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That\u2019s exactly what happened to Michael Stone; you and I know him better as Stoney B. The twist and turns of his musical road, including four years in Army khakis, have taken him from the streets and bars of Chicago through a maze of clubs and juke joints across the entire South. Over a decade of that period he honed his performance and entertainment skills around the Big Easy. Those years of dedication would pay off with an invite to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. It would take Hurricane Katrina to force him to leave and with a short stop in Texas, Stoney B would eventually find his way to the West Coast and San Diego. And that\u2019s where we caught up with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s start with your childhood, born in Chicago\u2026when did you realize who your father was and what he did for a living? \u201cFirst of all.\u201d <\/strong>Stoney says. \u201cMy father was the friend of a guy named Earnest Stone and they were good friends. Earnest Stone was with my mother and they broke up. When Earnest left, my father and mother got to be friends and I was the first product of that. My father, Lil Howlin\u2019 Wolf (Jessie Sanders) has five kids by my mother, and I\u2019m the first one. My mother had four girls and when she met my father, I was my mother\u2019s first son. My mother and father broke up when I was eleven years old. We were living in Chicago; in the projects on the Southside of Chicago.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you ever have the chance to meet Howlin\u2019 Wolf? \u201cI didn\u2019t know Chester Burnett, \u2018the Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019 and it\u2019s in question, whether or not my father was Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019s illegitimate son. When Howlin\u2019 Wolf left Mississippi and went to Chicago, my father followed him and the word I got through family is that when my father went to Chicago, Howlin\u2019 Wolf didn\u2019t want him because Wolf had his family with him. You see my father sounded, vocally just like Howlin\u2019 Wolf! Let me tell you, my dad and Howlin\u2019 Wolf had the same kind of vocal chords and it wasn\u2019t a put-on that was my dad\u2019s natural voice. I don\u2019t know if Chester Burnett is my biological grandfather, all I know is they were close. Back in Mississippi they went down to juke joints and my father would follow him when he could.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJimmy Reed, Elmore James, B.B. King and Muddy Waters were my main influences. You even say their names and I lose my mind.\u201d<\/em> — Stoney B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You said your mother and father broke up when you were young? \u201cMy father left when I was eleven and it was about two years later when I got into music because of my upstairs neighbor. We lived on the thirteenth floor and my friend Derek, lived on the fourteenth floor. His father was into gospel music and had bought him a bass guitar. I\u2019m sitting at home and I hear this boom, boom, booma, boom coming through the walls and I go upstairs to find out what\u2019s going on. Derek had a bass guitar and I was really infatuated with it. I was thirteen and said let me try it. It was the first musical instrument I had ever tried to play in my life. I would go up to his house everyday\u2026let me play on that bass. After a couple of months, Derek\u2019s dad said let me buy Derek a guitar and let Michael Stone play the bass and that\u2019s what he did. One thing led to another and we learned to play by ear. Everything that Derek learned, I learned. We practiced it. The first song I learned to play was \u2018Get Ready\u2019 by the Temptations. You couldn\u2019t tell me shit! I knew how to play that!\u201d<\/strong> (laughing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any special memories stand out from that first band? \u201cWhen Derek and I were learning about music, Derek on guitar and me on bass and my next door neighbor, Gregory Hunter turned out to be our drummer. We were called the 4947 Laundry Room Band. We were kids, 14 or 15 years old and our parents loved that we were interested in music but nobody wanted us in their house.\u201d (laughing) \u201cYou all go on down to the laundry room in the middle of the building where the elevators were. And later on my brother, Larry started singing and he had a fine voice. We entered a music contest at the Regal Theater in Chicago and one of our competitors was the Jackson 5. Michael Jackson sang \u2018Who\u2019s Lovin\u2019 You\u2019 and boy the women just went crazy. Joe Jackson really pressured them, they had to dress, they had steps, they had the music lined up and they were professional. We were amateurs. I mean, they just came and blew everybody else away\u2026three times in a row. During that time we were known as the Rayshons and we had these little purple and red outfits that Derek\u2019s father had gotten for us. I remember one night when Jermaine Jackson showed up and something was wrong with his amp and he borrowed mine. At that time I had no idea that these guys out of Indiana would go on to be world famous.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Did your father ever take you to meet some of his musical friends? \u201cI remember the first time my dad took me to see B.B. King at the Burning Spear club on State Street in Chicago. He got me in because everyone knew he was Lil\u2019 Howlin\u2019 Wolf. He started taking me out to Silvio\u2019s and Theresa\u2019s and people got to know me before they knew I even played music.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your father lived a good portion of his life in Memphis? \u201cHe was still doing shows but he had touches of Alzheimer\u2019s and my dad would talk to anybody, he was friendly like that and everybody knew him. At his funeral, all of the kids one-by-one would get up say something and thank people for coming. I loved my dad and that was the first time I admitted to myself that I wanted to be just like him. I never said that before, I\u2019m looking at him in his casket; the music, the personality and the character, everything that he was\u2026was inside of me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n He played with Jimmy Reed, Little Junior Parker\u2026\u201cKoko Taylor, the list is endless. Billy Branch, Sugar Blue, everybody in Chicago.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s little wonder why your sound is so diverse. You play Delta and Chicago style blues, but there are traces of R&B, Soul and even Gospel in your current sets. \u201cIt was fed into my ears and remember I\u2019ve never had a music lesson in my life. Blues and Gospel music has a feeling to it. It\u2019s an emotional real thing. You either feel it or you don\u2019t. My favorite number one Gospel group is the Mighty Clouds of Joy. I used to go right across the street to the DuSable Auditorium when I was living in the projects; the DuSable High School was directly across the street. And on Sundays they had the Gospel show and at the time I think it was $1.25 to get in. And I would go listen to the Gospel music, sometimes they would have the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Jackson Southernaires and all these groups traveling out of Memphis and Mississippi.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s talk about influences outside of the family. \u201cJimmy Reed, Elmore James, B.B. King and Muddy Waters were my main influences. You even say their names and I lose my mind. They got that beat and the music goes right along with it. You don\u2019t even know your feet are moving. The blues will grab you.\u201d<\/strong> (laughing) \u201cThe last two times B.B. came out to San Diego, I got to open for him at Humphrey\u2019s main stage.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Had you met him before? \u201cWhen I was living in Atlanta, B.B. was playing somewhere downtown and I was playing at a blues club called Blind Willie\u2019s in Virginia Highlands. I went to the show and when it was over and everybody was leaving, I walked up toward the stage and the security guy was there. I said look here my man can I go back and see B.B. and he said I can\u2019t let anybody back. I went in my wallet and got one of my business cards and put a twenty dollar bill with it. Do me a favor and just tell B.B. Little Wolf\u2019s son is here to see him. He said stay right there and he went in the back. In two minutes he came back and said follow me. I went in the dressing room and B.B. was in there with a couple of women and when I came in he said, \u2018Who is your Daddy?\u2019 I said Lil\u2019 Howlin\u2019 Wolf. He said, \u2018Oh man!\u2019 And another thing I was told to say hi to you from somebody in Leland, Mississippi. And when I said Leland, Mississippi B.B. sat straight up and asked, \u2018Who said to say hi?\u2019 I said, \u2018Lil Bill.\u2019 And he clapped his hands and smiled. (Alex \u2018Lil\u2019 Bill\u2019 Wallace) taught B.B. how to play. Lil\u2019 Bill was a used car salesman in Leland, Mississippi and when I was living in the Delta area I knew him; I got to play in the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival twice.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Music has been such a big part of your life, how did your military service affect that? \u201cI played bass from the time I was thirteen until I was twenty and then I went into the Army. In the Army I bought a guitar. I took my second military pay check and bought a Fender Stratocaster guitar. I taught my little brother Lonnie how to play the bass. When I came out of the Army, Lonnie was better on the bass than I was. I sat on the edge of my bed trying to figure out what to do with them bottom two strings.\u201d (laughing) \u201cThe bass has four strings and a guitar has six. No amplifier but I could hear it and put things together, little by little and when I got out of the Army after four years, I went back to Chicago with a guitar and they were laughing at me\u2026until they started listening to me. All of the blues music my dad influenced me with coming up, stayed with me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve been on the stage since I was fifteen years old, but I didn\u2019t actually start singing and fronting a band until after I came out of the Army. When I was a bass player in Chicago, I wasn\u2019t singing I was just playing bass. That\u2019s why they were laughing at me when I came out of the Army because I got a guitar and I\u2019m singing. Then when people came out to see\u2026just who the hell is Stoney B blues? One year after I got out of the Army, I formed the first Stoney B blues band. We played from 1979 to 1986. At the same time, I was playing behind so many musicians in Chicago, it wasn\u2019t even funny. I could sing, open up the show, play guitar, and MC. I was with Queen Sylvia Embry. She was a bass player out of the church and she could sing like an angel. Johnny \u2018Guitar\u2019 Embry was her husband and they broke up and got back together, broke up and got back together. One of the bands was Johnny \u2018Guitar\u2019 Embry and the Blues Kings and Sylvia saw me playing with him one time. Then when she found out I could play bass and guitar\u2026AND sing, she pulled me aside. So, I was playing with Queen Sylvia and Johnny\u2019s Blues Kings and some months I only had four days off. I was playing music every damn night. My own band played every Monday at Lee\u2019s Unleaded Blues with Buddy Scott and the Rib Tips. He started me off at the club\u2019s Blue Monday party.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be a fan who recorded one of those \u2018party nights\u2019 that Stoney says, turned him around. \u201cI did not like what I heard because I was drinkin\u2019 and smokin\u2019 weed. I thought I was feeling my own, like King Kong higher than a MF\u2019er. My singing wasn\u2019t clear, my guitar playing was sloppy. So, I quit! No drinking and performing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you play around Chicago with your dad? \u201cI didn\u2019t play with my dad much. All together, I maybe performed with my dad just three times. My dad had his own band and they were all seasoned musicians. Musically, my father was my biggest influence because he took me from the beginning until he passed away. I looked up to my dad and admired him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of those Chicago clubs are still considered legendary. \u201cKingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S. Yeah, I played at Wise Fools, Biddy Mulligan\u2019s\u2026\u201d <\/strong>Did you play at Silvio\u2019s? \u201cNo, but my dad did, my dad played Silvio\u2019s a lot. And there was Theresa\u2019s. Junior Wells gave me a harp one time. It was a C harp and I\u2019ll never forget it. And I tried to play it and it made my lips sore and I never put another harmonica to my mouth again. And Junior Wells used to call me, \u2018Lil\u2019 MF\u2019er!\u2019 (laughing) \u201cJunior would walk around saying, \u2018Where\u2019s that Lil\u2019 MF\u2019er at?\u2019 (laughing) \u201cI admired Junior Wells so much. First of all, he was one of the sharpest dressers and he\u2019d always sit at the end of the bar, by himself. He got to liking me because I respected him. He was so much older than me. Junior Wells and Buddy Guy knew my dad very well.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You had a chance to work with Son Thomas and Roosevelt \u2018Booba\u2019 Barnes? \u201cSon Thomas I met and played with and I had the chance to talk with him a little bit, but Son Thomas was one of the older guys. And another guy named T-Model Ford\u2026and Roosevelt \u2018Booba\u2019 Barnes. When I left Chicago in 1986, I went to Greenville, Mississippi. I was living in a little motel right outside of town and a cab driver told me, I see you\u2019ve got a guitar. You know they play the blues down on Nelson Street. I waited till Friday night and the cabbie took me down to Nelson Street to Roosevelt \u2018Booba\u2019 Barnes\u2019 Playboy Club. I walked in carrying a guitar and Booba had a bass player, a drummer and some other guy who could play guitar a little bit and Booba said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna\u2019 get you to come up and play a couple of songs.\u2019 You know, to see if I was worth a damn. So I got up and played and people liked it. Booba asked me, \u2018what\u2019s your story?\u2019 I said look man, I just got in town I\u2019m stayin\u2019 in a hotel out by the highway and I\u2019ve got no place to stay, no money and no job. He said, \u2018Well man, I could use you in my band.\u2019 He was living in the back of the club, so I was sleeping on the pool table!\u201d (laughing) \u201cI was playing with Booba for a couple of months and sleeping on the pool table and I\u2019d help him at night when the club closed, cleaning up and emptying the trash, mopping the floor. Right down the street was a place called the \u2018Flowing Fountain\u2019 and that was Little Milton\u2019s hangout. The guy who owned the \u2018Flowing Fountain\u2019 was named Perry Payton and he was a mortician, he had his own funeral home business.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your music and most blues is based on storytelling\u2026are you a storyteller? \u201cWhen my dad was singing and playing the blues in the house, he\u2019d be singing and playing like it was real. Even though it was nothing but a song, I was young and impressionable and I\u2019m learning and you can have me believing anything if you know how to do it. And the blues, every song that I sing, when I sing it, I put myself into that song. I\u2019m going to try and make you believe. Whatever I sing, I want you to believe me. You can feel me better if you believe me and I like that connection. That\u2019s why I love playing for the senior citizens over at St. Paul\u2019s\u2026they\u2019re not drinking, they\u2019re not dancing, they\u2019re sitting there listening. They tell me, \u2018Oh, I was so into what you were doing, I listened to every syllable that came out of your mouth; I listened to you!\u2019 No distractions. You know that meant a lot to me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The early 90s you find your way to New Orleans and you meet a blues guy by the name of Bryan Lee. \u201cBryan Lee! That\u2019s my boy! Blind Bryan Lee, man he was playing the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street. One of the first nights I got there, I was walking down the street and I heard the blues and I walked up and looked in this place and Bryan Lee was up there playing. I didn\u2019t know at the time he was blind. About six or seven month later I was opening up for Bryan Lee at the Old Absinthe Bar. When I first got to New Orleans I was a street musician. I\u2019d been ripped off and didn\u2019t have a guitar, but someone gave me one but it didn\u2019t have any strings. I took that guitar and right off of Jackson Square on St. Peters Street, I got up on the wall and with no strings on this guitar I put my tip box out and told people I can play any song you name. How can they tell if I\u2019m right or wrong, I didn\u2019t have any strings on the damn thing? It was like I was a comedy act out there.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Stoney demonstrates and sings \u2018My baby left me\u2019 <\/strong>and strums an invisible guitar without strings. \u2018I got the blues, pretty baby.\u2019 \u201cAnd people just stopped they\u2019d never seen anything like that before. Even other musicians were wondering what the hell is going on? Here\u2019s this black man down there with a guitar and no strings on it and there\u2019s a damn crowd around him and a half a box of money. What is the world coming to?\u201d <\/strong>(laughing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n After establishing yourself in New Orleans what were some of the clubs you played in? \u201cThe first club I performed in on Bourbon Street was called, The Funky Pirate. I also played the Famous Door, the R&B Club, Tropical Isle\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m amazed at the number of clubs and bars you\u2019ve played all over the South, From Blind Willie\u2019s in Atlanta to the Mean Woman\u2019s Grill in Lubbock. \u201cMan, I done played so many of them Chitlin\u2019 Circuit juke joints and I\u2019m talking about the real juke joints, down in Mississippi, I played Clancy\u2019s in South Carolina, Spartanburg and people were comin\u2019 up in there, man. People were comin\u2019 from other clubs to come to Clancy\u2019s to see this black guy playing the blues. It was full on the inside and people lined up outside with people looking in the windows.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You also played the Jazz Fest in 2008. \u201cYeah, I can\u2019t remember the year but me and Grandpa played there.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk a little about Grandpa Elliott (Elliott Small). \u201cGrandpa was the leader of an a cappella group in New Orleans and every now and then would pass me when I was playing in Jackson Square. I had Chili Groove on the tub bass, you know the No.#2 foot tub? He had a string in the middle of it and connected to a pole. He would hit that string and pull on it and change the tone. When we started playing together Grandpa and I were with each other almost every day for 12 years and we never once practiced or rehearsed\u2026and every year we played at the Washington Parish fair, we were small stage specialists. There was never a better harmonica player; he was the best in town, period. There was no harmonica player in New Orleans better than Grandpa. Smoky Greenwell was No. #2. The first time Grandpa and I played together all I had to do was tell Grandpa what key the song was in. And he would know which harp to get. When we started playing, I had perfect vision and Grandpa had perfect vision. Slowly, glaucoma took his vision away and Grandpa went blind. Now here I am with glaucoma\u2026man, I went through nine months of depression.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Stoney2.jpg\")
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