Hoodoo Man” album with him, he had a guy, he said let’s call him Buddy Guy.
Ron Bennington: He had his own Buddy Guy.
Buddy Guy: Uh huh. And that 30,000 people were saying that’s Buddy Guy, I said oh my gosh. So, then I went up to Boston and played and went back to go to work. And that Monday morning, my boss just came up to me and told me at the Ford place where I was working, he said well, don’t leave until you show somebody how to drive the truck like you.
Ron Bennington: To take one of the greatest guitar players that America or the world has ever had and here he is driving a truck even though he’s got fans, this is exactly what was wrong with the record company at the time. And Eric Clapton is coming across the world to meet you and Keith Richards is coming across the world to meet you , Jeff Beck is looking you up. And this is how stupid America can get with it’s own music, we’ve got you driving a tow truck. We are insane sometimes with our own culture.
Buddy Guy: Well I don’t know. You know I’m very religious. I think we all was put here for a reason, not a season. And I think if I had been successful when I was 21 and 22, I don’t want to predict what would have been, but I might would have live a little bit faster life and you wouldn’t have been talking to me now. So I came up through it the hard way. Still catching it. I’m not doing as good as those guys do anyway, but I appreciate what I got now more than I would have if I had been successful then. Because I know some people, I won’t call no names man, I was playing around Chicago, we used to have to go buy a hot dog and divide it for 3 people. And a couple of them made hit records before me and they walked in a club and I say “Hey Tom, Dick and Harry”, I don’t call no names, and you know what they said? Who are you? Yeah and I said oh you done forgot who I was. But I’m the one you ate the hot dog with. And it still didn’t make no difference. They didn’t recognize me then.
Ron Bennington: Well we’re so lucky to have you. I also want to point out that you were one of the guys that started to bring that kind of show to the guitar. You had this very very long cord, about a 150 feet. And when the song would start, you would be in the parking lot, playing out there and walking through the club with it. And the guitar would go up over you head and behind his back and you could turn a room upside down. And you’ve been able to do that since you were a young man. Do you remember the first time where you really felt like I’ve got this room? I’ve got control here?
Buddy Guy: No, but I can tell you where I got that from. It was a famous guitar player, made a couple of hit records in New Orleans named Guitar Slim. He made a big record called “Things I Used To Do”. And the backup band didn’t have a name for itself. And the arranger of that whole tune was Ray Charles. He was living in New Orleans and all he did was back up Slim on that. And I copied all that from the late Guitar Slim. Buddy Guy didn’t create that long walk with the guitar behind his head. I don’t think I saw Slim do it behind his back, but I said I’ve got to come with something because I couldn’t play as well as the other guitar players I saw. So I caught myself getting attention when I said let me put it behind me. Let me see can I play it any other way where nobody else is doing it. And then somebody’s going to say wait a minute, let me look at this. And that’s my way of coming up with these little tricky things I do, but I could never play as good as Earl Hooker and the Wayne Bennett and all those great guitar players, Matt Murphy and all those guys like that.
Ron Bennington: “When I Left Home”, it’s Buddy Guy’s story. And I said it’s his personal story, but it’s also the story of blues in America and now around the world. And if you have a guitar hero, somebody that you’ve always looked to, that person I’m willing to tell you, looks up to Buddy Guy. And that’s the greatest thing I can say about you too. Buddy thanks so much for stopping by today man.
Buddy Guy: And thank you for having me. Whenever you guys get a chance to give me a chance to talk and whatever little boost you give the blues, I certainly appreciate it because blues has been treated on the back burner ever since I’ve been big enough to know, but I’m still gonna play it.
Ron Bennington: God bless you my friend.
Buddy Guy: Thank you so much sir.
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You can follow Buddy Guy on twitter @TheRealBuddyGuy and visit his website buddyguy.net for more information. You can also order his new book, When I Left Home: My Story, on Amazon.com or by clicking below.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.
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