When do you play your best?
Buddy Guy: When I’m not trying to be my best. When I’m not pressing myself to try to make this audience get into what I’m doing. I feel like I’m not doing a good job if I don’t see them smiling or saying, “Yes.” For example, when we first started going to Europe playing blues, the Europeans were like, “We take this as a serious music, almost like opera.” Nobody said anything or patted their feet—nothing. I was thinking, “Oh, Jesus, I’m not doing nothing right now. Maybe I got to flip out or do something.” Then I got booed. I talked to Muddy again, and he said, “Don’t feel bad. It happened to me.” When Chris Barber took Muddy back to England for the first time, they booed him for playing this loud stuff through the amp! They invited him back the next year, and he left the amp and took the acoustic guitar, and they booed him for not playing the amp! [Laughs.]The same thing happened to me in Germany. I had to go stepping out in front of Roosevelt Sykes, John Lee Hooker, and Big Mama Thornton, and they would just boo every time they’d see me. I said, “Oh, my God!” Me being shy, man, I was just like going under the table. And then when I went back, I said, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll get me a chair and sit down like John Lee and them and play.” I went back, and they got me the same way they did Muddy. They said, “No, no. You’ve got to get out there and move around. That’s what we’re looking for now.” It takes you so long to figure out what they’re saying, unless someone comes up and translates it for you.
Buddy Guy - I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
(Carlos Santana Tribute) - 2013 Kennedy Center Honors
Jeff Beck w. Buddy Guy - Let Me Love You
- Madison Square Garden, NYC - 2009/10/29&30
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