All language subtitles for BUDDY GUY - The Blues Chase The Blues Away - Documentary [2021]

♪♪

-[ Birds chirping ]

[ Blues guitar plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

-The first music
that touched my heart

came from the birds.

♪♪

They caught my ear
while I was in the field

and had me wondering about all
the creatures made by God.

♪♪

Some crawled and some hissed

and some poisoned you
with their bite.

Others flew and sang.

♪♪

When they sang, the world was
filled with beautiful sounds.

I'd close my eyes so that
everything disappeared...

[ Birds chirping ]

but the sound
of a beautiful bird.

♪♪

♪ I've been mighty lucky

♪ I've traveled everywhere

♪ Made a ton of money

♪ Spent it like I don't care

♪ A few good years

♪ Is all I need right now

♪♪

♪ Please, please, Lord

♪ Send a few good years

♪ On down

[ Birds chirping ]

The second music
that touched my heart

came from John Lee Hooker.

From then on, the blues
turned my life upside down,

from the plantation to the
concrete jungle of Chicago,

had me going places
and doing things that,

when I look back, seems crazy.

The blues turned me wild.

♪♪

But, first, I want to go back
where I started at.

The story begins
in Lettsworth, Louisiana,

where I was born 84 years ago.

♪♪

Growing up in Louisiana
was very hard.

At that time, I didn't know
it was as hard as it was.

My parents was sharecroppers.

We didn't have any machinery.

All we had was horses, mules,
chickens, and pigs.

I mean, you couldn't see
a future there.

Soon as you got big enough
to chop wood or pick cotton,

you started right there
and you pick it by the pound.

Can you imagine
how much you have to pick

before it weigh enough
for you to get paid?

I would be praying for rain,

that it could get
a little heavier

with the water on the cotton.

We had a wooden house,

with wooden windows
and wooden doors.

We had to walk to school
for miles.

We had to walk all the way
from back way over there

and go all the way
up to those two...

-You walked all the way
to Keller's Lane

to go to school?
- Past Keller's Lane.

- [Bleep]
- That's where...

Most of the white kids
in Louisiana had school buses.

They used to pass us
on the gravel road

and the dust looked like
a snowstorm.

When we'd see the bus coming,
we used to run

and try to get as further away
from the dust that we can.

♪♪

I didn't know, at the time,
but when I got

my little flour sack
and went out in the field...

♪♪

...I was doing something
my people had been doing

ever since
that Atlantic crossing,

sent out on slave ships
from Africa to America.

♪♪

Maybe that's where
the blues began.

♪♪

Funny thing about the blues...

You play 'em
because you got 'em.

But when you play 'em,

you lose 'em.

If you hear 'em,

if you let the music get
into your soul,

you won't lose 'em.

♪♪

The blues chase the blues away.

♪♪

Finally, we got electricity

and we picked enough cotton
to get a phonograph.

My first record was
"Boogie Chillen"

by the great John Lee Hooker.

-♪ Boogie chillen

-I would hear
that "Boogie Chillen"

on John Lee Hooker and I said,
"Man, whatever that is,"

I said, "One day, I sure wish
I could learn that."

♪♪

The only time I would see
a guitar, it was Christmas.

My dad and them
would go get Coot.

His name was Henry Smith,

but that's a short name,
like they give me the "Buddy."

♪♪

He would come in and play
the Lonnie Johnson.

My dad would be moaning

and they would be drinking
a gallon of wine

and this case of beer.

♪♪

-♪ Tomorrow night

-The rest of the kids
didn't pay it no mind,

but something about it made me
let them other kids go play

and I said,
"I got to watch this."

And they all would go
to sleep, half drunk,

and then, the rest of the kids

would be out there,
playing with the toys,

and I'd go get his guitar
and sit there

and just try to figure out
what I had saw him do.

And that was my first chance
to get my hands on a guitar.

And my dad,
he gave that same guy,

which you call Coot,
Henry Smith,

a couple of bucks for a guitar
with two strings on it.

♪♪

-♪ Your lips

♪ Are so tender

-And I would go to sleep
with that guitar in my hand.

-♪ Your heart
is beating fast ♪

-And I found myself
waking up one day,

sounding like
the "Boogie Chillen"

and I had my fingers clamped
in that position.

And I said, "If I move it,
I never would find that again,"

so I just went walking.

'Cause if you go
out of Lettsworth,

you got to walk two
or three miles

to get to the next neighbor.

So, I walked because I wanted
someone to hear I had found it.

And I played until my finger
was almost bleeding

because I was afraid to stop.

I figured, if I stopped,

I would never find
that note again.

But I never did forget it.

♪♪

It just stuck to me there.

♪ Well, my mama don't like me

♪♪

♪ To stay out all night long

♪♪

♪ Yeah, my mama didn't like me

♪ To stay out all night long

♪♪

♪ I didn't care
what she didn't like ♪

♪ I wanted to boogie woogie,
anyhow ♪

♪♪

♪ One night, I was layin' down

♪ I heard Mama and Papa
talkin' ♪

♪ Heard Papa tell my Mama

♪ Let that boy boogie woogie

♪ 'Cause it's in him

♪ And it's got to come out

♪♪

♪ Well, I felt so good

♪♪

♪ I went on and boogie woogied
just the same ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

"Boogie Chillen."

There wasn't a high school
out there where I was born.

To go to high school,
you had to go to Baton Rouge,

which was about 70 miles away.

I got a job there, pumping gas
at a service station.

My boss said,
"Hook up that guitar.

Maybe we'll get some customers."

A guy came by,
by the name of Big Poppa.

You know, his name was really,
he told me... [ Laughs ]

And I started playing
"Boogie Chillen,"

which I had just learned.

He asked me how much
I was making,

which was much nothing,
and he said,

"I'll pay you that
if you come play guitar

with me in my band."

And I would sing for two people
or three people.

I wasn't shy of that, but if you
brought four, I was shy.

[ Laughs ]
I didn't want...

I didn't think I was good enough

to make more
than four people say,

"That sound pretty good,"
so I kept the rest to myself.

And when he took me
to the club that night,

he told me to sing that song.

There was 15 or 20 people.

I didn't know he was going
to want me to do that.

I thought he just wanted me
to play the guitar.

I said, "I'll sing it, if you
let me turn the microphone

between me
and the wall behind me,"

and he said,
"You got to turn around,"

I said, "Not tonight."

♪♪

And I got fired.

The only time I ever been
fired in my life!

And I went back to pumping gas
'cause I was too shy to sing.

♪♪

I was in Baton Rouge
for about five months.

♪♪

Then my mother
had taken a stroke.

♪♪

And I had to go back out there
to help the family

'cause I am the oldest boy.

♪♪

I had to go back out there
on the farm

and help them farm
to get a meal for the next day.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

♪♪

[ Film reel rattling ]

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

-You know, the blues
is something that

is hard to get acquainted with,
just like death.

♪♪

Now, I'll tell you
about the blues, now.

The blues dwell with you
every day and every way.

See, you can have the blues
about that you're broke.

You can have the blues
about your girl is gone.

The blues comes so many
different ways,

until it's kind of
hard to explain.

♪♪

The blues is something
that people can't get rid of.

Yeah, and if you ever
have the blues,

remember what I tell you.

You'll always hear this
in your heart.

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

-And, at that point in time,

I heard BB King,
Lightnin' Hopkins, and T-Bone.

And then, this thing come out
by Guitar Slim.

♪♪

-♪ The things
that I used to do ♪

-They brought him to Baton Rouge
and I went up there.

When they introduced
Guitar Slim,

I didn't see anybody,
but I heard this guitar

and I said, "Wait a minute,
you know, am I being fooled?

Who playing it?"
And, finally,

a guy brought him in
like you do your little baby,

across his shoulder,
and he was playing

as this big, heavyset guy
brought him in.

He dropped him
right on the stage.

And I said, "I want to sound
like BB King,

but I want to act
like Guitar Slim."

♪ The things that I used to

♪ Lord, I won't do

♪ No more

You could find Big Joe Turner

coming to Baton Rouge.

You could find Guitar Slim.

But Chess Records
had exploded in Chicago.

Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters,
they didn't come to Baton Rouge.

-♪ When I'm doin' right

-♪ When I hear your voice

-I was so in love
with Muddy Waters,

I just wanted to see him.

And then, a friend of mine came
to Baton Rouge and said,

"Man, you can go to Chicago
and listen to these guys free."

But I didn't know anything
about Chicago.

And I started thinking, I said,
"Well, you know,

I ain't gonna ever be
good enough

to be a professional musician,

but I would love
to watch them guys."

Because, at that point
in time, in 1957,

we still was riding
in the back of the bus.

You know how it was
in the South.

And I just said, "I just want
to go see something.

'Cause I didn't make it
to the Army.

I want to see something
other than Louisiana."

♪♪

I went to sleep that night
and fell into crazy dreams.

♪♪

Oh, I was picking cotton
in the dream...

♪♪

...when, all of a sudden,
I saw Lightnin' Slim.

♪♪

Right then and there,
the sky broke open

and a bolt of lightning
struck his guitar,

the forest caught on fire...

- [ Barking ]
- my dog started to bark,

and we had to run out of there.

When I got back to the shack
where I'd been raised,

the shack was burning, too.

I was scared Mama and Daddy
and my sisters and brothers

was inside, getting burned up.

But when I turned around,
they were clapping for me.

[ Whistling ]

The fire had gone out.

♪♪

The storm had passed.

♪♪

"Keep playing, Buddy,"
my Mama told me in that dream.

♪♪

"Keep on playing."

♪♪

I was going to Chicago.

♪♪

I came to Chicago...

♪♪

-You know, a lot of these cats
migrated from the South

and it was kind of
a more acoustic sound

and they got to the city

and needed to be heard.

People started
becoming electrified.

That, right there,

changed the course
of music to this day.

-I arrived there
about 11:26 that night.

For some reason,
I can't never forget that.

You could walk a block
and you would pass like

five blues clubs
with five bands in it.

And they were sounding so good.

♪♪

There wasn't no cover charge

at no blues club
when I came here.

♪♪

But you must buy a drink
when you went in there

and I didn't even drink,
[ Laughing ] at the time.

So, I had to go in
and buy a bottle of beer

and set it on the bar
just to hear them play,

and I did that 'til I got broke.

♪♪

Chicago had Chess Records...

Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters,
and Howlin' Wolf.

I guess the Chess Brothers
just had that thing.

They had all they needed.

They just figured,
"I don't need nothing else, now.

I got the top four
blues guys in Chicago,

so don't bring me nothing else."

So, our chances of getting
in there were slim to none.

♪♪

There was a disc jockey
in Baton Rouge

by the name of Diggy Doo

and he was telling me I was
good enough to make a record.

And he made a demo
and wrote a note.

He said, "Go to Chess
and tell them
I
sent you."

And I did.

When I walked into Chess,

they saw my guitar,
which was a Les Paul,

and they had a session
with the late Wayne Bennett.

They just took my guitar
and put it right in the session.

♪ Louisiana to

I took the demo to Leonard...

♪♪

...but he never did
listen to it.

So, I left, bummed around,
and got broke.

And, at that point, I wasn't
looking to become a musician.

I wanted to go to work
during the day

and go out at night
and listen to the greats.

♪♪

I was hoping to send money
back down to Louisiana.

I really looked and looked
and looked,

but I never found a day job
and I got stranded.

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

-The type of blues that I sing,

you
must
pay the cost out there.

♪♪

You just don't get up
and just walk the streets

and get whatever you want,
whenever you get ready,

and can sing the blues
like myself

or Lightnin' Hopkins,
John Lee Hooker.

♪♪

Plus, you got to go to church

to get this particular thing
in your soul, you know.

[ Projector clacks ]

♪♪

-I've always been proud...

♪♪

...even as a young man.

♪♪

Five or six months
after I arrived,

pride had me
straight up starving.

♪♪

I was flat broke,

walking the streets of the
South Side with my guitar,

thinking of borrowing a dime

to call my dad
for a ticket home.

♪♪

I was ready to swallow my pride.

I got stranded for three days
with no food.

Finally, a stranger met me
on the street

after I played a Jimmy Reed song

and took me
to this famous blues club,

708 Club on 47th Street.

Otis Rush was playing.

And this guy knew I could play
the little "Boogie Chillen,"

a few licks by BB King,
and he said,

"Hey, I got a young MF here

can play
BB King and Muddy Waters."

Otis Rush said, "Bring him up."

So, when I went up,
I hadn't ate,

this was my third day
without food, man,

'cause I was busted.

And I played Guitar Slim,
"Things I Used to Do,"

and I think it was
"Sweet Little Angel" by BB King.

And I was telling people I was
hungry and people would say,

"Oh, man, you not hungry,
not the way you can play."

And somebody called
Muddy Waters.

He was living on Lake Park,

which was
about eight blocks away.

So, I picked up my guitar,
walked outside the club,

and there was
this red station wagon

and out steps Muddy.

And he said, "You got to play.

They done got me out of my bed
to come hear you play

and I heard you were hungry."

And I said,
"If you Muddy Waters,

I'm not hungry."

And he started laughing
and made me a salami sandwich.

And he laughed and made me
this great salami sandwich

and made me eat it and told me,

"Don't ever think about going
back to Louisiana."

♪♪

Well, something like that,

there's no way
I could forget that.

The way I met Muddy,
the sandwich is fine,

but, I really was full
after I found out who he was

because I'm like saying,

"I done made this trip,
not knowing anybody,

to see you play
and, here, you're feeding me,"

you know, and that made
my whole trip to Chicago

worthwhile,
from that day to this one.

♪♪

In the early days, I was
a lost ball in high weeds.

After that night at the 708,
I started to find myself.

♪♪

It was so busy in the clubs
in those days,

I lost track of the weekend.

Because Chicago was like
seven days a week,

all the stockyards,
the steel mills was going,

everything was like
around the clock.

And I walked up
to a stranger one day,

I said,
"I'd like to go to church."

He said, "Son,
[ Laughs ] this is Wednesday."

I said, "Oh, my God.
I got to go back

and figure out when it's
Saturday and Sunday."

I didn't think
I was good enough.

Still don't
think I'm good enough

to be a professional musician,

but I saw some of the great
guitar players

who I was learning and what
we call stealing licks from.

I couldn't go there and vibrate
that hand like BB King.

I said, "Man, I got to put
something else with that."

I said, "I got to get
some attention.

So, I got to jump up
and do something stupid."

♪♪

They always used to sit
in chairs...

Muddy, Walter...

They didn't know
what standing up was.

And I came in standing up,
saying,

"I got this from Guitar Slim,"

and they said,
"Man, he is wild!"

Because when I get happy,
I'm going to shout.

I was brought up
in the Baptist Church.

Aaah!

My grandmother and grandfather

and them used to say
I had that spirit, man,

I had to let it out.

You know, I just come out
and did some shouting.

And that's what I was doing
with my guitar.

♪♪

♪ Whoa!

♪ Ohhh!

I can't just stand still.

I got to kick a leg out
or do something.

♪♪

And I guess let the people know

I felt good myself,
with that note I hit.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-And Buddy plays with his teeth

and plays behind his back

and goes out in the audience.

-You know, he could be

whipping the guitar
with the guitar cable

or hitting it with the drumstick

or going out in the crowd.

-He took his wires
and he went out,

all backstage in the crowd.

-He had this big, long cord
and he was playing outside

you know,
on the sidewalk or whatever.

And seeing Buddy Guy standing
outside of a club

while the band's inside,
kicking, everybody's in time,

like that does something
to some people.

It changes people's lives
and it continues to.

-And I've been backstage
and, more than once, man,

out of any other guitar player
I've ever heard,

you will stop talking to the
person in the dressing room

because something is happening
20 yards away, through 8 walls,

that will make you stop talking.

You just hear this sonic tsunami

come through the halls
into the room

and you go, "What is that?!"

I mean, it was giant.

It demands that people go,
"Oh, I got to go see this."

-Like a tornado and a hurricane.

I learned so much
from the way he...

just the way he stands.

He stands like he's got
a flamethrower, like, "Whish!"

You know, he's going
to torch the town, you know.

The first time I saw him,
I mean, see, this is the thing.

When you see it,
when you see Buddy Guy

and you hear him,
straight from God.

From God to Buddy Guy to me,
or the listener.

-He's like a gunslinger,
you know.

He really is a gunslinger.

He's just kinda really
softspoken and he's just chill,

"Oh, yeah, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I'm just going to..."

I go, "How you feel
tonight, Buddy?"

"Oh, I'm okay.
I'm alright."

"You getting ready to play?"

"Oh, I'm going to try.

I don't know if it's going
to work, but I, you know."

And then he gets out there

and bang bang bang bang
bang bang!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Was there a lot of competition
amongst players

- [ Laughs ]
- in the '50s and '60s

and could you comment on that
and describe...

-We had battles of guitars

and they'd say,
"A battle of guitars.

The winner will get
a bottle of whiskey,"

and I didn't even drink,
at the time,

and I won that whiskey,
just by... not outplaying 'em,

by running' up and down the bar.

There'd be snow
on the ground sometime

and I'd come in
with that long cable

and I'd run out the door

and somebody would say,
"He won it."

I don't think I won it
by playing.

I won it by just acting a nut.

And Magic Sam came and got me
and took me to Cobra Records.

And I went in and he said,
"Sing,"

and then he came out
with a contract.

That's when I got a chance
to cut my first 45,

"I Sit and Cry
and Sing the Blues."

♪ I sit and cry

♪ And sing the blues

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

♪♪

-Marker.
[ Clack ]

-The thing about being
a guitar player,

like a blues guitar player,
is the variables are like

who you are
and what the moment is.

So, you're hearing
these people play

in moments
that have come and gone.

♪♪

Because the actual song form
is so well-established,

you now have
a point of reference

to hear how
different people play.

We just get to hear each
different musician's expression

on top of that.

It's very much dependent
on who the messenger is.

It's not the message,
it's the messenger, you know.

But if you detach the form
of the song from the idiom,

well, then, maybe blues
could be anything.

♪♪

If the blues is expressing
how you feel

in a vocal, passionate way,

in a way that you love and that
communicates to other people

the feeling that you have
in your chest,

then by that estimation,

the blues is very much
alive and well.

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

-I got a call one day
and said, "Do you want a job?

This is the Howlin' Wolf."

And I'm like looking
at the phone, saying,

"Yeah, okay, crank."

And I heard this growling
voice over the phone.

I said, "This is
the Howlin' Wolf.

If it's not,

it's somebody can imitate him
as good as he can."

But there's very few people
could sound

like the Howlin' Wolf,
so I said,

"This got to be the Wolf,"
and he was offering me

a gig to come play with him.

-♪ You bear it
in mind ♪

♪ You bear it in mind,
there's time for everything ♪

-Before I met him,
I heard that he would

beat the hell
out of his side men

if you didn't walk a chalk line.

[ Laughs ]

And that's why I was afraid
of him all the time,

but we wound up
being good friends.

He never did treat me like that.

He'd always call me if he wanted
me to do a session with him.

He would call me
his personal self and say,

"I want you to play
on a record with me."

♪♪

I remember my session
with the Howlin' Wolf.

They had been there all night,
but I'm at home, asleep.

And they done been there

'til about 10:00,
11:00 the next day.

And Leonard Chess said,
"Go call and wake Buddy Guy up."

I think it was two takes
and he said, "See, MF?

You know, that's...

We've been here all night,
trying to get that

and you call the man
and wake him up out the bed

and he'll do it in two minutes."

The Chess brothers used
to call you "MF,"

if you know
what I'm talking about.

And then sometime,
they would say, "Cut! Cut! Cut!

Hold it! Hold it!

Hey, MF, turn your guitar off,"

and I would never look up.

And, finally, they would come
out the engineer room

and punch me on the shoulder,
"I'm talking to you, MF."

I'd say, "I thought my name
was Buddy."

And they would make a joke
out of it

'cause everybody,
including Leonard Chess,

Muddy Waters,
everybody was "that MF."

And, you know,
after three to five months,

when they'd say "MF,"
I answered.

♪♪

My education
with the songwriting

came from sitting back

and not saying nothing
and watching Wolf,

Muddy, Walter, Sonny Boy,
and all these guys

and come to find out...

I'm getting a little
inside information...

if you write a song,
you get a check,

and they wasn't
getting anything.

One time, Leonard Chess wanted
to record Lightnin' Hopkins.

Leonard Chess told him,
"I'm going to give you

a contract to sign up
with the Chess Records."

He said, "No, you going
to give me $1,000.

I'm going to give you an album,

'cause I know I ain't
gonna get nothing else

with that contract."

And I'm sitting there.

I think I was about 22 then.

I'm listening at that.

I'm like saying, "Uh-huh.

Okay, I got that."

-♪ You know it's a sin
to be rich ♪

♪♪

♪ But it's a low-down shame
to be poor ♪

-So, I'm like
right in the middle,

trying to get an education
about playing music,

listening to music,
writing music.

♪♪

In the earlier days,
nobody knew what was going on

if you write a song.

There are royalties and things
that come from writing a song

and the average guy,

they didn't know nothing
about that.

They was getting ripped off.

-♪ You know a rich man
ain't got a chance ♪

-When I called myself
writing a few songs,

Leonard Chess would say,
"Let Willie Dixon hear it,"

and he would change one word
or two words

and the song would come out,
look at the album,

or the 78 or the 45,
it'd say "Willie Dixon."

I know a lot of songs
was taken from people

that didn't know
what was going on with that.

-I got ripped off.

I feel happy about it

because the man ripped me off.

He started struggling.
I was struggling,

He made me a name and I
made him a millionaire, so.

[ Laughs ]

-You're happy about that?

I'm astonished.
I'd be very angry.

-Well, being mad don't
help you none, you know,

so you just want to smile,
you know.

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

♪♪

-The blues, you know,

is a story, a story of life.

It all depends
on the life you live.

And, down South,

most of 'em made up their songs
as they went along.

If he was catching a mule
to work with or something

and the mule that he had
and been working with, he...

maybe his shoulder was sore
from pulling the plow

or pulling a heavy load
or something like this.

This is how these type
of songs was made.

And he would get to thinking
about his mule,

that shoulder's sore,
and all like this,

and he'd just make a song.

Maybe the song would go
something like this, see?

He would just walk out there
and say...

♪ Woh

♪ Oh oh oh oh

♪ I done plowed old Susie

♪ I done plowed
old Belle ♪

♪ You know, I can't
find a mule ♪

♪ With a shoulder well

[ Projector clacks ]

-♪ The first time
I met the blues ♪

♪♪

♪ You know I was walking
down through the woods ♪

-Things was changing.

Still, my career
was going nowhere, fast.

-♪ I met the blues, baby, yeah

-I'm going to relay to you
what I learned

from Muddy Waters
or someone who...

Or Willie Dixon,
who came up with Chess.

I did not. When I got there,
Chess was Chess.

I learned from the letter
that they wrote

and left on the table,
should I say.

My experience with Chess was,
"Sign up with me

and I'll get you
a record out there,"

[ Laughs ]
and that didn't happen, so.

♪♪

♪ You should've heard me
beggin' ♪

They had released one 45,
"First Time I Met the Blues,"

written by
Little Brother Montgomery.

♪ Don't murder me

No one loved the older cats
more than I did.

♪♪

They were my heroes.

♪ You should've heard me
that morning ♪

Muddy, BB, and Lightnin'
hung the Moon.

♪ Don't murder me

♪♪

I could play in their style.

♪♪

I could play on the Moon.

♪ You know you're with me
every morning, blues ♪

But I could also go to Mars.

♪♪

But Chess kept telling me,
"Keep your style under control."

That meant,
"Don't do your wild thing."

♪♪

My wild thing was
when I let the guitar rip,

when I didn't care whether
it was a little out of tune,

did not care if the feedback
messed up the sound.

The fact is I loved
that messed-up sound.

♪♪

Leonard Chess
didn't want me up on Mars.

Chess kept telling me,
"Keep your style under control."

♪♪

I was begging Leonard Chess
and the people, I said,

"Man, just please
put a record out on me."

So, I rehearsed
with Willie Dixon,

for six months or better,

on a record called
"That Same Thing"

and he set me up
to do the session.

I walked in the studio
at 9:00 in the morning.

Leonard Chess walks
through there and said,

"That [bleep] record
is not for you.

That's for Muddy Waters.

That don't fit him.
Call Muddy."

And they called Muddy
right there,

in the middle of my session
and I had to play the guitar.

I just said,
"Okay, I'll play it."

♪♪

♪ Must be the same ol' thing

♪ That made a preacher lay, uh

♪ His Bible down

♪♪

♪♪

It's about time you met one
of the craziest characters

to come running through my life,

someone I met back
at the 708 Club...

my good friend Junior Wells.

-Little Junior Wells,
where you at?

[ Cheering and applause ]
Little Junior Wells!

♪♪

-I'm grateful to God
that we hooked up like we did.

Not that it was
all smooth sailing.

Junior came with a boatload
of baggage.

♪♪

Junior was kinda mean
to the side men

and he never could keep
a good band.

-♪ Lord, I wonder
what's has got the matter ♪

♪ Time, you know, with time

-Well, the first time
I met Junior,

he asked me did I want to play
in his band and I said,

"No, I think I better
just leave this alone."

We became friends.

We would jam together

in a little place called
Theresa's Lounge.

I would go in and jam
behind Junior and they said,

"We need to bring him in here

'cause he can kinda
calm Junior down.

-♪ Somebody done hoodooed
the hoodoo man ♪

-'Cause I wouldn't let him
tell me what to do

like he would do
the rest of the band.

Do you know,
when I was 14 years old,

they would bring
a wild pony to me, man?

I could get on that pony
and he would buck for 45 minutes

and he couldn't get me
off his back.

Do you know you can go get
a wild horse

or a bull right now,
some of 'em will buck

'cause they think you're
harming them.

When they find out
you not harming them,

he's your best friend, as a dog.

♪♪

He came to me one day, said,

"I want you to play on this
'Hoodoo Man' album with me."

No rehearsal, nothing,
I just got up early that morning

and we went in
and made the record.

-♪ Somebody done hoodooed

♪ The hoodoo man

-With Junior by my side,

we made music that I could
never have made alone.

He inspired me.

Me and him was ham and eggs.

But it didn't take too much
for his eggs to get scrambled...

♪♪

...burning up my ham
and scorching the frying pan.

♪♪

But we getting ahead
of ourselves.

I want to go back
to "The Same Thing."

Leonard said, "Now,
we'll go get you a song

[ Laughs ]
for you to make your record."

They went and found
"My Time After a While,"

and, while recording
"My Time After a While,"

the Rolling Stones was standing
against the wall in a line,

trying to get signed up
with the Chess Records

and that's the first time
I met them.

♪♪

♪ It's your time
right now, woman ♪

♪♪

♪ But, oh, I got a feeling

♪ It's gonna be my time
after a while ♪

♪♪

♪ It's your time
right now, woman ♪

♪♪

♪ But, oh, I got a feeling

♪ It's gonna be my time
after a while ♪

I had never seen a white man
with hair that long

and I'm asking,
"What the hell is this?"

And they stood there
and watched me

while I was right
in the middle of my session.

♪♪

♪♪

♪ She stayed out last night
I wasn't thinking about tone

or whatever these people
had figured that I had.

♪ And do you know
she just walked in ♪

I just played.

♪ That bold girl is gettin'
ready, Lord have mercy ♪

♪ And she's going back out

♪ Again

The sound those guys
was getting from me

was a regular Stratocaster

with a Fender
basement amplifier.

-And so it's
a Fender Stratocaster

turned up real loud

and kind of pushing the strings
beyond the normal tolerance.

So, a guitar string...

if you go back to T-Bone Walker,

he's bending it a
little
bit.

T-Bone Walker bends it
a little bit, but he couldn't,

because the strings
were so thick.

Well, once they made
thinner strings,

well, people would normally
bend about a tone.

[ Scatting ]

And then BB kinda went...

[ Scatting ] You know?

And then Buddy was like,
"How much more can I push it?"

And that's where Buddy goes...

[ Scatting ]

That's all one string
he's holding down.

♪♪

-His influence is so vast that
people don't even realize it.

And anything...

♪♪

-Whenever someone picks up
a Stratocaster

and turns it up
as loud as they can

and closes their eyes and winces
and bends the string up

to the point where
it might break,

that's Buddy Guy.

There's a lot of other names,
but it begins with Buddy Guy.

-You got to be a badass
to come up with something

that people
are still trying to copy,

you know, decades later.

-♪ You know, you know

-But his guitar playing
was very much

like his singing was, which was
...

♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ah

-♪ Lord

♪ I'm gonna have to move
on down the line ♪

-And he would do it
on the guitar, too.

-Some of the licks
that he's always did

kinda came off
as like lightning strike.

♪♪

-Where it just kinda pierces you
at times, you know, like,

"Oh, Jesus, like I can't..."

But the energy in it,
it's like you feel that.

You know what I mean?

♪♪

-Just the fieriest guitar
player around, for decades.

♪♪

- Yeah.
- Alright.

♪♪

-Willie Dixon was telling me
I didn't have it, you know.

Chess was saying
that I didn't have it.

"You sound too much like Tom,
Dick, and Harry, and whoever."

But, you know, all of my life,
I just never give up.

♪♪

You was just playing
for the love of music

because I had to go
to work in the daytime.

I was driving a tow truck...

♪♪

...and playing the music
at night.

♪♪

I kept my guitar
in the tow truck, so,

whenever the opportunity came,
I said I had my guitar,

in case somebody
wanted me to play.

♪♪

-His road was just so filled
with lefts and rights

and backups and breakdowns
and, finally get there,

it takes a lot of endurance.

It takes a lot of hard knocks
to create this thing.

♪♪

Somehow, that sound,

it creeped over
across the ocean.

Those guys in England,

they were listening
to the guitar work

he was doing behind people.

Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton,
and Jeff Beck,

those guys were listening.

♪♪

And, when he came over on some
small tour, they all showed up.

"That's the guy.
That's the sound."

-At that time, I'd just taken

a vacation from my day job
and went over there,

just to make sure
I'd go to England

and some places like that
in my lifetime.

I never dreamed I would be

traveling the world over
with my music.

But I went to England
in 1965, February 1965,

and I played with a group
called The Yardbirds.

Which, Eric Clapton told me,

that's the first time
he saw
me
play a Strat.

And, when I met Eric Clapton,
he said he slept in a van...

him and Beck and Jimmy Page...
To see me play.

And I think I threw the guitar
up in London and caught it

and they told me
I caught it in the same key

and I don't even remember that.
[ Chuckle ]

-I first saw Buddy when I was
about 18 years old.

I heard he was on at the
Marquee Club in London

and I went to see him
when he was there.

And he was young and he was
in this silk suit,

sharp as anything,

and it was... phew!

It was an unbelievable
experience for me.

I'll never forget it.

And he played that Strat,
which was unusual in itself.

-Some of my friends in England

didn't know the Strat
could play the blues,

until they saw me
in England in 1965.

-And, when I saw him play
the Strat, that was it.

I was playing a Les Paul
and I put it in its case

and I went out
and started looking

for some Strats
[ Laughs ] like Buddy's.

♪♪

-Chess Records didn't want me
to turn up that volume,

but the British turned it up

with those big
Marshall amplifiers.

In England, they said,
"Bring it on."

So, the British was ready
for whatever we had

if it sounded good.

America wasn't ready for it.

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

-I was amazed when I got to
America that, really,

nobody knew
who these people were.

Well, you know, this is...

this is the strongest thing
that you,

culturally, you've got,
in my opinion.

The... It stood
head and shoulders above

everything else 'cause it...

uh, all of that music
that came from Detroit

and, uh, and Muscle Shoals
and New York

and, oh, you know, the modern,
uh, R&B stuff was great,

but it was still
kind of chart-conscious.

It was still about
being popular music.

And, uh, the blues
was really different.

It had another...

another purpose, I think.

It was just a form of expression

with incredible
refined technique.

And, uh, when we would go over
there and talk about,

well, what, um...
"Where did you get your sound?"

and I would say, "Well, Freddie
King, Buddy Guy," they were...

they were mystified.

And I thought, "This is crazy!
This is crazy!"

These people are right here
under your nose

and you don't know who they are.

[ Projector clacks ]

-If it was not for those guys,

I don't think you'd be
interviewing me now, man.

Those guys... Clapton, Beck,
and the Rolling Stones,

and all those people like that
kept mentioning my name,

and that brought me up better
than any record I ever made.

-I think the Stones were
really, really, um,

in the... in the vanguard

and they let everybody
know what...

where they got their...

They did "Little Red Rooster"

and they made sure that everyone
knew it was a Howlin' Wolf song.

-There was a television show
called the, uh, "Shindig!"

And it came in and wanted to do
the Rolling Stones,

and they raised
all kinda hell about,

"If you bring me Howlin' Wolf,

then I'll do
the 'Shindig!' show."

-So, I think it's about time
you shut up

and we had Howlin' Wolf onstage.
- Yeah. I see, okay.

[ Crowd cheering ]
Let's get him out. Howlin' Wolf!

Bring him up.

-♪ How many more years

♪ Do I have to let you
dog me around ♪

-And... And white America
was saying,

"Who's Howlin' Wolf?"
and, "Who's Muddy Water?"

and they got offended about it.

We laugh about that now
every time I'm with the Stones.

They say, "You mean to tell me
you don't know who Muddy Waters

is and we named ourself
after one of his famous records,

"Rolling Stone."

-♪ Every time I get high

♪ Yeah, I lay my head down
on my baby's breast ♪

♪♪

♪ Every time I get high,
I wanna lay down ♪

♪ On my baby's breast

♪♪

♪ Well, you know, she hug
and kiss me, baby ♪

♪ She say, "Buddy Guy,
you are the best" ♪

-♪ I wanna get high
this mornin' ♪

♪ People, just as sure
it's my name ♪

♪♪

♪ I wanna get high
this mornin', Mick ♪

♪ Just as sure it's my name

♪♪

♪ You can bet my bottom dollar

♪ Keith ain't gon' use
no cocaine ♪

-Alright, play it.
Play the song, play the song.

Yeah, come here!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪ And w-w-when I get lonely

♪ Lay down by my baby's side

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

Thank you, Buddy mother... Guy.

-It's yours.

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

-But when the British
and the Claptons and the Creams

and things start making records,
Leonard Chess sent for me.

Willie Dixon came to my house
early in the morning

and told me, "Put on a suit."

I said, "Oh, my God.

I'm through with Chess now.

I know this is my, uh,
pink slip."

And I had never been
in the office, and he said,

"Come on up to the office."

I said, "Well, this is it."

He just put on an album.
It was Cream.

Leonard Chess said,

"Oh, the British
is talking about you.

We had you, but we were too dumb
to know what you was offering."

He just said, "I want you
to kick me in my behind."

And he bent over
and pulled his...

his sport coat up, and I said,
"Maybe I should."

And he said,
"I want you to come in

and turn your amp up and play."

And I said, "You kidding me,"
because I was like,

"What's the use?

I need to cut you loose."

And... And that's
the way life is,

and I was brought up to say,

"What's for you in life
is for you,

and what's not for you,
you're not gonna get it."

So, that was the end of my time
with Chess Records.

-It's interesting because
Buddy's tone

doesn't really take shape
until after Chess Records.

It's like Buddy finally gets
to make whatever record he wants

and he's burning the whole time.

If you listen to
"I Smell a Rat,"

it's wild, man.

It's...
He's unleashed the whole time.

And you don't hear a studio
recording of a blues musician

doing these live
kind of showmanship things.

So, he goes,

"Di-yi-yi-y-yi-yi,"
in the studio.

These are things you do
for somebody

when they're screaming
and shrieking at you,

and he was putting it
on a record.

And so, I remember my friend
played me "I Smell a Rat,"

and said, "Check this out,
check this out."

And I'll never forget hearing it
for the first time and going,

"How do you go up and down
a neck like that

and still hit
what you're trying to hit?"

-Yeah, now!

-And this is where I think Buddy
really makes a name for himself.

-He put turbo on the blues,
where Jimmy and Jeff Beck

and Eric Clapton,
Stevie Ray Vaughan,

and myself... so many of us...
We learned to... "Oh!"

He opened another frequency,
another door.

'Cause just...
Just his tenacity,

his tenacity of tone, man.

Phew!

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

When someone goes diving,
deep diving, they need a...

a lifeline to breathe,
you know, 'cause...

That's what...
That's what the blues is to me.

It's a lifeline.

It's a lifeline to passion,
emotions...

the best part of God.

If God wouldn't have emotions
or passion,

I'd probably be an atheist.

But because God is extremely
and supremely emotional,

the blues and God
is the same thing to me.

[ Projector clacks ]

♪♪

-My dad visited me once
before he died.

I think he was kinda sick then,

but then my family never
did admit how sick they was.

They always used to tell us,
"I don't want you to know this,

because it gon' worry you."

But I took him
to a Cubs game and...

We went several places,

and he saw me play
before he died.

Uh, he died in '67.

♪♪

I left Louisiana
September the 25th, 1957.

My mother had a stroke
and I was the oldest boy,

the oldest child, leaving.

So, I promised my mother
I was gonna go to Chicago

and make a lot of money
working at a university.

And I was going to buy
a polka dot Cadillac.

And I knew I was lying.

But I was trying to make
her feel good.

And after she passed away
in 1968, I said to myself,

"I'm going to work on something
and see can I get

a polka dot guitar
just in her memory."

And that's how the polka dot
guitar came about.

And I'll keep that
until I leave here.

♪♪

I was working at a Ford place

and I was laying out
on a hot summer day

under my tow truck,
changing oil.

And Junior Wells' manager,
Dick Waterman,

came up to me and asked,
"You Buddy?"

I said, "Yeah."

"How much do you make?"

I was making $2.11 an hour.

So, he said, "I can write you
a postdated check

for what you make in a year

if you would just go on the road
and play your guitar."

♪ Your love give me
such a thrill ♪

♪ But your lovin'
don't pay my bills ♪

♪ I want your money, hon

♪ I gotta have it

♪ And alright, now

♪ Oh, it's alright

♪♪

♪ Don't get everything,
it's true ♪

♪ What it don't get,
I can't use ♪

♪ I got to have it

♪ Hey, hey

♪ And alright,
alright, alright ♪

♪ Gonna be alright

And they had that train
leaving Montreal

going straight across Canada,
stopping at the major cities.

And I was supposed to get on it,
which I did.

And the train had the amplifiers
on it where we...

we were playing while the train
was rolling.

One of the greatest moments
of my life on that.

It was Janis Joplin, uh,
the Grateful Dead.

Oh, it was a great time,
man, you know.

♪ I gotta go

♪ I had to go, yeah

When I went onstage,
I could hear voices saying,

"Now that's the real Buddy Guy,"

and I'm like, "Who's the fake?"

Junior had a guitar player

he was taking on the road,
calling him "Buddy Guy"

because I had made
a couple of albums with Junior.

So, when they went on the road
without me, they would say,

"Junior Wells and Buddy Guy,"
and that really wasn't me.

-Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

Oh.

-Junior Wells and myself -
first of all,

we had the same manager
at the time,

and the Rolling Stones
wanted us to do,

uh, the European tour
with them in 1970.

And I looked at the manager,
I said,

"Well, Junior is having
a problem with the band

and I don't have a problem
with the band,"

which I had made
a few albums with Junior.

And I said, "Um, why don't we
just try this together?

Means we going
with the Rolling Stones,

we come back,
let's hold on together

and see will this work."

We started playing together
in 1970,

and we tried it for, what,
15, 18 years.

And we... we still was
in the small blues clubs

that hold 60 people, maybe 100.

♪♪

But all the clubs
was disappearin'.

And Chicago used to have so many
blues clubs,

some of 'em, I didn't get
a chance to see 'em,

and they was, like,
disappearing.

And I saw that and I said,
"Well, I got, you know,

$300 or $400, $500."
I said, "I think I'm gonna

just try to keep the blues alive
and open a blues club."

And this is alright,
I didn't make no money off it,

but I kept it open.

-♪ Baby, please don't go

♪ Baby, please don't go

♪ Baby, please don't go down
to New Orleans ♪

♪ You know I love you so

♪ Before I be your dog

-That's when the people
like the Rolling Stones

and, uh, BB King and them
had started coming.

The club didn't hold
but 60 people.

Still, gonna bring
Mick Jagger up.

Mick Jagger!
[ Cheers and applause ]

-But after they started
coming in, they start...

the word got around
and my little club

was a name for itself.

♪♪

-How are ya?

♪♪

Why don't ya sing
a couple verses?

-[ Vocalizing ]

♪ Baby, please don't go down
to New Orleans ♪

♪ Because I love you so

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-♪ Before I be your dog

♪ Before I be your dog

♪ Be your, be your dog

♪ I want you way down here
by the Rolling Stones ♪

- What about Keith?
- Yeah, what about Keith?

-What about Keith?

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

-We was at my club, Checkerboard
there on 43rd Street.

And me and Junior was there,

and the call came in
that Muddy was sick.

♪♪

And he was just like
everybody else...

he didn't want you to know
he was that sick.

So, of course,
we had his number,

so I jumps up
and call on the phone,

and I say, "Hey, man,
I heard you was sick,"

and that's when he started
cursing me out.

And he told me,
"MF, I ain't sick,

just make damn sure
you keep the blues alive."

-♪ Oh, baby, please don't go

-♪ Baby, please don't go
-♪ Oh, baby, please don't go

-♪ Baby, please don't go
-♪ Baby, please don't go

-♪ Baby, please don't go
-♪ Baby, please don't go

-♪ Baby, please don't go
down to New Orleans ♪

♪ Because I love you so

-And I think it was like
three days later,

that's when International Press
called and say...

"What do ya think about
Muddy passing?"

And I said, "Muddy passing?

He just told me
he was doing fine

day before yesterday,"
and he had... he had died.

♪♪

♪♪

Junior, he was, uh, kinda...

he would get kinda drunk
sometime,

and I would hold him up and then
they would blame me, too...

say, "They don't play
much no more."

And even the Rolling Stones
come to me once and say,

"He won't let you play,"
'cause he used to reach over

and grab the neck of my guitar

if I'd be into a solo
while he wasn't playing.

And he'd reach over and grab
the neck of the guitar

and cut me off.

And I didn't... I didn't...

I wouldn't get angry with him
about it, you know.

I'd just look at him and laugh.

♪♪

That was our, you know, ending
to Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

♪♪

But we stayed friends
until he... until he...

until he got real sick.

I was at the hospital with him
darn near every day.

And they would tell me just
hold his hands in the hospital,

and I did that until...
Until he passed away.

I wasn't there at the hospital
when he passed,

but when they called
and told me he had passed away,

I had been there that day.

♪♪

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

-As much as we try
to make it that way,

you're not always going
to have happy and... and

and... and great moments
where you feel good.

Um, there's gonna be
some dark days,

gonna be some rain.
It sound cliché,

but it's gonna be some blues.

It is, knowing all that, um,
comes from the blues.

Uh, and it's...

and it's... you know,
it's not just with music.

You know, with stuff
that we got going on,

you know, with killings,
and the police,

and political stuff.

All... All that plays...

All that plays into the fact
of what the blues is,

and that's life,
a reflection on life, because...

Well, reflection
and understanding

because it's both showing you,
hey, this is...

this is what I go through,
and this is how I get...

this is how I get through it,
for sure.

[ Projector clacks ]

-What I love is these
Buddy stories

where he'll just sort of...

almost the verbal equivalent
of showing a home movie

of his life on the road
with one artist or another.

And ask him to tell you
the John Lee Hooker story.

It's great.

-The first time
I went to Germany

was in Baden-Baden, Germany,

with Big Mama Thornton,
John Lee Hooker, and many more.

I wanted to meet
John Lee Hooker,

but I didn't know he stutters,

'cause he never did stutter
when he sang.

And they was downstairs
eating a big breakfast

and they was drinkin'
whiskey like it was milk

in the mornings.

I heard somebody over there
stuttering,

"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba,"

I said, "Well, I definitely
don't want to meet him,

'cause I ain't gonna never
understand what he's saying."

So, I just picked up
an acoustic guitar

and started playing
"Boogie Chillen."

And here come this guy,

"Ba-ba ba ba-ba-ba-ba,
what you doing?"

And I almost got pissed off.
I said, "Nothing, man."

I said, "I just want
to meet John Lee."

He just started laughing
so tears come out his eye,

and said,
"Da-da-da-da da-da, I'm Johnny."

I said, "I don't want to meet
no damn Johnny.

I want to meet John Lee Hooker."

And oh, boy, he just fell down
on his knees and laughed.

And finally, Big Mama came up,
she started to laugh.

She said, "Buddy,
that's John Lee Hooker."

I said, "That's who?!

John Lee Hooker
stuttering like that?"

I say, "He don't sound like that
when he's singing."

'Cause I didn't never dream of,
you know, how John Lee Hooker...

I was in Lettsworth, Louisiana,
still picking the cotton

when he came up
with that "Boogie Chillen,"

and then when I'm saying,
"Wonder what he look like."

I didn't have a picture of him
or nothing,

"Wonder what Muddy Waters
look like."

And all of a sudden, man,
I went to dreaming and woke up

and I had done met 'em all.

And I'm, like, saying,

"I don't care
if I ever get a chance

to make a record or nothing.

I done met the people who I
admired the most as a musician."

-You got to understand, like...

People who listen
to guitar players,

who play guitar,

do it alone in a room
for thousands of hours.

So, to have "spent my time,"
quote-unquote,

with Buddy Guy for 10 years
before I ever met him,

in a room with his pictures
on the wall...

'Cause I bought all these
guitar magazines,

and you'd occasionally get
a picture of Buddy Guy.

You could cut the pictures out,
put 'em on the wall.

Bought another book
because some of the pictures

were on the other side
of the page

that I used to put on the wall,
so I bought two of 'em,

because that was my shrine.

And you go to school
and you get beat up

and you go, "That's alright.

I'm going home, I'mma play
with Buddy Guy after this."

And that... And in that way,
it saves your life, you know.

-It's been my life, you know,
it's been a blessing for me

to be able to pay homage

and to turn people on to
where our music came from.

It didn't just, uh, fall
out the trees, you know.

-The unwritten rule as set forth
by our sort of musical ancestors

is you owe it to the people
who inspired you

to make a direct line between
them and the audience, who goes,

"I don't know what this is,
but I love it when you do it."

I found Buddy's music through
Stevie Ray Vaughan.

-Stevie Ray Vaughan, um,

did to music what, um,

Michael Jordan did
for basketball.

Stevie, uh, brought blues
alive at a crucial moment,

so far as I'm concerned.

[ "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
playing ]

♪♪

-Stevie, when he popped up,
you know,

he helped me a lot, too,

'cause he recorded
a couple of songs

I had wrote, like, uh,
"Little Nursery Rhyme"

and "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

-♪ Mary had a little lamb

-♪ Its fleece was black
as coal, yeah ♪

-And... And one of the...

one of the things that made
goose pimples come on me,

every time someone
would ask him about it,

it was almost like
when the Rolling Stones came in.

They say it's new music...
They said,

"No, this is Howlin' Wolf,
Muddy Waters' music,"

when they was putting them
on television.

And he would go back
and tell you,

"This is Stevie Ray Vaughan,

but I'm playing
a Buddy Guy song."

White America was asking,
"Who's that?"

♪♪

-I remember Stevie talking about
"Mary Had a Little Lamb"

being a Buddy Guy song.

Okay, remember the name
Buddy Guy.

You know, put that in the

"we got to find more
about this guy" list.

'Cause if Stevie liked him
and Stevie was playing

"Mary Had a Little Lamb"
and that was cool,

then we got to find the guy
who did all that.

Because if we can find
Buddy Guy,

we can find more of this music.

-But he let the public know,
"This is not Stevie's music.

This... I'm playing
what I learned from,"

and that's what we all do.

♪♪

-You know, it was very sad
because, uh,

the last time I saw him

was the night he perished.

And, uh, we played
together in...

outside of Chicago.

-Eric Clapton came and told me
they wanted me to come up

and see the show
and sit in with him.

And I flew with Eric

and I think a couple
of his members on that chopper.

Stevie had drove up there
with his brother.

When we got ready to come back,
all the fog had come in.

And I'm like,

"Well, it's a chopper...
It's going straight up."

But they tell me they can't
go straight up, say they...

they fly it like this.

So, I'm sitting there
with my fists tight when we...

when we finished and finally it
broke out of the fog

and I could see the highway
with all this traffic, you know,

and I said, "Thank God
we got outta there."

And they had asked me
to fix a gumbo at my house

like this in the morning...
Stevie, Eric,

and all of 'em was coming
to my house wanting me to cook.

Might have been Eric Clapton

on the phone...
I said, "What he want?

He must be wanting me
to buy something,

get something extra.
And he come and said,

"You know Stevie's dead?"

"What do you mean,
Stevie's dead?"

"One of the choppers went down."

'Cause he wasn't even
supposed to be on there.

A guy decided to not come back,

and they ran back in

and told Stevie
there was a empty seat

on the chopper going to Chicago,

and they're gonna go
to Buddy Guy's club

before it close.

And then they were gonna come
out here the next morning

when I fix the gumbo for 'em.

-But that night, you know,
was the...

Obviously,
the last time I heard him,

when it was the best
I ever heard him play.

-'Cause he was a happy kid
that night, man.

Every time a note would hit,
he would come up to me and say,

"That's some of your stuff."

He was so...

He brought so much to this music
that it would take me, uh,

longer than I got time
to explain to you what he did.

[ Projector clacks ]

[ Film reel rattling ]

-What does blues mean to me?

Mm.

[ Chuckles ]

[ Sighs ] Why would you do that?

Yeah, I guess
it's an expression,

a form of art
that's... that's...

the roots are deep
in this country

and resonate
throughout the whole world.

But the blues is changing.

And I think that the blues
might not be in the form

of a man standing up
onstage with his guitar.

But I think the blues are
expressed in all forms of music.

You know, I think
these hip-hop artists,

these young poets out here
are expressing their blues

over these beats.

Sonically, it's changed.

The sentiment is still there
and the feeling

that you get from hearing
these songs is still there.

It makes you think,
it makes you wonder,

it makes you want to get up
and jump and dance.

It makes you want to sit down
and be by yourself

and shut the door
and shed a tear or something.

You know what I mean?

Blues does that, for me.

It evokes.
It touches deep down.

It's not surface.

So, that's...

that's what it is to me, is...

is expressing yourself

and getting down
to the root of it

and shaking it off
and hopefully,

you can feel better about it.

And if you can spread that
around to people

who appreciate it,
then more power to ya.

And if you're someone
who appreciates that,

then, uh...

then I think
you're more in touch

with what it is
to be a human being

than you might realize.

[ Projector clacks ]

♪♪

-So, I was beginning
to understand

how these things were connected.
But that's...

I still only had Stevie Ray
Vaughan and Double Trouble,

so now I had to go get
some Buddy Guy music.

And I think
around that time, uh,

"Damn Right, I've Got the Blues"
came out.

-I always enjoyed how he did

those opening licks
on that song.

So, like, yeah, when I had first
popped in the CD,

you know, first thing...
I got an acoustic with me...

but the first thing, you know,
you hear this, you know.

♪♪

Then he does...

then he does the whole
Albert King,

like, uh, been doing it.

♪♪

-♪ Do-do-do-do-duh-do,
do-do-do-do-do-do ♪

♪♪

♪♪

-♪ Oh, you damn right
I got the blues ♪

[ Crowd cheering ]

♪ From my head down,
down to my shoes ♪

♪ Damn right, damn right,
damn right, damn right ♪

♪ Damn right, damn right,
I got the blues ♪

♪ Ya know, I can't win

♪ 'Cause I don't have a,
a thing to lose ♪

♪ Lookie here

Make it so funky
they can smell it!

-I won a Grammy for "Damn Right,
I've Got the Blues."

Which was my first one.

And...

[ Chuckles ]

I think I got eight or nine now.

It was the thrill of my life.

Man, I still can't sit here
and believe...

I have eight or nine Grammys,

and I... I don't believe it.

Obama told me he wanted me
to come in and play,

and that's like the...

I don't know how
to even explain that, man.

It was like I had to keep
pinching myself...

"Are you here
in this White House?"

♪ Come on, come on

My daughters was there with me.

I said,
"We got to take pictures,

'cause this...
This might go away and I...

I-I-I'm the only one
who could remember this."

♪ Back to that same ol' place,
sweet home Chicago ♪

I think BB, he was there with me
when I played.

I heard you singin' Al Green.

So you done started somethin',
you gotta keep it up now.

♪♪

You can do it!

Come on, now. You can do it.

[ Cheers and applause ]
Come on!

-♪ Oh, sing, yeah, sing a song

Come on, Mr. President, sing!

-♪ Come on

[ Cheering ]

♪ Baby, don't ya wanna go

-Yeah!

♪ Come on

♪ Baby, don't ya wanna go

-♪ Same ol' place

-♪ Sweet home, Chicago

[ Cheers and applause ]

-But how many people
have played the White House

as blues players?

And who would dream
that picking cotton

with a cotton sack
on my shoulder, saying,

"One day, I'm gonna play
in the White House."

You couldn't even think of that.

That couldn't even
cross your mind.

But I did.

I accept that because if it
wasn't for the Muddys,

the T-Bones,
the Lonnie Johnsons,

and all the people
I learned my stuff from,

I don't know
if I'd have made it.

So, I owe that credit to them.

And I will take that
to my grave,

saying these people
left me with something

that I went
to the White House with.

Left this road where I could
travel to come through.

♪♪

-Today, they're naming the road
that Buddy Guy grew up on...

they're naming it after him.

He did travel a long way,

and he's traveled
all over the world.

And he's had these awards
at the Kennedy Center

and the Presidential awards

and Rock & Roll of Fame
and Grammys

and all these wonderful things.

But I really think
this means a lot to him.

Because it's where he started
and where his...

his family and his friends were,

and so he's kinda going
back home.

-Buddy's legacy is a guy
who gave his entire life

to the music that he loved,

regardless of his level
of success with it

at any given time.

Success has come in and out
of Buddy Guy's life,

and he has never changed
his approach

to the music that he plays.

He was doing it
when it wasn't cool,

and he was doing it when it was
the biggest thing

that people were
throwing money at to sign.

And when we live in such a world
where you...

the success you're having
at a thing

is your indicator of whether
you should keep doing it,

I would advise you take a look
at Buddy Guy's career,

where sometimes he would go
8, 10 years

without a record label.

But every single night,

plugging in and playing like
his life depended on it.

-And ladies and gentlemen,
I've been around the world.

I thought playing
in the White House

was my favorite thing,

but I think coming home
is the best.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪ I was born in Louisiana

♪ And at the age of 2

♪ My mama told my papa

♪♪

♪ "I think that little boy's
got the blues" ♪

♪♪

♪ You know, I was born
to play the guitar ♪

♪ And the blues
run through my vein ♪

♪♪

To come back here
and look at that levee,

and knew some years ago,

I was sitting up on top
of that levee with a guitar,

hoping one day
somebody would say,

"I hear that, lemme go see
what it sound like,"

but that wasn't the case.

I was ran out the house 'cause
I was making too much noise.

[ Laughter ]

♪ I got six strings loaded

♪ On my bad machine

♪ Show me the money

♪ And I can make
this thing scream, mm ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on playin'

♪ Until my dying day

♪ And a polka dot guitar'll
be resting ♪

♪ On my grave

♪ Now, I got a reputation

♪ And everybody knows my name

♪♪

♪ You know, I was born to play
this here guitar ♪

♪ I'm gonna play this thing
till it's a crying shame ♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

-♪ You know you be up with me
every early mornin' ♪

♪ And then late
in the afternoon ♪

♪♪

♪♪