I was considered as a jazz man rather than as a blues player. There were no blues players-you played one sort of jazz of another sort of jazz.

In those days, between the ages of 12 and 18 you meant nothing. You were the extra place at the side table if someone came to dinner. You were of no interest to anyone.

Since the age of 12, all my musical thinking has been influenced by Afro-American music.

I had always intended to make a living out of playing blues. But I never admitted it to myself. I don't suppose I could have given a logical reason for it ever becoming possible to do so.

The parallel development in American blues to the British movement has resulted in Johnny Winters.

Every musical movement that is big enough has to produce some good musicians who wouldn't have had the incentive to start playing without it.

The British feel of blues has been hard, rather than emotional. Far too much emphasis on 12 bar, too little attention to words, far too little originality.