Page 34 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2023 Digital Edition

There was a piano, and I said, “Who’s playing this?” He
said, “Nobody.” Mr. Blue started playing there and never
looked back. Man, after I got that job, I never checked
anything (other jobs) out again. I got my tips, $35-$40 in a
beer joint, a night!
Later, I was waiting tables at a Wichita Falls club, and a lady
there played piano. One time she was sick and somebody said,
“Don’t you play?” So I played. I was making $2 a night waiting
tables. That night I made $35 in tips! She’d sometimes pretend
to be sick so I could sit in. I figured, if I can get this kind of
money for 30-40 minutes, what the hell do I need a day job for?
One night, Woody Herman was there. His theme song was
“Blue Flame,” and the piano player was late, so he gave me
a solo and man, the whole house clapped, clapped, clapped.
When the piano player came in, Woody said, “You got to pay
this kid.” The exact thing happened later with Pinetop Perkins.
Muddy Waters was playing at a place in L.A. Pinetop was late
and they asked me to sit in. After the first set, Pinetop showed
up. Muddy said, “Pinetop, I’m going to pay you just to sit and
listen. You got to hear this kid, he sounds just like Otis Spann.”
Since then, Muddy and I were good friends.
My time with Ike and Tina was good, says Mr. Blue. I went
all over the world. He was a hard-working man. They fought,
but nobody in the band ever saw them fight. Only time they
ever fought in public, we were going to Dallas and [they] fought His work with the Mannish Boys (he’s featured on three
on the plane. She whopped his butt (laughs). When we got to albums) was fun, Mr. Blue says. One of the biggest singles
Dallas, we didn’t see Tina for six months. That was the end of [still] selling today in Paris is “She Wants To Sell My Monkey”
Ike and Tina Turner. (from Delta Groove’s 2005 Live & In Demand, with Mr. Blue
Asked about his sharp-dressing, Mr. Blue says, It comes on lead vocals and solo piano). He’s also the vocalist on the
from me being a Virgo. When I was a kid, I decided that when Boys’ hit, “You Been Goofin,” from the 2004 Delta Groove
I grow up, I would like to dress! I never wear blue jeans unless album That Represent Man.
I’m working around the house. I love to dress. How was his time with Albert Collins? I remember liking to
do “Honey Hush” and “The Things I Used To Do” with Albert,
and T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday” too. I went to Australia
and Europe with Albert. He was a good worker; real quiet.
Albert Collins and B.B. King were good; I have no complaints
about working with them.
Mr. Blue and Albert Collins eventually moved to Las Vegas.
Albert came here in 1992 and I came in January of 1993, Mr.
Blue remembers, and he died on Thanksgiving morning, 1993.
He had lung cancer, and he really did suffer. I love Las Vegas
now. Mr. Blue just completed his 30 year in Vegas, but he
th
also spends several weeks a year in Holland and France, and
sometimes in Japan.
I was on a boogie-woogie festival in 2000. That’s when I met
[current wife] Renee. I told her, “You are going to be Mrs. Blue.”
She said I was crazy. Look now, we’ve been together almost 13
years. One of the best friends I ever had.
Working with Albert King was the only job that I got fired
four times. All the women he liked; they liked me. (laughs) He
fired me in Kansas City and St. Louis. In Mississippi, Charles
Evers (Medgar Evers’ brother) had a daughter. Albert King liked
her, but she liked me. And he fired me again! (laughs) It was
never about the music.
The best part of my life was when I played with B.B. King,
Mr. Blue says. It was the biggest money I ever made, too. You

32 Blues Festival Guide 2023