"You often hear about how thankful Buddy Guy is to Stevie Ray Vaughan for introducing a whole new generation of listeners to the blues masters, and I'm a perfect example. I got turned on to Buddy by the intense connection I had with Stevie. He was talking about Buddy Guy, playing Buddy Guy songs, playing Buddy's licks, and that sent me deeper and deeper back in time. I would listen to Buddy and then I could understand what Stevie was doing, and then I could understand what Buddy was doing, then finally what you do becomes more you. That's what the blues is like: you have to unfold it.
"I immersed myself in his music. I think I was aware, being 13 in 1990, that there had been a good 60 years of blues before me that I could consume. So I got right into Buddy Guy. I think the first record was Damn Right, I Got the Blues, because I worked backwards, but the record that killed me was Stone Crazy, the one he made for Alligator Records in 1981. It's an unbelievable document of how fiery this guy is. It's recorded live in the studio and it's got that real late seventies, funky, groovy, pimped out thing. And his singing! Everyone talks about him as a guitar player, but he's such a great singer."If you follow Clapton or Hendrix back, you get to Buddy Guy. He really invented this abandon on the guitar that Hendrix saw and adapted. He came up playing on those Chess Records dates, where the two-and-a-half-minute blues song was the norm. He broke out of that and made the lead electric guitar more than a slight interlude in the song. Buddy paved the way for Hendrix to play these nine-minute solos.
"He invited me to come to Chicago, have dinner and play at his club – so I did just that, and we hit it off. I was 26 and he was in his 60s, so it's not a traditional sort of relationship, but Buddy and I found a quick connection. Any time he's in town and wants to play, I'll be there.I learn from him all the time and I've never taken it for granted. Every time I'm on stage with him I travel back in my mind to the 16-year-old kid who wrote a letter saying, 'Can I please be on your guest list some night, because I'm too young to get into a bar but I really need to hear you play?' I did that! So the wow factor never leaves."
Key recording: I Left My Blues in San Francisco (MCA, 1967)
