This special podcast presents the only interview that, by their own accounts, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King ever did together.
About a month earlier, Mr. Hooker and Mr. King, at the time the world’s preeminent bluesmen, had met at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, to record together for the first time. They easily found common ground on the song they collaborated on, the blues standard “You Shook Me.” This was partly due to their having similar backgrounds. They had both grown up in the Mississippi Delta, idolized the same musicians, migrated north, and began recording in the late 1940s. The styles they developed, though, were remarkably dissimilar. A master of single-note solos punctuated with his signature hummingbird vibrato, B.B. typically worked with a jumping, well-rehearsed big band. Much more of a lone wolf, John Lee tended to perform solo or with a small, hand-picked band, matching his deep voice with propulsive, trance-inducing rhythms or raucous boogies.
Our interview took place about a month after their recording session. The B.B. King Band was scheduled to play at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, on April 4, 1993. Since this venue was just a few miles downhill from one of John Lee Hooker’s homes, I reached out to B.B.’s manager, Sid Seidenberg, and John’s booking agent, Mike Kappus, to see it they’d agree to do an interview together. I was delighted when everyone said “Yes!”
We had just 35 minutes between B.B.’s sets to score the interview and do the photo shoot with Bill Reitzel. After a thrilling performance before a packed house, B.B. cooled down for a few minutes and then settled into an easy chair alongside the couch where John Lee Hooker was backstage holding court. They greeted each other warmly and we got right to it.
In the years following our interview, both of these legendary blues artists continued to make excellent records. John Lee Hooker passed away on June 21, 2001, and B.B. King on May 14, 2015.
An edited version of our interview first appeared in print as the cover story of the September 1993 issue of Guitar Player magazine and, two months later, as the cover of the Japanese-language Guitar Magazine. A full transcription appears in my book Rollin’ and Tumblin’: The Postwar Blues Guitarists [Miller Freeman, 2000].
I want to express appreciation to my co-producer Nik Hunt and to the staff of the University of North Carolina’s Southern Folklife Collection for making this podcast possible. And thank you, subscribers, for your ongoing support!
© 2022 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.
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