“Maybe some young kids will be like, ‘Wow, I saw that movie. I like what he played. I wanna try that’”: Buddy Guy’s cameo in Sinners was to “help the blues”
Genres are often revived and reshaped in the image of new generations, often in unexpected ways. Just look at country music’s popularity right now, as the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone and Lana Del Rey have tried their hand at the genre, rather successfully in all cases, we might add.
Another genre that’s hinting at a revival is the blues, thanks to it being a central feature of Ryan Coogler’s horror film Sinners. Playing a cameo role of Sammie in his later life, blues veteran and multiple Grammy winner Buddy Guy used the film as a platform to “help the blues”.
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During a recent phone interview with Press Democrat, Buddy Guy reveals how he struck an agreement with B.B. King and Muddy Waters, that whoever lived the longest had to keep flying the blues flag. Now at 89 – today (30 July) is his birthday, in fact – and 70 years into his journey as a musician, Guy is one of the last original Chicago blues men to keep playing.
Driven by this life mission, Guy hopes that Sinners’ celebration of the genre could help it to became more popular with younger people: “Maybe some young kids will be like, ‘Wow, I saw that movie. I like what he played. I wanna try that.”
Guy is confident that the blues still resonates plenty of people, even younger children, who often come up to him after his performances. Modestly, he puts this down to the power of the genre rather than his own skill: “[It’s] not me – the blues,” and goes on to say that “When they hear it, they love it.”
So what’s stopping the blues from having that level of hype country music has? Guy thinks FM radio stations are to blame for it flying under the radar: “The blues has been treated like a stepchild,” Guy tells Guitar Player. “Your big FM station don’t play our music anymore…” While he celebrates the fact that satellite radio plays the blues more often, they “don’t play the deep stuff”.
This means that Guy is not thinking of retiring as a blues player quite yet, even though he told Guitar Player that he has “thought about retiring twice.” The guitarist is in good spirits about it though, in his own words: “My health ain’t doing too bad, so… I just try to play the best I can”.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
