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I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I believe that blues and jazz are the two uniquely American contributions into music.

The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.

The Progressive Blues Experiment, Johnny Winter... and Still Alive and Well is my favorite rock record.

The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.

The Blues scene now is international. In the '50s it was purely something that you would hear in black clubs, played by black musicians, especially in America. But from the '60s onwards it changed.

The blues echoes right through into soul, R&B and hip hop. It's part of the make-up of modern music. You can't turn your back on the blues.

The Beatles and The Stones were basically inspired by American Rhythm and Blues.

The blues are important primarily because they contain the cultural expression and the cultural response to blacks in America and to the situation that they find themselves in. And contained in the blues is a philosophical system at work. And as part of the oral tradition, this is a way of passing along information.

The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It's cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It's not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.