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The Blues
With Bobby Rush
Musician
Thursday, September 11, 2003; 2:00 p.m ET
Director Richard Pearce traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B.B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis features original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage of Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas.
Musician Bobby Rush will be online Thursday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. ET, to discuss the blues, the documentary series and the episode in which he appears.
About This Series: Under the guiding vision of Executive Producer Martin Scorsese, seven directors explore the blues through their own personal styles and perspectives. The films in the series are motivated by a central theme: how the blues evolved from parochial folk tunes to a universal language. Series premieres Sept. 28 on PBS (check local listings).
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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Washington, D.C.:
Bobby Rush, I'm a big fan of yours. Could tell us a little about your background and how you came to be the dynamic musician you are today.
Bobby Rush: Well, I didn't know I was a great musician. But you should be good at everything you do. I play the guitar, sing, dance and the harp. Being a man and a blues singer and a black man, I have to be triple good. My dad taught me to be good at what you do and people will respect you for doing a good job.
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Berkeley Springs, W.Va.:
What's it like being on the road all the time? What kind of music do you listen to on the bus? Looking for good road trip recommendations, although anything blues is always good travelin' music.
Bobby Rush: I listen to everything but Bobby Rush. I like Lewis Jordan. I like Lil Walter and some country western stuff. I like Black and Conway Twitty. I like Muddy Waters. I like Howling Wolf and I like people for different things. You get Bobby Rush out of a lot of these people. I look to a lot of people when I'm on the road and writing and reading and learning about life itself. So I try to be versed in a lot of things.
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Chicago, Ill.:
How supportive were your parents of your music career?
Bobby Rush: Yes, my mother and my father. My mother was so happy with me being happy with what I'm doing, but never came to my concerts. My father was a preacher and never told me to sing the blues, but never told me not to. He was a guitar player. I thought he was the best guitar player in the world. He played this song about a woman with nothing on under her dress. And he was a preacher singer singing about a naked woman.
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Arlington, Va.:
Is Sue going to show up on PBS?
Bobby Rush: Yes. When I say Sue -- the name may not mean anything, but she shows up in every one of my shows. Everybody knows about Sue -- she's one of those girls who my daddy being a preacher -- she's a girl who will do anything. Just anything. So I just always talk about those kinds of things. My uncle, the best one, was the one that let me do whatever I wanted to do. So Sue shows up in every show.
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New Jersey:
How many people do you travel with for your shows? Where are your dancers from? Does your wife often travel with you?
Bobby Rush: Nine people travel.
All parts of the country. I have 10, but only use two or three at a time.
No, very seldom. She traveled with me earlier in my career, but after 49 years of marriage she said she's had enough. But it is too hectic on the road and we've got a good relationship.
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Gaithersburg, Md.:
What's the largest crowd you've played before? Do you have an ideal setting -- small venue, large, outdoor festival?
Bobby Rush: About 100,000 people. I'm one of the few guys who will work a place for 10 people or 100,000 people. I don't care where you play -- I can play burger joints, the Kennedy Center. There's not many guys left that do that -- not even B.B. King. I've crossed over, but haven't crossed out. It's not about the money. It's about the friendship. If its 1 or 100 I still do the same show.
To be honest, I sure like the places with people up on my beat that I can look in peoples faces and reach out and touch. But a concert is good too -- but its not like touching. But I like the distance too... to fill big auditoriums is good.
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Washington, D.C.:
Who's had the biggest influence on your life?
Your career?
Bobby Rush: I probably would say Louis Jordan. W.C. Handy who set a business standard in my heart and mind. I think I'm W.C. Handy Jr. because I try to be this businessmen. I can read and spell and count my own money. I make my mistakes and learn from it.
Jordan because of songrwiting. Howling Wolf because he's so different. I respected them and what they do. There are a lot of people you hear in my music and enjoy.
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Detroit, Mich.:
After watching your performance, it's not really like straight Chicago blues or Delta Blues -- there are elements of soul and funk in your music. People always want to catagorize. Do you see yourself more as a bluesman or as an entertainer who is heavily influenced by the blues? Where do you see the form going? How do you see rap fitting in?
Bobby Rush: I'm a bluesman. I'm heavily influenced by the blues. I refuse to set still and let life pass me by. Sometimes when a woman or man stays too long that can give you the blues as much as one leaving. I want to sing about that to.
People enjoying what I do turns me on.
I tell you, for the future, I've been several places in my life when blues looked bad -- like when disco came in. About eight years ago it looked good again. But now I don't see black people coming to festivals. I'm more up than I've been in about 10 - 12 years. I think what this series will do is bring the Blues back and we're doing this in the end of the Year of the Blues -- but I hope the writers will write about what I do.
I think what I do that has been done, but has been forgotten. You see a black man who is black doing what I do and the girls on the stage. I'm a black man, that's what I do. We forgot about that. I'm tired of black men wanting to record things for black or white people, because that's the wrong approach. If the writers tell the truth about this it'll influence people to want to come see it. Bobby Rush is one of the real deals left. I think the blues will grow from that.
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Bobby Rush: We just did my first DVD -- it'll be out the week before the series. If you buy the DVD you'll really see what I'm about. There are some things that you don't see in The Blues because you don't see the whole thing about Bobby Rush. It's about entertaining.
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Alexandria, Va.:
What do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to get inspired? Pumped up?
Bobby Rush: Let me tell you what I do. I live to music with grooves and I create crude lyrics to the grooves. Musical jazz kind of stuff and some Howling Wolf. I listen to some jazz kinds of stuff.
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Alexandria, VA:
Do you listen to any contemporary music?
Bobby Rush: I also listen to southern soul which is contemporary. When I started 50 years ago we had 78s, then the 8-track, then the 45, now CDs. At one point you had a telephone. Now its down to the cell phone. Everything modifies. Music too. You build em for the same reason, but you build em different. That's what happens in my music. When you see me on the DVD -- you see yesterday, today and tomorrow. If a man doesn't have vision he perishes.
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Bobby Rush: When we say southern soul -- I don't me. I am considered "chittlin circuit." Chittlin circuit isn't southern soul. People in Chicago say I am sure good for being from down south. It was people white like you who named it Southern Soul and the Chittlin Circuit. I didn't name it, I'm just good at what I do.
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Los Angeles, Calif.:
You've been performing and touring now for almost 49 years -- 300 shows/year. What kind of toll does this take on your body, mind, etc.?
Bobby Rush: I've been touring 51 years. I'm alive because I can get on the stage. When I see people saying "Hey, I love you." My wife and I have been married for 45 years and if I can still make her holler, it must be alright. It makes you feel good to take other peoples troubles away.
This week has been the biggest week of my life. When you called me -- this makes my day. I know about your newspaper. Out of all the 51 years.
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Rochester, N.Y.:
Who do you think is the overall blues man of our time? New and old?
Bobby Rush: That's a hard question, because when you say bluesman, that covers a lot of areas. B.B. King is a great bluesman and a good businessman to survive and stick around all this time. Being a black man who does what he does, I have to take my hat off to him. Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy who took nothing and did something. He never had a hit record, but survived as an entertainer.
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Boston, MA:
You've been performing music for your
entire life from what I know of your history.
When and how did you decide that the life
of a blues musician was the path you
were to choose?
What piece of advice about life on the
road would you lend to the new
generation of blues musicians?
Bobby Rush: I did not choose it. I was doing what I was doing. After about 10 years someone at King Records said I could make money doing this. I didn't do this to make money. I was in love with the blues. I never thought I would make money and a career out of this. It was just fun. I stopped me from recording in my early years because I was so good on the bandstand. I could make $400-500 a week. That was big in those days. I would play three, four clubs a night. I was like a shoe shine guy. I'd run in and play, then go to another club and do it again. It added up. In those days that was a lot of money. Even Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters were making less than me a night.
My biggest influence as a harp player was Lil Walter. I had about $2 in my pocket. He set a bar up by telling everyone there that I was his brother. All the ladies hung around me. You could buy a quart of beer then for a quarter. He gave me some more money. I thought he was going home. But he opened his trunk up and it was full of loose money. He said "get a handful." I said to myself then that I was going to be a harmonica player because that was the most money I'd ever seen at once then.
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Harrisburg, Pa.:
It is great there is a series focusing on the blues. You are an obvious choice for this program. How did you come to be involved with the show?
Bobby Rush: A gentleman called and asked if I'd do an interview. I almost passed then found that BB King was involved and Bobby Bland. So I wanted to be involved. I wanted the three Bs together for the first time. I believed I'd just be a small part of this until someone thought hey, that's the real deal -- I think it was Martin Scorcese. And here I am with a main part of it. I believe I play a big part of it as an entertainer. So I'm hoping the public will see me in the same fashion that the producers do.
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Memphis, Tenn.:
Hi, this is Darlene Gardner in Memphis, Tenn.
I saw Bobby Rush at FM 103.5 a couple of weeks ago. My beautiful 72-year-old mother was with me and I have several great pictues
of us with Bobby. I would love to send Bobby a picture of him and my mother. I'd like to ask him for a mailing address.
Please let him know I bought his new CD "Undercover Lover" and it's wonderful.
It was a joy to meet him and I hope we can see him soon.
Sincerely,
Darlene Gardner and Mama
Little Milton and Bobby Rush fans.
Bobby Rush: You can send those to:
2614 Harriotte Ave.
Jackson, MS 39209
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Alexandria, Va.:
Are there blues groupies?
Bobby Rush: You always have groupies. To the music itself. You have fans that cling to you. God gave me the gift. Sometimes the ladies look at you for one reason, sometimes the music, sometimes not. Sometimes I say things to them their husbands can't say to them. Like that I want a part-time love. I say those things in my songs. You should hear that.
I think we have men and women groupies. Writers cling around things they want to write about. If I don't sound like what they want me to sound like, they're not interested in me. We're all groupies to something. It's good to have those things. Blues lovers are groupies.
Speaking about jazz and blues -- I like to be called a blues singer. I am a blues singer.
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Bobby Rush: When you see Tom Jones -- they accept him shaking his butt on the stage, but when I do it I'm a dirty old black man. That's just the way it is. I'm hoping this Scorcese thing will enlighten people to what I do. If I was a threat, at my age I shouldn't be a threat to nobody. I'm just a guy who's not looking for to get drunk. I'm not looking for a wife. I've got one. I'm not looking for a house. I have two bathrooms.
Since we're talking about what this Scorcese thing will do for me. I think I will cross over. But I want to cross over, but not cross out. I will never do that. If that's what I have to do, I wouldn't do it. With me, what you see is what you get. Wah wah was invented so white guys could play like black guys. But we need the young guys to play the blues. And then we can all be embraced and let the blues stay alive.
I have two purposes. I want the blues to stay alive. I'm a blues singer. That's the bottom life.
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Washington, DC:
You're one of the best performers I've ever had the privilege to watch. Do you have any gigs coming up in the DC area? We need a Bobby Rush fix!!!
Bobby Rush: Yes and no. I'm going to be in Washington, D.C. in November. Maybe the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Look on my Web site for details. You can find out where I am at bobbyrush.net. I don't post everything. I don't put everything on, but a lot of things.
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