All the kids made their own git-tars. Made mine out of a box and bit of stick for a neck. Couldn't do much with it, but that's how you learn.

Of course that was my idol, Son House. I think he did a lot for the Mississippi slide down there.

The thing about San Francisco is that it has this kind of magical quality.

I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.

The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.

Memphis was almost like going to California. Beale Street was the black man's street.

He took my music, but he gave me my name.