We interview the author of the first and only biography of the late, great Muddy Waters.
Is this the first (the only?) biography of Muddy?
Yes, this is the first biography of Muddy.
Was it a daunting prospect, writing about such a major figure in the blues, whose life and works are known to many?
I think no one had tackled Muddy's biography before because it was such an intimidating project. As well as the daunting challenge of sorting out the intricacies of his life in Mississippi and his early years in Chicago, there was the tremendous responsibility of writing a book that would do justice to such a great man.
Did you talk to other established "big names" in blues writing - Paul Oliver, etc - ie, those who might read your work more critically?
No, I didn't talk to well-known blues authors while I was writing my book; in fact, I wanted to stay away from them and do the biography my way, without any outside influence. Just before publication, my publisher asked two of these writers to read the page proofs, but they both declined. However, I was delighted that Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, Mick Jagger, John Hammond and Marshall Chess all reviewed the proofs of my book before it was published and were kind enough to comment very positively on it (Eric Clapton wrote my foreword).
Did you ever meet Muddy? Did you see him perform?
No, most regrettably I never did get to see Muddy perform. In some ways, though, that may have made the book better, because it made me realise I had to go out and speak to as many people who knew him as I could.
My impression is that there is a wealth of material on Muddy - was this, in fact, the case?
While there was a lot of material published about Muddy in his later years, there was not much accurate information about his formative years in Mississippi and in the 1940s in Chicago. Also, I found that even when researching Muddy after he was well known, I had many specific questions that had not been answered in existing articles.
If so - how did you deal with it? Was any of it unreliable?
One of the major challenges of writing the book was organising the prodigious amount of information I gathered. Of course, it was inevitable that I came across unreliable and/or conflicting data. In that case, I had to rely on my background knowledge and personal interviews to make the judgement as to where the truth lay.
You conducted many interviews, yourself. Did you ever suspect that people told you all the truth - or maybe just what you wanted to hear? (i.e. did people tend to just praise up a major figure?)
I did extensive interviews, speaking with nearly every surviving member of all Muddy's bands, as well as many of his friends and family members. I think most people were truthful. Since Muddy has passed away, there wasn't a reason to be dishonest, and hopefully in my interviews I didn't lead them to believe I was interested in hearing only one slant on Muddy. Any praise they gave Muddy - and there was a lot - seemed to have been given with deep, genuine love, not with ulterior motives.
Another problem of oral history is where people remember something factual - are telling the truth as they see it - but are mistaken about facts - dates, etc. Was this a dimension that you had to deal with much?
Yes, I had to deal with the problem of two people remembering the same event in different ways. One example of this was Muddy's terrible car crash of October 1969. As it was such a traumatic event - and occurred almost 30 years ago - it's no wonder there was some variation in memories. To make my final determination of the actual events, I checked back with those I had originally interviewed and referred to the newspaper reports of the time. Another technique I used was to include both sides of an argument. For example, regarding the issue of whether or not Muddy and Howlin' Wolf were jealous adversaries, I included quotes from some musicians who saw them as bitterly antagonistic towards each other and statements from others who say it was all just baseless hype. Sometimes, I found, there just isn't one definitive truth.
There are often discrepancies between authors and compilers of discographies about detail of who-played-what, etc. Did you get embroiled in this kind of debate? Was it a problem you had to solve?
I was so fortunate that Phil Wight and Fred Rothwell (along with Blues & Rhythm magazine) agreed to let me publish their amazingly comprehensive, 68-page Muddy Waters discography in the appendix of my book. It is truly an invaluable addition. Sometimes in my research or interviews I would come across a discrepancy about who played on what session, but we always resolved it without difficulty.
What did you discover, in your research, that surprised you the most? (maybe impressed you the most?)
I had the great pleasure of speaking with two of Muddy's sons, and they let me glimpse a whole side of Muddy that the public had never seen before. I was so impressed with them, that I came away feeling - as do they - that Muddy was a remarkable father in addition to his other more obvious talents. As well, I was overwhelmed by the enormous outpouring of love for Muddy that virtually everyone (except drummer Francis Clay) expressed to me over and over again. That alone is a remarkable legacy for anyone to leave behind.
I assume you began as a Muddy Waters fan. How would explain the essential quality, the significance of a performance by Muddy?
Yes, I began this project as a big Muddy Waters fan. As I see it, the essential quality of his performance was the emotion he was able to convey, the ability to send shivers down one's spine with just one swoop of his mighty slide, as well as the outpouring of love the audience had for Muddy and he for them. Of course, viewing it on a less emotional level, one can appreciate the historical importance of his blues, its prominent place in the development of all subsequent popular music. In addition, Muddy exerted an immense influence as a bandleader, generously sharing his spotlight with his band members and other musicians, and encouraging them to develop their own careers.
