Was playing with the Buddy Scott band like your first big break into music? \u201cYeah, pretty much Buddy Scott and Jimmy Dawkins; those two absolutely. Buddy Scott was great; he fostered a lot of people in his bands over the years. Michael Coleman, Chaka Khan and her sister were backup singers at one point. Man, he had so many great musicians passing through his bands.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n And then you worked with another amazing performer; Jimmy Dawkins. \u201cJimmy Dawkins was kind of quiet and didn\u2019t give too many instructions, his style was completely different and the West Side style is so raw and I honestly was not prepared for it. I was with him just shy of a year and he eventually said, \u2018Hey man, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re quite ready for this.\u2019 It was definitely a pivotal point because as soon as that happened I immediately knew that I was never going to let anyone else tell me that I wasn\u2019t prepared. And I went into the woodshed really hard for about a year and I was a bass player then. So I made it my point to go out six or seven nights a week, if there was music playing, I was out! Sometimes multiple clubs a night, and I would go see Bob Stroger, I\u2019d go see Fuzz Jones, I\u2019d go see Willie Kent play, Willie Black\u2026all these great bass players that were still in Chicago. I\u2019d sit right in front of them and watch them and then on the breaks I\u2019d go up and talk to them. They were all so cool, man. They never said get out of here or anything. If I asked them a question they\u2019d tell me, \u2018Oh, you gotta\u2019 do this or do this.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I did, so when I got my next opportunity to play I just made sure I was prepared this time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Legendary Blues band and Willie \u2018Big Eyes\u2019 Smith\u2026 \u201cYeah, and that was from going out to all those gigs! So, Melvin Smith another great bass player who was playing with Koko Taylor at the time, he was asked to fill the void because Fuzz Jones was moving down to Senatobia, Mississippi. He wanted to move back close to his hometown. Melvin was already pretty comfortable with his spot in Koko\u2019s band and he told Willie \u2018there\u2019s this young kid, you may like him and I think he\u2019s got something.\u2019 And I ended up doing what I said from going out to all these shows, and asking questions and trying to learn. I was maybe nineteen or twenty. I don\u2019t think I was twenty, yet.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The laundry list of players involved with the Legendary Blues Band reads like the Who\u2019s Who in Blues. Luther \u2018Guitar Jr.\u2019 Johnson, Billy Flynn, Duke Robillard, Little Smokey Smothers\u2026and you\u2019re not even twenty years old, yet!\u201d \u201cI was too na\u00efve to even understand\u2026 I didn\u2019t know better. All I knew, is I wanted to play and I didn\u2019t want to lose a job the way I had with Jimmy Dawkins. I wanted to learn everything I could and be around these amazing musicians. I knew these guys were bad dudes to be with if I wanted to learn it. With that being said, honestly it\u2019s not until now in hindsight where I realize how important it was to be with those guys. I just knew they played all the time and they played the stuff that I liked and if I could be with them and just learn\u2026 that\u2019s all I really want to do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Is that how you met Jimmy Rogers? \u201cSo, backing up, I got the gig with Willie Smith when Fuzz left the band and that lasted for almost four years. But the last year I was with Willie our guitar player, Willie Greeson who went by the name Willie Phillips then. Willie Greeson was having family issues and decided he couldn\u2019t be on the road anymore and Willie Smith knew that I wanted to play guitar so he says, \u2018why don\u2019t you play guitar and you can teach the bass player that comes in.\u2019 So, I ended up switching to guitar that last year and getting my chops going and it just so happened towards the end of the year, Willie had to go on the road with a Muddy tribute tour. I believe it was Fuzz, Willie, Jimmy Rogers, Pinetop, all those guys and it was going to be a six-month tour, so I was stuck at home. Another fellow Chicago side guy, Dave Clark and I were doing a gig one night and he seemed bummed out and I asked what\u2019s up, Dave? He goes, \u2018Aw man, I got the opportunity to do this great tour with Jimmy Rogers but I can\u2019t because I have my son for the summer.\u2019 He was divorced and he couldn\u2019t do it. I said oh man; I\u2019d love to do it. I was playing bass that night and he said, \u2018Oh, man I forget you play guitar, you want me to make a call? I\u2019ll make a call, you could handle this gig.\u2019 I go who\u2019s it with? He says, \u2018Jimmy Rogers.\u2019 Unbeknownst to me and Dave, Willie Smith had told Jimmy the same thing. \u2018Why don\u2019t you use my guy, he\u2019s at home doing nothing.\u2019 I got a call that Sunday morning about 8AM and when you\u2019re like 22 years old when the phone rings at 8 in the morning, you\u2019re like who the\u2026I go Hello and this voice says, \u2018I\u2019m looking for Nick Moss, this is Jimmy Rogers.\u2019 And I go yeah, okay and hung up! And the phone immediately rings back, \u2018Oooh Hey, whoa, don\u2019t hang up this is Jimmy Rogers here!\u2019 Oh, shit and I immediately remembered talking with Dave the night before\u2026I actually thought it was Dave messing with me, and Jimmy said, \u2018I need a guitar player, can you do it?\u2019 And I got the gig with Jimmy and it lasted about three and half years.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Did I read somewhere that when you were a kid you actually got to see Muddy play? \u201cAs a kid, my parents loved all kinds of music. We were fortunate our parents instilled the love of music in both my brother and I. Before the Blues Fest there used to be Chicago Fest and it was staged on the Navy Pier every year. It was a multi-genre of music, all kinds of stuff and a great festival. I can\u2019t remember if it was \u201980 or \u201981 that Muddy played there and we had gone to see someone else but they had cancelled. But my mom took my brother and me down to the festival grounds and by chance Muddy was playing. That was the first time I got to see him. I think Lovie Lee was on piano, Rick Kreher on guitar. I didn\u2019t know what I was watching, but it was cool. My brother and I loved it. My brother had already started to dive into what blues was, because he was big into the rock scene with Zeppelin and ZZ Top. He was already digging into my mom\u2019s record collection. My mom grew up on the South side of Chicago in the 50s and she lived close enough to the Indiana border so she and her girlfriends when they were 16 and 17 would go across the border where you could drink and smoke in the bars at 16 or 17.\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cSo she saw artists like John Brim and Eddie Taylor and all these guys. She didn\u2019t know what she was seeing but she loved it. She had all these 45s of all these blues guys and soul bands.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s talk about the formation of your early band, the Flip Tops. \u201cAfter leaving Jimmy\u2019s band in \u201997 his son came back into the band and I think Jimmy died shortly after that but he had already been diagnosed <\/strong>(cancer) and didn\u2019t want anyone to know and I think he wanted to get his kid back in the band for the end of his career. So, I knew I had to do something and I put this band together. Originally it was going to be my brother and myself and the former bass player and drummer that was with Jimmy towards the end, that were friends of mine, Mark Fornek and Mike McCurdy who played with Dave Specter for a long time. We formed this band and then my brother decided he wanted to go in a different direction, he was more of a soul guy. And it so happened that Lynwood Slim was in town who had moved to Chicago to play with Dave Specter and that kind of fell apart. I was really good friends with Slim until the day he passed and we ended up forming the band together and we played all over Chicago, we played five or six nights a week, touring the mid-West and just having a blast and Slim kinda\u2019 teaching me about the West Coast sound. He always wanted to play the Chicago stuff so he was having fun and we kind of fed off each other.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You release the album First Offense, and Lynwood is on that. \u201cYeah, he produced it, he produced my first three CD\u2019s, I believe.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n You\u2019ve been releasing albums like clockwork every two years. What do have 15 or 16 albums now?Nick just laughs. \u201cSomewhere around there.\u201d <\/strong>You have studio and \u2018live\u2019 recordings. How do you manage to capture the energy of a live show? \u201cI have two that were recorded \u2018live\u2019 at Chan\u2019s and those were recorded probably over six different shows, because we usually didn\u2019t play two nights in a row, so probably it was three weekends of gigs. When you\u2019re playing two 90 minute sets each, you have a lot of material and you just pick the best stuff.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You have production skills as well, how did you end up producing Magic Slim\u2019s album, \u2018Midnight Blues?\u2019 \u201cAt the time, Jerry DelGiudice was courting me to be on Blind Pig\u2019s label and part of the deal was\u2026he knew that I loved Magic Slim and he kind of tossed that out there. \u2018Hey man, would you like to produce a Magic Slim CD?\u2019 Ahh\u2026Yeah! Not realizing how hard that would be\u2026and the only reason I say it was hard is because there was nothing serious about it. There was so much laughter it was hard to stay focused. Slim kept me laughing the whole time. The band kept me laughing, but the material was so good. And Slim just said, you pick the material, so I got to pick all the songs to do. It was just off-the-cuff like that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk a little about your creative process when you make music; is it inspiration or spontaneity, where does it start for Nick Moss? \u201cSo I\u2019ve never looked at it<\/strong> as if I\u2019m fulfilling something within me or fulfilling someone else\u2026the only way I\u2019ve ever known it is this. When I was a little kid, my mom\u2019s record collection was awesome and you listen to so many different records growing up and I remember one day running through the house and playing with a friend. I must have been six or seven years old. My mom had a B.B. King record playing, I think it was Mississippi Seeds, I can\u2019t even remember what song it was but right in the middle he was playing this wicked solo, a really sparse solo and in between notes he\u2019s hitting these falsetto\u2019s\u2026singing. And it stopped me dead in my tracks. For me I didn\u2019t hear it\u2026I felt it. It felt like a bolt of lightning, like my whole body buzzed. I felt like this\u2026 Zzzzzzzzz! I didn\u2019t process it through my ears; I processed it through my body\u2026and my friend is saying, \u2018C\u2019mon, c\u2019mon!\u2019 And I go wait, wait, wait and I just stood there next to these big tower speakers because my dad had bought a new stereo system and I was standing next to the speaker just mesmerized<\/strong> by what was coming out. I remember looking at my mom who was in the kitchen and asked, what\u2019s that? My mom says, \u2018that\u2019s B.B. King!\u2019 I said what\u2019s a B.B. King? I didn\u2019t know. My mom says, \u2018That\u2019s a B.B. King!\u2019 I said, play it again.\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cI think, getting back to the question is anytime I get to make music or get to write music or anytime I get to stand on stage playing music with anyone I love to be with, I\u2019m continually and constantly chasing that feeling that I got when I was eight years old when I first felt that buzz go through my body.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What is it about 50s and 60s Chicago blues that appeals to you? \u201cI just think there\u2019s a lot of deep emotion in those songs. A lot of the jump blues are meant to be up and stuff and some of the country blues are meant to be heartfelt. There\u2019s something about that 50s and 60s Chicago sound whether it\u2019s up tempo or slow it runs the gamut of emotion. We try to have a lot of dynamics on our set too, when we play. And just the dynamics of the way those guys played, it just pulled me in so many different directions\u2026it\u2019s such a powerful and masculine sound sometimes\u2026raw. And then sometimes it\u2019s just the most beautiful and lush thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk a little about working with Michael Ledbetter. \u201cAh, Mike was a unicorn. The kid just came out of nowhere. I wrote a song for him after he passed called, \u2018The Comet\u2019 because that\u2019s what I feel like he was\u2026a beautiful, bright, flying, burning ember that we all got to witness for a split second. And then it was gone! One thing about Mike, his performances, he had a way of making people feel really good immediately. He had such a big presence and quite honestly he had a lasting impact on me because I\u2019ve had anxiety issues since I was a kid and I get different responses. People think I\u2019m an asshole if I don\u2019t talk to them or if I\u2019m quiet. But if I know you, then its game over I\u2019m your best pal. But if I don\u2019t know people in a crowded room I kind of seize up so people either think I\u2019m mad or I\u2019m an asshole. And I\u2019m not that guy. I remember with Mike when he was with my band for the first six months and we had played a few places and made our rounds again\u2026playing places for the second time. I\u2019d watch Mike walk around saying, \u2018Hey Jim, Hey Tom, Hey Sally.\u2019 He knew all these fucking people by name! I\u2019m going how do you know all these people? He said, \u2018What do you mean? You know they were all here last time.\u2019 Dude, I\u2019ve been playing these places for thirty years and I don\u2019t know anyone\u2019s name.\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cAnd he just looks at me and goes, \u2018why don\u2019t you try and learn.\u2019\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cAnd you know what man; he made me get over my anxiety. I\u2019m here to perform and people are here to see me, you can give a little bit more of yourself, Nick! And he did that for me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You write so much, how does music come to you? Do you write with an instrument? \u201cA lot of times, I want to play in a certain style. I want to do something like Lightnin\u2019 Slim or do something like Muddy or T-Bone or 60s B.B. King or 70s Freddie King. That happens and a lot of times I love\u2026I\u2019m a listener probably because of my anxiety where I clam up and listen to conversations. You know I hate the shit that\u2019s on the news but I pay attention and things I read. One of my favorite sources\u2026you know Baptist churches have the best marquees. You drive by some of these Baptist churches; I\u2019ve gotten just off their marquees titles of songs, well that\u2019s a song right there. I\u2019m going to write a song about that. \u2018High Cost of Low Living\u2019 the title of one of my Alligator CDs and songs came from a Baptist church sign driving through West Virginia. It read, there\u2019s a high cost for low living and you can pay up this Sunday. I go, Oh that\u2019s great\u2026I\u2019m using that!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Like I said, paying attention, I love observing and I\u2019m an observational humor guy. I love people watching and I\u2019m constantly in awe of everything around me. I\u2019ve always been that way, I notice everything. My drummer, Pierce <\/strong>(Downer) said to me the other day, \u2018God, I wish there was a window into your brain, so I could see how this stuff develops.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the joy of performance or the storytelling that means the most to you? \u201cA little bit of both. I particularly love a story. I love to hear the story of things. Because I\u2019m long-winded man, and I\u2019ll talk!\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cAnd I can see it in people\u2019s faces in the audience, you know? Aw, get on with it\u2026play the song!\u201d <\/strong>(laughing) \u201cAll the stories, man. Barrelhouse Chuck would tell me all these great stories about Little Brother Montgomery. You know he took care of Little Brother, till Brother passed away\u2026because he was his idol, him and Sunnyland <\/strong>(Slim). It was Sunnyland that put him in touch with Brother, so Chuck felt it was his honor and his duty to take care of these old guys, so he would go there every day, help wash his clothes and bring his food. One of my favorite stories and I wrote a song about Barrelhouse Chuck when he passed away called \u2018He Walked with Giants.\u2019 And it was my tribute to Barrelhouse Chuck. Chuck told me this story\u2026one day he and Little Brother were having lunch and Brother was telling Chuck what Michigan Avenue was like when he first moved to Chicago. And Chuck said, \u2018Wow man, it\u2019s nothing like that now.\u2019 And Brother told him, \u2018I haven\u2019t been on Michigan Avenue in 30 years.\u2019 Chuck says, \u2018What are you talking about, let\u2019s go! I\u2019ll take you; you\u2019ve got to see this.\u2019 And it was like two in the morning and he took Little Brother downtown on the Southside and they parked the car and walked up and down Michigan Avenue and Little Brother was just silent, looking at all the buildings. All of a sudden he says, \u2018you know there used to be a club here. I played with Louis Jordan here\u2019 and all these other great musicians he played with at these spots. Chuck is just soaking it all in and turns around and Brother is like a block behind him, he had stopped. He goes back and Little Brother is just standing there shaking his head. Chuck says, \u2018Are you alright?\u2019 Brother says, \u2018You know Chuck, there was one time I walked with giants on this street.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I\u2019m looking across the table and Nick is just shaking his head. \u201cAw, man that\u2019s heavy as hell. That\u2019s heavy man. And I ended up writing that song for Chuck.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ode to Barrelhouse Chuck \u2013 \u2018He Walked with Giants\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/adventure\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nick-Moss1.jpg\")
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