The bands Bo Diddley was honoured to share a bill with
As one of the major figures who was present for the transition from blues into rock and roll from the 1940s into the 1950s, Bo Diddley will have had the pleasure of playing with such a wealth of incredible performers throughout his storied career.
Beginning his career in the ‘40s, although not becoming a well-known musician until afterwards, he would have cut his teeth performing with many of the most formidable bluesmen from the period, and joined bands that contained legends such as Jody Williams and Earl Hooker during this era.
However, it was in the transitional phase during the following decade that Diddley would come into his own, developing a far more distinctive style and embracing the rock and roll explosion. With an already electrifying playing style, Diddley was able to fit seamlessly with the times and turned himself into something of a superstar with the release of his eponymous single in 1955.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he ended up experiencing a greater crossover appeal with white audiences, because of his general interest in participating in various different scenes and attempting to work with styles that were outside of his usual territory. His continued success in the 1960s was a result of him trying his hand at various other genres, including surf rock, and a return to the blues, albeit with a slightly heavier approach.
His popularity and desire to keep performing late into his career is ultimately what helped him remain such an iconic and inspirational figure to artists across multiple genres and throughout the decades, but dispute the wealth of people he will have performed with over the years, there’s one particular day that allegedly stood out to him more than any other for the strength of the bill.
During a 2011 interview with Classic Rock, Randy Bachman of The Guess Who recalled a time in 1969 when he was performing at the Seattle Pop Festival, and among the high-profile names on the bill was Diddley, whom he looked up to as an inspiration.
However, despite treating him with the reverence that he deserved, it was Diddley who was seemingly more impressed by the artists he was playing alongside, which included the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Byrds and Ike & Tina Turner.
“I met Bo Diddley just before he died in 2008, and I went up to him and said: ‘Mr McDaniel, do you remember playing the Seattle Pop Festival?’” he revealed, referring to the artist by his birth name of Elias McDaniel. “‘Well, I’ve got a handbill from it that I’d like to give you.’”
Allegedly, Diddley’s eyes lit up at the idea of being gifted some memorabilia from the festival, because, as Bachman explained, there was no recorded evidence of it ever taking place, nor were there many remaining flyers or posters. “Oh, thank you,” Diddley supposedly said in response to Bachman. “At last, I can prove to my grandchildren that I was on the same bill as all those great bands. They always thought I was lying!”
