Buddy Guy‘s audio biography, Why I Left Home: My Story is enhancing my understanding about key blues practitioners. I enjoy hearing Buddy Guy share his personal memories about The Mud (Muddy Waters), B.B. King, Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf. Each day I listen to more chapters then I look up the blues artists Buddy speaks with reverence.
Buddy Guy wrote these words about Howlin’ Wolf for Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists List.
He was so exciting to be on a show with. Wolf was a big man, but he could really move. It was like when the Chicago Bears had that player the Refrigerator. People think football players can’t move when they’re that big. And people expected the Wolf, because he was such a big guy, to just sit in a chair and belt it out. No, man, he had all that action. He had everything you wanted to see. He’d crawl around, jump around. His fists were as big as a car tire. And he would ball that fist up. When I started getting calls to come and play on some cuts behind him, I’d think, “Oh, shit, I better play right.” I’d heard he was mean. I was told that. But, you know, I never had a cross word with the man the whole time, right up to when he passed away.
Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/howlin-wolf-20110420#ixzz2J1spOfbF
Related articles
- ‘When I Left Home,’ Buddy Guy’s Memoir (nytimes.com)
- Howlin’ Your Blues Away (presbyterianblues.wordpress.com)
