Luther Allison
I mean, look how many musicians have come through and played beside me, and I'm workin' and they're not.
I loved B.B. and Hubert and Freddy and Muddy.
I like Chuck Berry, I like Bill Haley, and I like a lot of the country people, too.
I have as much input to the blues; I just never got the chance, the opportunity or maybe the respect.
I have a lot of energy I don't waste now, wonderin' and worryin', goin' here and doin' that, tryin' to see what would happen.
I had the qualifications, but I was not chosen.
I focused on how these people became how they were.
I don't want to be in some big beautiful place that nobody want me, because I play the blues.
Coming from the cotton plantation, the southern regions, I was brought up with real nice kids, mannered kids, who would go to church on Sunday.
But you know, I still had a dream of being able to go back home and tour.
But my big thing was always the blues.
But let's face it, I still have to look at my self and look at the things I've done down the stretch.
But I never had that commercial opportunity to be played on the radio, so how could I be popular?
But I did that, and I created another blues scene, another something I can sing about.
Buddy Guy finally got a break and made it. And Buddy Guy deserves it.
Before I left, I opened a lot of doors for a lot of people to play the blues.
B.B. King's maybe been our savior for a long time, but I'm not sure that he's gone as far as Buddy Guy has to do that.
At the time, I put myself in the same category as Jimi Hendrix - and actually, early on up the ladder I was compared to him.
And I can do the rock clubs if I have to.