photography: buddy guy concert

Leonard Chess used Guy mainly as a session guitarist to back Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor and others.

Jimi Hendrix sometimes cancelled his own concerts to attend Guy’s club shows, which he filmed or audio taped

“Without Buddy Guy, there would be no Stevie Ray Vaughan.”- Stevie Ray Vaughn

Clapton admitted that he got his idea for a bluesrock power trio during his teenage years while watching Buddy Guy’s trio perform in England in 1965. Clapton later formed the rock band Cream, which was “the first rocksupergroup to become superstars” and was also “the first top group to truly exploit the power-trio format, in the process laying the foundation for much blues-rock and hard rock of the 1960s and 1970s.”

“Geez, you can’t forget Buddy Guy. He transcended blues and started becoming theater. It was high art, kind of like drama theater when he played, you know. He was playing behind his head long before Hendrix. I once saw him throw the guitar up in the air and catch it in the same chord.” – Jeff Beck