Quote

Guitar gigs were everywhere in the '50s, and I started diddling around so I could keep working. Playing honky-tonk, simple stuff. I took a few gigs with an organ band that put me out front.

I've always known from the time I was eight years old what I wanted to do. I would have been fairly content to be someone's lead guitar player.

Playing guitar was one of my childhood hobbies, and I had played a little at school and at camp. My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby - nothing more.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

When I graduated college, I had a fairly successful weekly club gig and was buying more studio equipment and writing my own music. I realized I didn't want to work.

I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.

I worked full time jobs, basically doing manual labor until I could make enough money supporting myself as a musician.

I had my guitar and some talent so that I could make friends with intelligent people and could talk my way out of difficult situations.

I didn't start to collect records and listen to guitar players properly until I went to art school, when I'd already been playing for five years. So my style was already formed, and that's why I think it's so unique.