Ahead of his Savannah Music Festival show, hear Bobby Rush tell his blues story

At 90, blues man Bobby Rush is a Grammy winner and more than a veteran of the open road. 

In fact, Rush may be the last performer of what was once called the Chitlin’ Circuit. That was the network across the country of nightclubs, fish fries and country fairs where, especially during Jim Crow, Black performers could entertain Black audiences far away from white eyes. 

Rush performs with the North Mississippi All-Stars on April 10 during the Savannah Music Festival. What follows is a 2019 interview with Bobby Rush backstage at Macon’s Capitol Theatre.

It’s a blues man origin story. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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A blues man's origin story

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to be.

I wanted to be a blues singer.

My father was a preacher. Pastor of a church. I don't want to sing in a choir. I didn't want to go to church with my daddy.

He would go at 10:00 in the morning. He would stay til 1, but he would go back in the afternoon and preach again. I never wanted to go back in the afternoon because I wanted to have that time away from my father, so I could sing what I wanted to sing. Not “Glory, Glory Hallelujah.”

I wanted to sing the blues, man.

My real name is Emmett Ellis Jr. Named after my father. I changed my name at an early age just because of the respect I had for my daddy.

In my day and time, when I came up, most people [who] came up around where I came up, would talk about the Devil's music. Some sinful music. But my daddy never told me about those kind of things. He never told me to sing the blues, but he never told me not to. That's a green light.

A blues man born, Part 2

I remember my Daddy had a diddley bow playing. My cousin gave me a guitar. He said “Bring that guitar here, boy.”

Oh, I just thought he want to look at it. But I didn't know he could play. He tuned it up, said, “Let me sing a song I used to sing to a little girl when I was a little older than you.”

Well, I want to hear it cause I thought he’s gonna talk about my mama. My mama was in the kitchen cooking.

He say, "Me and my gal went to Chinquapin huntin' / She fell down and I saw somethin’."

My daddy being a preacher, talkin’ about a woman's 'fell down he saw somethin'?! Man. I jumped this high.

I said "Daddy, sing it again!"

Ever since then I say “Imma be a blues singer. Imma finish them kinds of songs.”

Caption

Bobby Rush onstage at Macon's Capitol Theatre in 2019.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

On influences

I left Louisiana in 1947. Went To Pine Bluff, Ark., with my father. In the early '50s, I moved to Chicago. The reason I moved to Chicago was because I was influenced by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Smokey Hall, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley ... Once I got to Chicago then Buddy Guy came in 1957

When I left Louisiana it was the Zydeco.

But when I got to Arkansas I heard the Muddy Waters kind of "oh baby... duh DUH duh DUH DUH.” And you know in Louisiana it was “dee DEE dee dee DEE dee dee DEE.” You follow me?

Then when I got to Chicago, the guy want to put a little jazz in it.

I love some Muddy Waters, love some B.B. King, love some Howlin’ Wolf. Jimmy Reed. I love some Sonny Boy Williamson. Like some Little Walter. I like a lot of things about Prince and Michael Jackson; the newer kind of stuff. When you put them all together I got a piece of all of that and put it in my craw and I put it in a bowl and stir it up.

You get a Bobby Rush soup.

On a long career

Sixty-seven years. I think I done worked over 200 shows [a year] the last 55 years. Because I got to work a lot of days to get there with Elton John. You know he work one day, get what I get in a whole year. 

It's a little bit easier for me now. ... I say easier for me now because if you got 50 blues festivals cross the country and they want to hire a blues man, who do you think they gonna hire? If you're talking about a Black blues man, it's gonna be me or Buddy Guy. 

On white appropriation of the blues

What would the blues be without the white guys? All I'm saying, I hope the white guy would give credit where blues come from. And that would give a feather in the cap for the blues guys who are still doing it.

Make me feel like I'm ripped off and my culture is ripped off. But I'm not angry about it because people do what they have to do. Because young Black men don't want to be called “blues singer.”

You can't teach a man to do what I do or what Elvis Presley did. Or Ray Charles did. You got to be born to do that. You got to be born to do what Stevie Wonder do. He ain't just a piano player. You got to be born to do this. You got to be born to do what B.B. King do. There's many a guitar player. That ain't got nothin' to do with it, being born to do a thing.

I'm born to do this.