His Time After a While

And on this record you have "Out in the Woods."
Yeah, man. This record just makes me so emotional, I can't even hardly sing it. It's a true fact of life.

You influenced all those '60s blues rockers—the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix. They sort of owe you a huge debt. Do you think it's been paid?
I think they paid it. They didn't come in and say, "This is a British invasion." That was the media and the jockeys and the radio. Matter of fact, the Rolling Stones came in the Chess Studio when I was recording a record called "My Time After Awhile." I had never saw a white man with hair that long, and I'm saying, "What the hell is this?" We became friends that day. I think it was 1963 or '64. They had a television show called "Shindig," which was poppin' off with nothing but music. They was cravin' to get the Stones. Finally, the Stones agreed and said, "Yeah, we'll come do it but you gotta let us bring Muddy Waters." They said "Who is that?" Mick Jagger got offended and said, "You mean to tell me you don't know who Muddy Waters is, and we named ourselves after one of his famous records?!" [Laughs.]

Now all those guys are the old-timers.
If you stay here long enough, you're going to get old. I got the gout. It gets in your feet; it's a big pain. And you know what? I'm just going to hop on it and play. If you don't live long enough to get it, you'll never know.

Who are the young guys today that give you hope?
You got Derek Trucks on that record. On that cut "Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes," that's an 8-year-old kid Quinn Sullivan playing one of them solos on there, man. He's 9 now. When I first met this kid, he got a polka-dot bandana on, he's sitting there with his guitar and his dad. I said, "Come on up, man, let me hit these two notes and be through." Man, that kid matched me note for note for all the rest of the night. I just cannot ignore this. I gotta let somebody know what can be done at 8 years old and 9 years old. The blues need it.

What did getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mean to you?
I got a lot of awards. Every time I accepted an award, I accepted an award in honor of all the people who should have got that award before me, some of 'em don't even have headstones. Every award I got, including the Hall of Fame, it shoulda been Smokey Hogg, Lightin' Hopkins and on and on and on. I don't know who in and who out, but I know some of them is not in there.

Well at least you've still got the fire.
Thank you very much. I hope we get a few million people feel like you do. I'll be the happiest man alive.

© 2008