It's well known that Buddy Guy had a huge impact on the direction of Eric Clapton’s career. What's less frequently noted is how much Clapton and his fellow British blues guitarists breathed new life into Guy's career, helping him reach a younger white audience.
Before traveling across the pond, Guy struggled to make a name for himself in America. Radio stations, if they did pick up his music, would get him confused with other Black artists.
In England, however, he found himself at the heart of the British blues explosion, and the scene’s most influential players were falling over him.
“When I went to England in 1965 with this Strat, all the super British guitar players, like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, they all looked at me and said, ‘Man, I didn’t know that kind of guitar could play the blues,”’ he told Guitar World. “Then they all went out and bought Strats.”
They also loved the tone that emanated from his Fender Bassman amp (which would later be accidentally left behind on a runway).
During a new career-spanning chat with Rolling Stone, Guy reflected on those evocative formative years. He tells how upon seeing “a white face” in the crowd at one of his shows, he assumed the man was with the police.
“It was Eric Clapton,” Guy recalls with a laugh.
And although Guy was embraced by the British blues community, he didn’t understand every facet of its culture.
“I saw the [Rolling] Stones coming with the high heels on, almost looked like a woman,” he says. “I’m saying, ‘What is this?’ I got to San Francisco, and I said, ‘Man, look at this.’ I didn’t know what a hippie was. I saw men with long hair. But they were going crazy [for my music].”
His career did a full 180 degrees. But it was a long road to get there. Growing up on a farm in Lettsworth, Louisiana, with no electricity, Guy didn't know about the blues until he heard a fieldhand playing John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" on a guitar. That same fieldhand became his guitar teacher, and his first guitar — a gift from his father — only had two strings.
Guy found work as a session musician, notably playing on Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor," and his rhythm chops found him in great demand. “They would call my house because they couldn’t get this guitar player down to play the rhythm they wanted,” Guy remembers.
What worries me most is the young person don’t hear the blues anymore
Buddy Guy
Fast-forward to 2025, and he’s refusing to retire until the genre he’s so tirelessly pushed for one hell of a lifetime gets the recognition it deserves.
“I’m the last old man still walking and playing the blues,” he tells Rolling Stone. “That’s what we talked about with Muddy and Howlin’ Wolf before they died. They said, ‘Buddy, please keep the blues alive.’ And I’m tryin’.”
His role in the Ryan Coogler-directed, genre-blurring film Sinners has helped introduce the blues to a new generation of players, but he isn’t resting on his laurels yet.
“My grandkids know about it,” he concludes. “But what about your grandkids? What worries me most, the young person don’t hear it anymore because they don’t play it no more.”
Meanwhile, Samantha Fish has named the next-gen guitarists keeping the blues alive, and Grace Bowers has reflected on her fast-rising star in the face of sexism from the industry.
