The four greatest bluesmen, according to Buddy Guy: “Without a doubt”
For any artist, the word “influential” is always a welcome compliment, but in the case of blues guitarist Buddy Guy, it’s been used so often, for so many years, that one can’t help but feel it’s wound up selling him short a bit.
Every guitar hero from Eric Clapton to Jimmy Page to Jeff Beck has professed their profound admiration for Guy, and plenty of accolades have come his way, including a Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2015. However, the argument could still be made that Guy’s merits as a true, all-time guitar virtuoso are still undervalued. That’s because, during the height of his powers in the 1960s, the guitarist was routinely stuck in the shadows of other legends—all of whom were recording with the same iconic Chicago blues label, Chess Records.
“If you can find any greater blues than Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson at the same time, you tell me where it is,” Guy told the Chicago Tribune back in 1989. “That’s without a doubt the best foursome I’ve ever seen when it comes to blues. If I would ever get in a position to make a million dollars, I don’t think that million dollars would make me feel inside like what I felt sitting beside Muddy Waters or the Wolf or Little Walter.”
Incredibly, Buddy Guy was mostly limited to the role of session guitarist with Chess during his seven years on the label’s payroll from 1960 to 1967, when he was in his late 20s. On one hand, those years clearly had a gigantic impact on Guy and created some of the best memories of his life, both in terms of musical collaborations and personal friendships. At the same time, he also felt constrained at times as an artist, as the Chess management team weren’t convinced that the ferocious, freestyle nature of Guy’s live shows would translate to the recording studio. The infamous quote from Leonard Chess was that Buddy’s solo playing sounded like he was “just making noise.”
Guy understood why some people didn’t understand his style at first. “I just go completely nuts when I play my guitar,” he said. “I had always listened to the people in Chess studios when I would turn up the guitar and play, and they used to tell me, ‘Who’s going to listen to that garbage, all that noise?’
With his profile held in check, Guy lived what looks like a surreal life in retrospect, playing studio sessions with his heroes Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter, then working a regular day job as a truck driver, and finally popping into the local Chicago blues clubs late into the night. It was only later, as new, similarly noisy players like Jimi Hendrix emerged, that producers recognised Guy’s wider appeal and the influence his live shows had already had on dozens of guitarists.
“All of a sudden,” Guy remembered, “it exploded in New York and in England. Then they called me back and said, ‘I’ll let you do anything you want!’ But then, if I did, everybody’d say, ‘Oh, he’s copying Hendrix and Eric Clapton and Cream.’ And these guys said they got it from me, because they saw me in person do it.”
This is where the idea of being “influential” can feel limiting. Had Buddy Guy been able to spread his wings with Chess in the mid 1960s, he might be remembered not just as a blues great, but as something more akin to Hendrix: a singular entity.
In any case, don’t feel too sorry for Buddy. Since that interview in 1989, he has settled into a life of contentment as a proud ambassador for the blues, highlighted by the longtime management of his own blues club in Chicago, Buddy Guy’s Legends. At the age of 88, has also continued to play on a regular basis, although he was forced to shorten a 2023 tour due to health issues.
Whether he’s on stage or not, Guy remains an international treasure; one of the all-time greats in his own right, and a direct living connection to what he would consider the Mount Rushmore of the blues: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson.
