Buddy Guy on "The Song That Changed My Life"

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When we asked legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy about the song that changed his life, Guy took us back to his childhood in Louisiana, to the first time he heard John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen'." He explains how the song encouraged him to learn the guitar in his early teens. Plus, he shares a story about getting to meet his hero and becoming friends with him. Buddy recently announced his farewell tour, after over a half-century in the game. It kicks off next month, so be sure to visit the Bullseye page at maximumfun.org for dates.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:07.0	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Time now for the song that changed my life. It's a segment
0:14.0	where musicians reach back sometimes way way back to tell us about the music that made them
0:21.0	who they are today. And this week our guest is Buddy Guy.
0:51.0	You probably know this already. But Buddy is one of the world's greatest blues guitarists.
1:05.5	He's won eight Grammy Awards. He's been in the rock and roll hall of fame since 2005.
1:11.3	He's performed for Presidents. He's shared stages with BB King and Halen Wolfen, even
1:16.8	Muddy Waters. Recently Buddy Guy announced his farewell tour, well earned after over half a century.
1:23.8	We got in touch with Buddy at his home studio in Chicago. When we asked him about the song
1:47.8	that changed his life, he took us back to his childhood in Louisiana. In the first time
1:53.0	he heard John Lee Hookers will be chilling. Here's Buddy Guy.
1:58.0	Hi, I'm Buddy Guy and this is one of the songs that changed my life. The first time I
2:04.0	heard Boogie Chillin I must have been about 14 or 15 years old. It took a while for my
2:09.8	dad to get a radio. And they had a radio station coming out of Tennessee, WLAC.
2:16.8	And I'm pretty sure Boogie Chillin is probably the first elected guitar that I ever heard.
2:47.8	I had never seen a elected guitar. The first elected guitar ever seen. It was a guy
2:55.8	blues guy named Lightning Slim. And he came out then, let's watch Louisiana and plug that
3:01.5	thing up on the store front store. And I thought it was a joke when he plugged it in and that
3:09.0	little amplifiers that I'm coming through and I said, I don't know what this is but
3:13.2	whatever this is, I would love to have a piece of that. I learned something about that
3:18.2	and I got a chance to meet him before he died and learn a few things from him. We didn't
3:24.5	have electricity so we didn't have records. The only music we had was a lot of gospel.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.