I watched my daddy play that guitar, and whenever I could, I would pick it up and strum on it.
You could play the blues like it was a lonesome thing - it was a feeling. The blues is nothing but a story... The verses which are sung in the blues is a true story, what people are doing... what they all went through. It's not just a song, see?
You play a 'lowdown dirty shame slow and lonesome, my mama dead, my papa across the sea I ain't dead but I'm just supposed to be' blues. You can take that same blues, make it uptempo, a shuffle blues, that's what rock n' roll did with it. So blues ain't going nowhere. Ain't goin' nowhere.
I knew BB King when he first started out.
The turnaround is when you have a solo in betwixt the verses. You stoppin' to have a solo.
I used to play too with a boy who played a saxophone. We didn't play no blues, we'd play a lot of love songs - 'Stardust', 'Blue Moon', 'Out Cold Again', 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Stars Fell On Alabama', a lot of different stuff.
You never learn everything on that guitar neck.
The delta blues is a low-down, dirty shame blues. It's a sad, big wide sound, something to make you think about people who are dead or the women who left you.
I drive every day. I like to gamble.
I played with so many musicians and some of the musicians would have something I want. I steal a lot of them, and I mash it up, I mash it up into my chords.
I don't care how famous a guitarist is, he ain't learned everything. There's always somewhere to go, something to mash up, but he ain't found it yet. You never learn everything on that guitar neck.
I left home when I was 17 with Joe Williams.
My father had slowed down playing a little... I was 'round 10 or 12 years old. Every time he put his guitar down, I pick it up.
Blues ain't never going anywhere. It can get slow, but it ain't going nowhere.
I ain't learn everything yet at 95. But I got good fingers, that's one thing, I got good fingers. If it weren't for them fingers I wouldn't be going now.
When I was running 'round in America, about 30 years old, I didn't want no woman. I knowed I could make enough money to take care of myself, but I didn't want nobody to take care of.
I should have been dead 50, 60 years ago. God just wasn't ready for me. Because I used to raise hell and drink. I've had my fun!
I used to be a drinker but I found out how bad it was and I let it alone.
I seen a lot of changes. You got to make changes. I even make changes in my blues.
I didn't come out until 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. Sleep all day, sleep and cook and eat, stay in the house. That sun is hot, anyway. It ain't right out there.
