Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy performing in 2008
Buddy Guy performing in 2008
Background information
Birth nameGeorge Guy
Born (1936-07-30) July 30, 1936 (age 88)
Lettsworth, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • vocals
Years active1953–present
Labels
Websitewww.buddyguy.net

George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936)[1] is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a session guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with blues harp virtuoso Junior Wells.

Guy has won eight Grammy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Guy was ranked 27th in Rolling Stone magazine's 2023 list of greatest guitarists of all time.[2] His song "Stone Crazy" was ranked 78th in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".[3] Clapton once described him as "the best guitar player alive".[4] In 1999, Guy wrote the book Damn Right I've Got the Blues, with Donald Wilcock.[5] His autobiography, When I Left Home: My Story, was published in 2012.[6]

  1. ^ "Buddy Guy". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
  2. ^ "The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Rolling Stone. October 13, 2023. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  3. ^ "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2008.. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2011-01-25. "Cut in 1961 for Chess, the full seven minutes of this blinding blues went unreleased for nearly a decade. Guy solos with a steel-needle tone, answering his own barking vocal with dizzying pinpoint stabs. 'I don't know how to bend the string', he told RS. 'Let me break it.’"
  4. ^ "Buddy Guy". Rolling Stone archive Archived 2018-05-03 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  5. ^ Guy, Buddy; Wilcock, Donald (1999). Damn Right I've Got the Blues. Duane Press. p. 152. ISBN 094262713X.
  6. ^ Guy, Buddy; Ritz, David. (2012) When I Left Home: My Story. Cambridge: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81957-5