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I\u2019ve had the privilege of sitting down with John on several occasions and I\u2019ve always been amazed at his unlimited energy and drive. This time we spoke just prior to a show in San Diego and the conversation included his road, his music and the debut of his own daughter, Aliya; and the next generation of blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it true that you made your first instrument, a diddley bow? \u201cYeah, I did.\u201d <\/strong>John says. \u201cI used some wire that came out of my grand mama\u2019s broom or sometimes we\u2019d burn up a car tire and get the wire outta\u2019 there. That was the best one, the best one to make a diddley bow out of. But my uncle and cousin had one made up already and I learned from that until I started making my own. It was just one string and you\u2019d nail it to the house or wherever you could nail it and use a bottle to get sound out of it and that\u2019s where I started from, you know?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell me about your first musical memories or when you first heard the blues? \u201cMy grandma\u2019s record collection is where I first heard the blues and stuff like that; it was from a record, yeah. We had 78s and 45s. I had a cousin that lived down the hill from me, she had a wind-up phonograph. So my cousin had it and I\u2019d get up in a chair like this, so I could reach it and play it. I\u2019d play Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Get in that chair and wind it up and listen to it play those 78 records. Muddy Waters, \u2018Can\u2019t Be Satisfied\u2019 John Lee Hooker\u2026\u201d <\/strong>(John breaks into song) \u2018\u2026my baby got somethin\u2019 I sure do love\u2026my baby got something.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Being from a share cropping family, you grew up working? \u201cI did, yeah. We couldn\u2019t go to the fields until we got twelve years old, I started in the field then. But picking cotton and stuff wasn\u2019t my\u2026I never wanted to do that kinda\u2019 stuff, I wanted to play guitar and be a musician. I didn\u2019t think I could do good picking cotton or pullin\u2019 corn; too rough for me. But I did it, yeah.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember the first time you actually played on a guitar? \u201cUh, I was about three or four years old. I had a cousin who had one, it was an acoustic guitar but I don\u2019t remember what the name was, I was too little to know. I couldn\u2019t read then, I was too young.\u201d <\/strong>But you knew you wanted to play it. \u201cI wanted to play guitar, all my life I wanted to be a musician.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You leave Mississippi for Chicago in 1963. \u201cI came to Chicago when I was eighteen years old. It was great! Music was everywhere, comin\u2019 all out of people\u2019s houses, bands playing and rehearsing in houses. When I was growing up in Mississippi I thought all those guys that were singing the blues back then were up in blues heaven; thought they\u2019d passed. But when I got to Chicago I found out this is where they all was\u2026in Chicago.\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cHowlin\u2019 Wolf, Jimmy Reed\u2026all those guys were in Chicago.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk a little about Maxwell Street. \u201cIn 1963 I used to go down there all the time, every Sunday. I used to see a guy named One Arm John <\/strong>(Big John Wrencher) and I knew him really well, I couldn\u2019t figure out how he could blow that harmonica with one arm, but he was a good harmonica player. And you\u2019d see Muddy Waters down there and John Lee Hooker. I just wasn\u2019t familiar with all these guys because when I was in Mississippi, I was familiar with Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins and Arthur \u2018Big Boy\u2019 Crudup\u2026 all the old guys, Big Bill Broonzy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The clubs and bars in Chicago in the 50s and 60s were pretty rowdy places to play. \u201cYeah, it was insane. They\u2019d be fighting in there or they get drunk and some of the men would get jealous because some other man was talking to his woman. I remember when Little Walter played, he was a handsome dude and the women were crazy about him, so there\u2019d be a fight even before the show was over. Little Walter was crazy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Snooky Pryor told me about a place called the \u2018Bucket o\u2019 Blood\u2019 you ever play there? \u201cI remember that. There was a place called the \u2018Bucket o\u2019 Blood\u2019 and we weren\u2019t allowed to go in there. My friends\u2026it was in Chicago and my buddies, you know I\u2019d hear them talk about the Bucket o\u2019 Blood and I knew where it was, but I was too afraid to go in there!\u201d <\/strong>(laughing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you listen to John Primer\u2019s blues, you hear influences from the Delta, there\u2019s some funk and R&B as well. How do you get all these styles to flow through your music? \u201cI learned when I started to play guitar and I kept learning when I came to Chicago. See, when I grew up I came up with all that music. All the blues, the old-time blues they were creating back then, everybody was playing it. That\u2019s why I know so much old blues from way back. I\u2019m just like an elephant; I don\u2019t forget nothin\u2019\u2026I remember! I could play the blues when I was down in Mississippi but when I came to Chicago I studied all types of music.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018She Do the Right Thing All of the Time\u2019 – John Primer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n