Buddy Guy has admitted he took a dislike to the Rolling Stones on first sight.
They met when Mick Jagger and co were ushered into a studio. But by the time they toured Europe together in 1970, they’d become firm friends.
Guy tells Rolling Stone: “Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon walked straight in my studio while I was singing, with a bunch of white guys who lined up against the wall while I was singing.
“I got pissed off: ‘Who in the hell are these guys?’ I had never seen a white man with hair that long and high-heeled boots before.”
But he adds: “When they came to America, they recognised some of the greatest musicians I’d admired – Ike and Tina Turner, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf – and let America know who we were. They let white America know what the blues is. We owe those guys all the thanks in the world.”
Guy says of the tour, which also featured Junior Wells: “They were so damn wild back then I couldn’t keep up with them. They were just a wild bunch of kids playing the best music that you ever heard.”
He adds: “It’s hard to put your finger on why Keith Richards is such a great guitar player, but you never can. He don’t play solos like Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix – but whatever he does, it works. I try to copy that stuff from him and I can’t get it, man. And I’ve been trying ever since I met him.”
The Stones dropped in on Guy’s nightclub to spend an evening with him earlier this month. He’ll release latest album Born To Play Guitar on July 31.
