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Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Buddy Guy: Can't Quit the Blues

BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES
Radio script

Music: I Can?t Quit the Blues

**BG: If I had my life to live over, I would come back the same road that I came and pick up the acoustic guitar and hope to make somebody happy and smile. Because you can go around the world playing music. Music speaks in all language and I been to Africa. Some of the places I never dreamed of people would be knowing what I?m doing. And I seen people crying and shouting and smiling. And that?s, I thank God put us all here for a reason (inaudible)

ANTHONY: BUDDY GUY HAS SPENT OVER 50 YEARS BRINGING THE BLUES TO THE WORLD. HE PLAYED GUITAR WITH MUDDY WATERS, JUNIOR WELLS, OTIS RUSH AND SO MANY OTHER BLUES LEGENDS. HIS STYLE INFLUENCED ERIC CLAPTON, JIMI HENDRIX, STEVIE RAY VAUGHN, THE ROLLING STONES, JOHN MAYER, THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.

BUT FOR ALL OF THAT, BUDDY GUY REMAINS A CULT FIGURE IN BLUES MUSIC. WE?RE NOT HERE TO FIGURE THAT OUT, BUT WE ARE HERE TO GET TO KNOW HIM.

IN THE NEXT HOUR, WE?LL LISTEN TO BUDDY REMINISCE ON HIS LIFE AND CAREER AND HEAR A LOT OF HIS MUSIC. I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS, AND WELCOME TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.?

Music fades

BUDDY GUY GREW UP IN LETTSWORTH, A SMALL TOWN ABOUT 60 MILES NORTH OF BATON ROUGE, LOUSIANA.

**BG: Growing up in Louisiana was very hard. At that time, I didn?t know that it was hard or is it poor. Because my parents were sharecroppers and we didn?t have machinery. All we had was the horses, the mules, the chickens, the pigs. And I was telling someone lately how far I used to have to walk to school when I was going to grammar school. I would take my shoes off and walk to keep from wearin? the shoes out til I get almost to school and you stop in a mudhole and rinse your feet off and put your shoes on and go to school. And as you grow old and look back, that was hard.

Music (under): One Room Country Shack

**BG: We didn?t have no car or nuthin? like that. My first ride was a little pony and I thought that you know, we?d have to walk to school for miles. There and back. When we got ready to go to the grocery store, you walked. So if walking is good for you, my parents would still be livin?.

**BG: the only holiday we had, we recognized the holiday, was Christmas and Easter Sunday. The rest of them was just a normal day. We didn?t know anything about no fourth of July, Thanksgiving or something like that, because when you?re farmin? and sharecroppin?, you have to work with the weather. You know, and if the Fourth of July was a nice bright, sunny day, ?course that?s the time when you normally have a little break anyway. Because if you raisin? cotton, that?s the time it grows and you just let it mature and grow it on and work out there. So we did have maybe a little break then until it started getting ready for you to harvest it.

**BG: I think I was about 15 or maybe 16 years old, then they finally brought the electricity with the one bulb hanging out in the house and one socket. And then we picked enough cotton to get a phonograph that would play just 78?s back then. And that?s when I got, I think my first record, was ?Boogie Chillun? by John Lee Hooker and that was the first thing I learned how to play.

Music: The Way You Been Treating Me

?THE WAY YOU BEEN TREATING ME? PERFORMED IN 1957 BY BUDDY GUY IN BATON ROUGE. IT?S HIS EARLIEST RECORDING, DONE WHEN HE WAS 21 YEARS OLD, BUT BUDDY SPENT MANY YEARS LEARNING GUITAR IN AN INVENTIVE WAY.

**BG: it would get so hot and humid in Louisiana, we didn?t have, we had a wooden house with a wooden window with the wooden door. It was just like the barn and the cows and things in it and finally she would say, I?ve got a dime or nickel or something, we?ll go buy a piece of screen so we can sleep with this window open and get some kind of cool air and keep the big old mosquitoes out, which was big enough in Louisiana and down in the Bayou, they?d take you out of the room. So we had got so used to them, sometimes they bite you and you didn?t even feel like stoppin? ?em. Because they?d sting and you just let ?em go ahead and bite. And I went to strip this screen wire from my mother?s window and every once in a while she would hear this mosquito and she?d say, ?Now I know I had this screen up there and these mosquitoes still getting? in the house.? Because you can hear ?em. I don?t know if you ever heard one getting round your ear, makes enough music with his little wings and things. And they would look and all the screen would be stripped out there and I?d be then, cuttin? me a little bow about so wide and takin? a lighter fluid can to put at the end of it with four tacks on the can and four on the bow. And just you couldn?t finger it, but I could hear it if I could stretch the string tight enough.

Music (under): First Time I Met the Blues

**BG: what really got me to play first electric guitar-saw Lightnin? Slim drove out through Letts Woods (?) one Sunday afternoon and stopped at the storefront which was the only grocery store we had then. And plugged it up with an amplifier bout that big and started playing ?Boogie Chillun? and I thought it was a joke and I kept looking at the wires that led from the little amplifier and the chord in the guitar and I stood there and watched him. And I got to know him very well before he passed away and that?s the first electric guitar I saw. And that just turned my head completely around. // and I graduated out of grammar school to go to high school and I went into Baton Rouge with that Muddy Waters 78 and I was going to take music lessons. And I went to the teacher who is still livin?. We laugh about it now, every time I go to Baton Rouge, I say man, I want to play some music. And he says, Okay, I gotta get you book one. And I said, ?no, I GOT book one. You know, here?s just this 78 by Muddy Waters.? And he said, ?Well I can?t teach you that.? And I said, ?Well, you can?t teach me.? Because I didn?t want to learn anything else but that.

Music up

A BIT OF ?FIRST TIME I MET THE BLUES? PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

**BG: Yeah, uh huh. I was workin? pumpin? gas back then you know you couldn?t pump your own gas. I was workin? at a fillin? station and uh, a friend of mind, bless his soul passed away, he went and told Big Papa about me and they came to the fillin station and brought my boss and said, ?Hook that guitar up and play it out loud. Maybe we?ll get some customers buyin? gas.? And I started out playing the ?Boogie Chillun? I?d learned how to play a Lightning Hopkin and a Jimmy Reed song. And he said, ?you exactly what I want. How much do you make here?? and I said, ?I think I make, I was making must have been about twelve or thirteen dollars a week.? And he said, ?I can pay you that if you just play at night for me and you play Friday, we go for these little juke joints Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Sunday afternoon.? And actually, I ended up making about fifteen dollars a week with him. // Because that was the beginning of Little Walter and Jimmy Reed, JB (inaudible) and them and they was getting? all those 78?s down there so if we learned how to play one on Jimmy Reed and Little Walter had come out with ?Juke? and we didn?t get it like them, but it was like new. It was new music. You know, just like the hip hop it is now. People was just dancing a lot, you couldn?t go, you always had to have a dance floor in the club where we played at.

Music: This is the End

BUDDY GUY PERFORMED ?THIS IS THE END? AT A STUDIO IN CHICAGO IN 1958.

**BG: ?I wanted to go to Chicago not to be a musician, I wanted to uh, I was working at LSU making $29 every two weeks. And I, someone told me I could come up here and work at a University or college and make twice that money. And my mother had had a stroke and I didn?t want to leave. I said, I didn?t want to go there. And work, and maybe go watch Little Walter and Muddy Water and them play at night. And I came and left there and came here and he made a demo and wrote a note to bring to go to Chess when I come here. And I did. And when I walked into Chess with the note, I didn?t know who Leonard or Phil Chess was. And I just give the note to whoever they was. I don?t know if he ever got it, but they saw my guitar, which was a Les Paul Gibson and they had a session with the late Wayne Bennet, which was a great guitar player with Bobby Bland. And they just took my guitar and put it right in the session. I?m just sittin? this watching the (inaudible) do recording. They didn?t (inaudible). So I came out, bummin? around, got broke, hungry, stayed hungry for three days and three nights and finally, a stranger lift me by the street and grabbed me by the hand after I played a Jimmy Reed song and took me to his house and told his wife to get dressed. And that he found a little black man that can really play blues and took me to this famous blues club called the 708 club on 47th street. Otis Rush was playin? and he just walked in like I was a child. ?I?ve got someone that can play!? ?Bring ?em on up.? And it was 99.9% black people listenin? to blues then. And I went up and saw this white guy on the door goin? out and he left (inaudible) and said ?I don?t know who that is, but hire him.? And that was my first gig, and then somebody called Muddy and when I played a couple of songs, I went to go out the door and I was tellin? people how hungry I was and they was like, ?Oh, man. Get outta here. The way you can play, you not hungry.? And I?m like, ?Oh boy. What do you do in Chicago?? Then somebody said, ?BLAM? and slapped me and before I left Baton Roug, my ex brother in law and some people had said that you know, they had been to bigger cities than Baton Roug and said you better watch?don?t?you know it?s not like in the South. You know, you can stop and ask somebody for a slice of bread when I left Baton Roug and they say Okay, come on in. Even if they didn?t know you. And they said ?Be careful. Chicago is not like that. You can get mugged.? So I say, ?okay.? And so I come out of there with my guitar and I wasn?t going to pawn that, I didn?t give a damn how hungry I got, so when I got slapped, my ears was ringing and they said ?That?s the mugged.? And I thought, ?oh shoot, I got mugged.? And finally, he said, ?I?m Muddy Waters.? And I said, ?You Muddy Waters, I?m really not hungry.? You know, I just said, ?To meet you.? And he put me in the back of his 1958 Red Chevrolet Station wagon and brought out this loaf of bread with a salami in it and man, I?m like saying it?s like a T-Bone steak man. And he made me eat the sandwich. And he was like a father to me until he passed away.

Music: Ten Years Ago

?TEN YEARS AGO? SUNG BY BUDDY GUY.

IN A MINUTE, WE?LL HEAR ABOUT BUDDY?S LIFE AS A MUSICIAN IN CHICAGO IN THE EARLY 60?S, AND A LOT MORE MUSIC.

I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.?

Break 1

WELCOME BACK TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

Music (under): Sit and Cry the Blues

**BG: Guitar Slim had came out with this famous record which was I think arranged and the back up band was Ray Charles called ?Things I used to do?. And uh, they brought him into Baton Rouge. The name of the place was the Temple Ruth (?) and // I stood at the stage for maybe an hour and a half or so with the band playing because I think they uh..BB still do that. A lot of bands used to wouldn?t bring out the BB King, the T-Bone Walker the Guitar Slim and the guy was selling whiskey as long as you don?t bring that on. As soon as you say ?Ladies and Gentleman Guitar Slim or BB King? everydody stop drinking and say, ?I gotta watch this.? So, they was trying to sell they whiskey and they would hold them back as long as they could. And when they say, ?Ladies and Gentleman, Guitar Slim? I heard the guitar but I didn?t see nobody on the stage and I thought, ?What is this.? You know and then all of a sudden, this guy walks in the door with him on his shoulders, like you do a little baby, and he was round this guy?s neck playing. And I like, flipped man and I said, ?well, if I ever learn how to play, I wanna sound like BB King but I want to act like Guitar Slim.? ?Cos he was wild man. And they dropped him on the stage and he just blew my mind, man. I just said, ?look at this guy? you know. He didn?t have a regular strap, he had a fish line on the guitar and his guitar was like all beat up and I?m like saying, ?Now that?s what you call playin? a guitar there man.? He didn?t baby it and I don?t do mines like that now. You know, it?s made to be played. And guys ask, how do you break so many strings and if you don?t break ?em, you?re not playin? ?em.

BUDDY GUY MADE A NAME FOR HIMSELF AS A WILD PERFORMER IN CHICAGO.

**BG: When I came off that stage at 708 club, that?s when the word went out, the late Magic Sam, heard about me. Then they came over and said, because they always used to send the chairs. Muddy, Walter, all of them, they didn?t know what standin? up was. And I came in standin? up man, I?m like saying, ?I got this from Guitar Slim? and I?m gonna keep it. And they say, Man he?s wild. And Magic Sam come got me and took me to Cobra Records which was on 12th street and (inaudible)Ave. And it was like, looked like a garage. And he said you meet me over there and I had to get somebody, took a chance on strangers and they took me on, the first time I ever rode the L here, which is the train/public transportation. And when I got there, the late Hal (inaudible-Borage?) and Magic Sam was sittin? there waitin? on me. The late Billy Everett and I went in there and he said, ?Sing? and I start singing one of BB King?s and then he came over with a contract, ?Sign it. Sign him right now.? And that was my first session.

BUDDY SOON FOUND HIMSELF CUTTING RECORDS FOR THE LEGENDARY CHESS RECORDS ALONG WITH SOME OF HIS HEROES.

**BG: Well, they had Muddy, Jimmie Rodgers, Little Walter, Sonny Boy and them had made the Chess, man. So you could not argue with that. //I was so excited at being they had the greatest musicians I?d ever learnin? the thing from there and Chess, and I was, when they would call me to play with Muddy, or Wolf or Walter, I was on top of the world.

Music: Let Me Love You Baby

?LET ME LOVE YOU BABY,? AN EARLY CHESS RECORDING PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

Music: Untitled Instrumental

**BG: after I started learning a little bit about the South Side, I?d go walkin? and seek and I?d find the Wolf, I?d met Muddy. I wanted to see Walter, Junior Wells, all of them. And I would leave going out 47th street and every other door that was a little record shop. You didn?t have the big mega record shops that they have nowadays. They had a little speaker out in front like in front of this place with the new Muddy Waters and the Little Walter record, blasting. And I?d look in there. And then you?d go next door and there was a blues joint didn?t hold but 30 people but they had a three piece band in there but they was sounding like Little Walter and I?d go in there, ?that?s not him? I?d seen his picture and they were so good. You?d go across the street and there was another one with three or four piece, a little raggedy piano with two keys working on it and day would break and I still hadn?t got to the end of the two blocks because that?s just how many blues clubs was up and down 47th street, 63rd, 43rd, State Street, Indiana and not talking about coming over here on the West side, which is 12th street, Madison street, uh..Harmon (?), Kidsey (?), just everywhere you went man, it was just like loaded with uh, little small blues clubs. This side wasn?t even existed

BUDDY GUY SPENT A LOT OF TIME AS A SESSION GUITARIST FOR CHESS RECORDS.

**BG: I didn?t even curse man, when I come to Chicago and I would be in Chess studios and they?d never would say Muddy, or Wolf or Walter, it was always ?Hey MF, MF, MF?. And I?m like saying, I was sitting over in the corner one morning. I think I was doing a session with Walter or Muddy and they wanted me to turn up or play a little more or play less. And that ?MF MF MF? and I wouldn?t even look up and I was very quite and all of a sudden somebody come over and tap me on the shoulder and say, ?I?m talking to you MF!? and I say, ?That?s not my name man. My name is Buddy.? And I woke up and I was right in that sight with the mouse, calling them MF MF and they was callin? me one and meet in the morning. ?Hey MF. How you doin??? shake your hand. And didn?t care where you was because we played a lot of places together, me and the late Junior Wells and Muddy, Wolf and all of them and when the whites started listening to the blues, they said, ?They don?t like one another man. Do you hear what they call them?? And then we would have a blast laughing at that. (laughs)

Music: Stone Crazy

A BIT OF ?STONE CRAZY? PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY FOR CHESS RECORDS IN 1961.

**BG: I was playing in Joliet once, which was one of the bigger blues clubs around then and uh, the guy that owned the club said you know if you come out here, this was 1962 man, I didn?t have no money, he said you come out and manage this club I?ll let you make a little money. Because you can call, when you hear Sonny Boy will follow and I wouldn?t have to bring the whole band, so you could just snatch Sonny Boy, put him in Joliet, let him sing three or four songs infront of Buddy?s band and he could run back to Chicago and play in another band. So, he?s making two gigs a night. So I agreed to it and I went there and they brought Sonny Boy out, oh, before this time, it was mornin?. And the owner of the club saw him downstairs with his quart of liquor drinkin? at nine o?clock in the morning and he came up and got me and said, ?I think you?re gonna get fired. Because that man down there drinkin?. He ain?t gonna be able to play tonight.? So I said, Oh my god. And you couldn?t say nothin? to Sonny Boy, and I said, ?I ain?t gonna say nothin? to him because I?m going to get cursed out from bottom to top.? So, about 8:30 that night, we play at 9. He?s still at the bar drinkin? and playin? the harp. So I went down and me and the owner was talking and he could hear man, Junior could do that too. So, I said, Well, we?ll see because I said, I?m going up and I called him up. And I went up and took off on one song, the next song and I said, ?ladies and genleman, this is sonny boy Williamson?. And he came up about nine and he played til about 1:30 and you couldn?t stop him. And the owner was standing there looking at me with his hands on his hips saying What is he made out of? I said, ?I don?t know man.? He put me to bed, the owner to bed, I woke up the next morning and come back down and he was down there with that fifth, that quarter of whiskey again and he looked at both of us and said, ?Now let me tell you all something. I heard you all talking last night bout I wasn?t gonna play.? He was about seventy then. He said, ?when I was 29 years old, a goddamned doctor looked at me and said if you don?t quit drinking, you?re not going to make it to 30.? He said, ?you know where the damn doctor at now?? I said, ?No where?? He said, ?Been dead?. (laughs) I said, keep drinkin? man.

Music: Hoodoo Man Blues

?HOODOO MAN BLUES,? WRITTEN BY SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON AND PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

IT MAY SOUND LIKE A CLICH?, BUT LIFE ON THE ROAD FOR BLUES MUSICIANS WAS NOT EASY.

**BG: They would fill the car up and Hooker would go to Mississippi on a Friday or Saturday night and play for the door and I guess you do pretty good. You make a hundred or two hundred bucks and the keyboard player was named Cookie and he couldn?t read or write so they got waaaay down in Mississippi and stopped at one of them stores, like I told you where I saw Lightning Slim first saw the electric guitar. And they, I think they was down to 30 cent or 40 cents or something and said, it was like, in the summer time in September, you know how hot it is then. So they decided that they was out of food, but they gonna stop in this store and get Cookie an overcoat, which you know the man gonna notice that. So, we?re going to go in the store, we gonna take the ford ourselves and we gonna buy a couple of soda waters or pop or whatever you want to call it. Say, we gonna gather round the guy and while we gather round and buy the crackers and the pop with the 40 cents, Cookie, you go in and steal the Vienna sausage and the product meat in the can and put it in the pocket of your coat. And they did. And still, Cookie go in the dog isle, and the dog food and the cat food isle and he was just stealin?. And you shoulda heard Howlin? Wolf tell it. ?Everytime. He put his hand in his pocket, Rivo, Alpo, and all kinds of cat and dog food.? So they got in the car, and they had the chilled pop and stuff and said, let?s drive about 80 miles down the road and we?re almost there and we?ll stop on the highway and get under this big tree and spread the grass back and open the crackers and get the Vienna sausage and product meat out and eat it. So they spreaded it back and all the things, ?C?mon cookie. C?mon out with the Vienna sausages and product meat man, so we can eat and then get on down there and get this money.? And there comes out of his pocket, the Alpo. (laughs) All kind of dog food and the keyboard player, (inaudible) looks at it and says, Man did you ever open the Alpo and smelt it? Specially if you hungry? And I said, ?Yeah, I got a dog. I smelt it.? And he said, ?I just opened a can of Alpo, went behind a tree and took two crackers and?(laughs.) So man, I?m telling you man. It wasn?t easy. It wasn?t easy. Because yeah, yeah.

Music: When You See Tears From My Eyes

?WHEN YOU SEE TEARS FROM MY EYES? PERFORMED LIVE BY BUDDY GUY.

IN A MINUTE, WE?LL HEAR HOW BUDDY GUY CAUGHT THE EARS OF THE ROCK AND ROLL WORLD, AND A LOT MORE MUSIC.

I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.?

Break 2

WELCOME BACK TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

**BG: I always thought music would disappoint me. Especially after I found out that the Muddy Waters wasn?t travelin? the world over like we did later on in the 60?s. We was playing here tonight in Chicago, here tomorrow night, here tomorrow, it was a circle. And I think if you look around here, I gots some of the contracts of Howlin? Wolf then and what they were making. And I went to Jimmy Reed?s house and sat down on his couch and went straight onto the floor. And I?m like, saying I know these guys, is it worth it to be a blues player and I?m looking at where they livin? at and the conditions they was livin? in. I didn?t know. But I loved it so well, I didn?t have sense enough to quit.

Music (under): I Smell A Rat

BUDDY WAS PLAYING FOR SOME OF THE GIANTS OF BLUES, BUT HE STILL WASN?T GOING TO RELY ON MUSIC FOR A LIVING. AT LEAST, NOT UNTIL HE BEGAN TOURING IN THE LATE 60?S UNDER HIS OWN NAME.

**BG: But what happened, I was working right down the street here. Not too far from this club at a Ford place and Junior Wells was having been to Vietnam in 1966 and 67 because I didn?t think I would ever go out on the road and travel. And, his manager was named Dick Waterman, and I was laying out one hot summer day on this big dumptruck, changing the oil in it. And he says, ?Hey, you Buddy?? and I say yes. And he says, ?You could lose a finger the way you foolin?with these trucks and mechanical work.? I said, Yeah, but I gotta make a living some way because I?m not going to steal nothing. He said, ?Well my name is Dick Waterman and I?m blah blah blah with Junior and so on.? And he said, ?How much you make?? and I was making $2.11 an hour so he said I can write you a post dated check for what you make a year here and guarantee you that if you would just come out and go back out on the road and play. So I said, ?I don?t know.? Because I didn?t want to quit my job. And I said but I had two weeks vacation coming and I?ll go out there then. And he said, Okay, I?ve got some dates and I?ll put you in Ann Arbor, Toronto, Syracuse, NY and Boston and then San Francisco. And I went to Ann Arbor, then I went to Toronto. And there was 30,000 people for the Blues festival called Mariposa. I?ll never forget 1967. September. And when I went to the stage, I could hear voices saying, Now that?s the real Buddy Guy. And I?m like, who is the fake? And Junior had a guitar player bless his soul, he passed away, and I think they called him Buddy Guy because I?d made the Hoodoo Man and a couple of albums with Junior so when he went on the road without me

ROCK AND ROLL WAS KING IN THE LATE 60?S, AND BUDDY GUY BECAME FRIENDS WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST PLAYERS. IT CHANGED CHESS RECORDS OWNER LEONARD CHESS? MIND ABOUT BUDDY.

**BG: I went to London and played with the Yardbirds with Rod Stewart the ballet. And uh, I know Eric Clapton and know Jeff Beck and later on in life, they come and told me they didn?t even know a Strat could play blues. And they was laying out there and sleeping to see me play this little small place and I?m not even thinking? nothing because I?m just being a regular Buddy Guy man. And all of a sudden they come out and when Leonard found that out then he sent Dixon to my house to get me. And I said, ?Oh my god.? Because I used to make the session with the Muddy?s the Wolf, the Walters and everybody and they would pay me that little $25 which, for making a session was like big money compared to what I was making in the clubs, which was 2, 3 sometimes nothing if it started rainin and snowin?. So I said, ?well, I don?t want to be making no more sessions.? Put a suit on, Leonard want to see you. I say, Okay. And I went in and never had been in his office. And everybody invited me, brought me in and bent over and told me to kick him. And I says, ?I really should, you know. I been trying to get a, you know, they had released I think like one 45 on me ?First Time I met the blues? or something like that, written by little brother, Late little brother Montgomery. And uh, he just put the Creem record on. And they cursed a lot you know, they?re saying ?this is selling like hot cakes and you been trying to give it to us ever since you come here and we was too F?in dumb to (laughs) to listen to you. Now we want you to come in and do it.? And I was like, really pissed at him then. And I didn?t think, they cut one, the last one I think ?I left my blues in SanFrancisco? or something like that and then I went onto Vanguard which was 1967 and he died, Leonard died, just when he really was feeling he was throwing something behind me to make me get out there and compete with those British guys.

**BG: Well, everytime I was in the studio, I always listen. I don?t have an education in school. And I always would listen. I?m saying, Okay, I?ll play this quiet and soft, I won?t let the Buddy Guy loose. But as soon as I went back to the stage, I let the Buddy Guy loose. Even Eric and Steve is sayin?, I played that last number with Stevie that night that when he had met his tragic death, he said ?Man, something wrong. You don?t come out on record like you do when you come out on stage.?

Music up

BUDDY GUY LETS LOOSE ON STAGE WITH ?I SMELL A RAT.?

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

**BG: You know, those people, spent their entire life just for the love of music. When I learned how to play, it wasn?t for the love of the dollar that you can make now in music. It was the love of music that we learned for. So if we didn?t get paid, we had as much fun. Which I told you earlier, the (inaudible) and Walter and all of those great guys that never get a lot of money, I don?t think neither one of ?em had a home. Muddy had a home and Wolf had one before he died, but the rest of them, I can?t recall them buying a home. But they had so much fun. It was like, uh, a drink of whiskey man, a good lookin? woman and my instrument and you felt like you were rich. And that?s all that you would see. You didn?t look up and see you know, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Santana and them making all this money. Wasn?t no such thing as that. Wasn?t no such thing as these outdoor arenas now where you can put in hundreds of thousands of people in an old concert in Soldier?s Field and these big ball parks and things like that there.

Music (under): Baby Please Don?t Leave Me

**BG: frankly speaking, I think America, if a black person had something in those days, they didn?t want you to, they didn?t want to give credit to you for havin? it. Even Elvis didn?t want to tell the truth. One of his first big records was written by Arthur Crudup. I forget the name of it, but that was one of his first things before he really got big to hisself. And they didn?t want to admit where he was getting? it from, but he was going to those black churches down there before we had those instruments in it and lookin? too.

**BG: I got a daughter into hip hop now and all the young people come to me and I don?t want them to go through what I went through with record companies and management and all that, you need to just, try to get educated. And if you don?t get it in school, you need to get it in the streets. And mine comes from the streets. I didn?t get ripped off as bad as Muddy Waters, I didn?t get ripped off as bad as Lightning Hopkins, because I learned from them to say something and find out a little more. I don?t know it all, but I got some and I don?t want my daughter and your child or somebody else to get what I got. Because if they come to me, I?m just going to say no. You gotta pay your attorney or something else, just make sure you come out better than I did.

Music up

BUDDY GUY TEARS INTO ?BABY PLEASE DON?T LEAVE ME.?

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.? I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS.

**BG: The first time I met Jimi Hendrix, I was wild like I told you. I was playing in a place in New York City which they told me if you never play New York, you never make it so in 1967, they invited me after Muddy Waters had upset a Newport Jazz with Mojo Working and they started really playing the blues in that. So we went in there and then I got invited to play New York at this club called the Scene. And when I went in there, there was the Chamber Brothers, which was hot, I didn?t know who in the hell Jimi Hendrix was. So anyways, I was into one of these wild things and the place was packed and they was screaming and someone hollered, ?That?s Jimi. That?s Jimi.? And he was like crawling up on the floor with his wah wah pedal and his guitar with his big hat. And I thought, ?What the hell? Who is Jimi?? (laughs) And at the time, we met.

JIMI HENDRIX WAS ONE OF BUDDY GUY?S FANS, AND SO WERE A LOT OF THE YOUNGER ROCK MUSICIANS. WHEN MUDDY WATERS DIED, HE TOLD BUDDY TO KEEP THE BLUES ALIVE, AND BANDS LIKE THE ROLLING STONES HAVE HELPED.

**BG: just because you black, you don?t have advantage over another guy who has five fingers too, because that?s where the guitar is played with five fingers on each hand. And if you got it, you can play it if you want. If you put enough time in the guitar, you can play. So when I heard them playin? it, I said, ?Thank God?. Somebody done, you know, done come out, cos I was doing my time after a while, in Chess studio when the Rolling Stones came in and they lined them against the wall, I had never saw a white man with hair that long. And I?m saying? what the hell is this?? and I?m right in the middle of a session. And they stood there and watched me do this. And that?s the time they said they think Muddy Waters helped them bring their equipment up and (inaudible.) But no, man, when I heard it, I said, thank god, somebody tryin? to put this music where we didn?t put it because a lot of white people didn?t know who Muddy Waters was

Music: Crawlin? Kingsnake

?CRAWLIN? KINGSNAKE? PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY WITH B.B. KING AND ERIC CLAPTON ON GUITARS.

**BG: I?m not the type of guitarist that was so good that I could stand there like BB King and Eric Clapton and give it to you. Plus, I came up in a Baptist family, the old Baptist church usually have people, when they got to feelin? good, they just went on and you know, let you know it. Not only in the fingers and the voices, in their whole body. You know, I just can?t stand still. I get so happy with it. And that?s, I think that?s a part of what you see in me when I play. You know, I even walk off the stage and I started out, I saw Slim do that, but I go out now and I think people feel like they?re a part of my show if I go close to him. And sometimes I even take the microphone out and make up say something on the microphone just to let ?em know, that I want ?em to be a part of what I?m doing.

A BUDDY GUY PERFORMANCE IS VERY SPONTANEOUS. OFTEN HE STOPS AND STARTS DEPENDING ON HIS MOOD AND HOW HE?S READING THE CROWD.

**BG: ?Cos I even tell the band to just watch me because I don?t know. It always turn out right. I have to be myself. Actually I don?t like to rehearse which is a bad, that?s not good. But I just go ?cos I remember once I was doing the Royal Albert Hall with Eric and I went in to rehearse it and he said ?You go home, you don?t need to rehearse? because I don?t, you know, he can?t direct and lead that band into things like I can. And I don?t know where I get that from, man. I just go ahead and do it man. I make a lot of mistakes and I just go ahead and do it.

Music: I Can?t Be Satisfied

?I CAN?T BE SATISFIED? PERFORMED BY BUDDY GUY.

?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES? WAS PRODUCED BY JOYRIDE MEDIA, PAUL CHUFFO AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE THE PRODUCERS.

OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IS JOHN VERNILE.

ALL SONGS ON THIS PROGRAM CAN BE FOUND ON THE SILVERTONE/ LEGACY BOX SET ?BUDDY GUY: CAN?T QUIT THE BLUES.?

THE BUDDY GUY INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED FOR THE DOCUMENTARY ?BUDDY GUY: MY TIME AFTER AWHILE.?

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO JEFF JONES, ADAM BLOCK, JIM PARHAM, ERIC MOLK, TOM CORDING, STEVE BERKOWITZ, SHANNON MUELLER, JANIE HENDRIX, JOHN MCDERMOTT, BOB SMEATON, EDDIE KRAMER, ADAM PAYNE AND ANDY CAHN.

I?M ANTHONY DECURTIS, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.

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