I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.

It was stumbling on to really the bible of the blues, you know, and a very powerful drug to be introduced to us and I absorbed it totally, and it changed my complete outlook on music.

But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go.

I wish I could write easily. I'm one of those guys who's visited by the muse when things are dire.

Music became a healer for me. And I learned to listen with all my being. I found that it could wipe away all fear and confusion.

I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues.

They found our hero in the gutter with a diamond ring and a gun.