Jeff Gutt Quotes

I've always loved the blues, John Lee Hooker, Janis Joplin, Hendrix.

Basically, I like anything with guts - Lead Belly, Bill Big Broonzy, Johnny Winter, the Stones.

Hendrix inspired me, but I was still more into Wes Montgomery. I was also into the Allman Brothers around the time of those albums.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.

I love Muddy Waters and Nina Simone. I also watched 'The Blues Brothers' movie over and over.

I was into playing American music, especially the blues.

I grew up listening to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and lots of blues, R&B and Motown.

I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

I dabbled in things like Howlin' Wolf, Cream and Led Zeppelin, but when I heard Son House and Robert Johnson, it blew my mind. It was something I'd been missing my whole life. That music made me discard everything else and just get down to the soul and honesty of the blues.

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

From the first album, we've had songs like 'The Jack' that are blues based. We also did it in 'Ride On,' where we went into the blues.

Coming up in Chicago, we heard a lot of blues.

Little Walter and Muddy Waters were incredible. And Bo Diddley was doing some great stuff, too.

Little Richard was it for me, man. Later, it was Ray Charles and Bobby 'Blue' Bland, B.B. King.

My musical education was grounded in blues and Chicago blues - John Lee Hooker and Otis Redding.

I'm pretty sure I was about the only kid in school who knew who Jimi Hendrix even was. Through my older siblings, I was getting turned on to all the great music that was happening at the time, and I really loved Hendrix.

I heard Robert Johnson way before I heard about Eric Clapton.

Growing up in Dallas, my first influences on the guitar were T-Bone Walker and Les Paul. T-Bone taught me how to play lead guitar behind my head and do the splits in 1951 when I was nine.

People out there maybe know who Junior Parker is and some of those Sun Records blues guys.

Muddy Waters, I suppose, was my first great hero. You know, every boy wants to be a guitar player, and Muddy Waters was just the king. He was the King Bee. He was it.

The parallel development in American blues to the British movement has resulted in Johnny Winters.

The '60s were a time of great change in American music.

I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him.

I've always been the first to admit that Jimi was a very big influence on my early stuff.

Since I was a kid, I've had an absolute obsession with particular kinds of American music. Mississippi Delta blues of the Thirties, Chicago blues of the Fifties, West Coast music of the mid-Sixties - but I'd never really touched on dark Americana.