When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, 'That's just that ole blues singer.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I used to be a great blues singer.
I started singing on the radio in Los Angeles. I sang blues, but I would tend toward country blues.
Yeah; I'm a much better blues player than anybody knows, but being in the kind of group I'm in, we were always trying to make popular records.
I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I've never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I've wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn't work.
I don't try to just be a blues singer - I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.
I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.
The song of the blues, the song of the music, was something a lot of people missed out on. They thought they had to swagger a certain way or bark at the mic, and you don't have to do that.
I suppose I was waiting until I was old enough to have some sort of experience to sing about. When you're young, it's hard to sing the blues. Nobody believes you.
I'm not a super blues player, but I was exposed to the Texas blues sound while I was growing up, and that definitely rubbed off on me.
We were either listening to jazz or Robert Johnson, the old blues man, but not to our peers.
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