In his 89-and-counting years on this earth, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy has seen some things. Maybe not actual vampires, like the ones his character encounters in Ryan Coogler’s Oscar front-runner “Sinners,” but certainly some almost-supernatural beings: We have to ask him, what was it like to play with Jimi Hendrix?
“Can I correct what you said?,” he asks politely. “He was playing with me!”
Guy bursts into good-natured laughter, but he’s actually not kidding. He is part of the foundation of American blues, old enough to have played with Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, B.B. King, Little Walter and other legends, but he was younger than them, and his aggressive and noisy yet blues-steeped style was a towering influence on the entire generation of blues-rockers that came out of the 1960s, from the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton on down.
Indeed, “Buddy did far more than just hold his own,” Clapton said in 2005 when he and King inducted Guy into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “There he was, standing alongside the masters of his craft, confidently pushing the blues into the 20 th century.” He recalled seeing Guy perform in London in 1966. “His style on every level was fantastic, doing all the things we would later associate with Jimi Hendrix: playing with his teeth and feet, and behind his head. But beyond all that, it was his actual playing that got through to me, delivering the blues with finesse and passion.”
And if there’s a single artist who has kept the traditions of the blues alive, it’s Buddy Guy (pictured above with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram in a still from “Sinners”). He still tours regularly, performs in his Chicago club, and his latest album, “Ain’t Done With the Blues,” could well be the ninth Grammy Award on his shelf. The Louisiana native has enough stories to fill a book — in fact, he already did, with his 2012 autobiography “When I Left Home” — so Variety kept it topline when catching up with him from his Chicago home last month. We’re proud to honor him as with the first-ever Living Legend / Iconic Collaboration in Film Award at our Hitmakers celebration on Saturday.
How are you?
Well, you know, at this age, I’m like an old car. Eventually the screws and bolts get to rattling around on you. (Laughter)
Since “Sinners” came out, are you seeing more people at your shows?
I’m having more young people at shows, and kids coming up to me since the film. I’ve been going to the same grocery store for years, and this young woman ran up to me about two months ago and said, “Are you the man I saw in that movie?” I said, “I guess so!” and she started laughing. She said, “My grandmama used to talk about you, but I didn’t know anything about you,” because if you don’t have satellite now, you don’t get to hear no more blues on your radio.
How did they approach you to be in the film?
The director [Ryan Coogler] came to the club. He’s a young man, but he told his dad about the film and his dad said, “Go get Buddy!” I didn’t go into it and say, “Why’d y’all pick me?,” because my thing is, whatever I can do to help the blues, I will. I promised Muddy, B.B. and them, and we all spoke about this day — that whoever lived longest, please try to keep the blues alive. Even at my age, when they ask me to do something, I say, “If I can still walk, I’ll be there.”
Didn’t the shoot go on for 12 hours or something like that? Wasn’t it exhausting?
To be honest, I was born on a farm in Louisiana — my parents were sharecroppers. I started picking cotton at six years old, and you went to work when day broke and you come to bed when the sun goes down. [For the film], they woke me up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and at 8 o’clock that night, we were still there. I said, “Hell, I didn’t work this hard on the farm!” (Laughter) But it was fine, I don’t mind working hard.
Did you work with Miles Caton at all on his singing or his guitar playing?
No, no, no, I don’t fool with nobody because I don’t consider myself a good singer. I’m just a copycat, man. I came up listening to Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy [Williamson], and all those people, so I don’t even consider myself even in that company.
Your playing is deep in the blues tradition, but it’s very innovative and noisier than the people who influenced you.
I was just trying to learn lessons from the greats. When I first went to England, Eric Clapton wasn’t famous, Jeff Beck wasn’t famous. And those guys came to me and said, “What you got in that amp?” I said, “What do you mean? I ain’t do nothing to do but turn it on and off.”
What can you tell me about the times that Hendrix played with you?
[At first], I ain’t know who he was, man. After I played 1967 Newport Jazz Festival, I got invited to play in New York, and I’m on the stage putting on this show, trying to play with my teeth and throwing the guitar. Somebody put a spotlight on me, and I missed the guitar coming down after I threw it. When it hit the floor, I said, “Oh, my God,” so I just jumped down on it and everyone thought I did it on purpose.
I heard somebody with real taste was sitting in front — Jimi Hendrix. I said, who? They [introduced] us and he said, “I canceled a gig to come watch you play, could I steal some licks from you?” That’s when we got to know each other, and we finally got to jam — I can’t [remember] when, but it was in New York.
Do you think that “Sinners” has done a lot for the blues?
I see that there’s some young people coming up to me now, “I saw you in the movie,” and before the movie I didn’t get that. I think it might help, and hopefully it will help open people’s eyes about the blues. The blues is the history. Back then, there wasn’t no such a’ thing as hip-hop, rock, or nothing else. The blues was playing for a drink, and if you played good enough, you got you a good-looking woman and a hangover the next day. (Laughter)
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