” Where’s your wine …? I told ya I’m going to give you a glass of wine so you can tell me if I play bad …”

Those were the words that greeted me as I entered a room to meet a living legend.

Seated, sporting a black and white shirt, khaki pants and a white hat – the man, the carrier of the Blues’ legacy, appeared every inch a man on vacation. A tourist relaxing following a day of sight – seeing …

Buddy Guy is very much like a tourist. A traveller through time. A Blues traveller.

“I remember when Ali (Cassius Clay) came on the scene.” Says Buddy about twenty minutes before ‘showtime’.” Man … I did not like that man! He was arrogant and I was not raised that way. When I was a kid I was out pickin’ cotton with my family. I was raised with respect. If I spoke to anyone like Ali spoke to everyone – I would have got my ass whooped …! Now, all these years later – I respect that man because he did everything he told people he would do. He put his money where his mouth was. I don’t agree with everything he did or said but man he was the heavyweight champion of the world and he beat some great men doing it!”

Buddy Guy, in his chosen profession, did not have to ‘beat anyone up’ to arrive on top of the heap as a Blues’ guitarist. It was not easy however. Guy, along with contemporaries such as Junior Wells, had to fight greedy record executives and racism. This ‘extra baggage’ was attached to the all ready weighted  ‘backpack’ of trying to get work as a musician. Tough times indeed.

“I had a love / hate relationship with Junior.” Says Guy. “I remember one night we were out having some fun and Junior gets arrested for disturbing the peace. I go to get him after seeing the judge. The guard tells me he wants forty dollars to release him. I say I’m not paying – I’ll get it from Junior who is sleeping like a baby in the cell. So the guard opens the door and says go get it! I say no man, you gonna lock me in there too! After a while, I convince the guard to go in with me and we wake up Junior. I say to him, man gimme forty dollars to get your ass out of here. ‘I only got five’ he says. So, to make a story short, I turned that man upside down until I found thirty dollars. The guard accepted that and off we went. I miss Junior dearly. I loved that man.”

Buddy Guy also recounts the greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf at Chess Studios. Guy was a kid and found himself playing in the studio with these legends.

“We start playing and every time I or someone else messed up, they would stop the recording and say ‘whose fault is that’? It’s Buddy ‘Mother*ckin’ Guy’s fault – they would say. Then I realized that back then, everyone called everyone, ‘Motherf*ckin’ Guy. My last name was Guy so I was thinkin’ they was always talking about me when they were not!”

Buddy Guy along with B.B. King, are the last surviving members of the ‘Old Blues’ Guys’. Fitting because Guy credits King with changing the atmosphere of music.

“Everyone else was playing either slide or straight out plucking the guitar.” Explains Buddy. “B.B. was the first to bend those strings. He was the father of distorting the sound which is the sound of modern day Blues and Rock n Roll. The world of music owes gratitude to B.B.”

It’s not everyday a history lesson is given by one of the writers. It’s not everyday that writer is sitting next to you.