Page 31 - BiTS_10_OCTOBER_2024_Neat

KL: He hardly ever drank anything at home, and I stayed a lot in his house in Hanover because
if there was like time between our concerts, I just stayed down there. But once we got out, then
he liked to drink beer, not hard liquor or anything like that and he wasn't a heavy drinker. And
a good thing because at the age he was at the time he couldn't drink too much before he was
falling asleep [chuckles].

BiTS: Ah, really?

KL: He’d lose track of where he was [laughs].

BiTS: The reason why I ask you is because I'm a huge fan of Big Bill Broonzy and I know very
well that he wouldn't go on stage unless he'd got a large bottle with him.

KL: Yeah, I know some people had it like that. You know, when I was a kid, I was very fond of
Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. I think I was 15 or something like that. I went to a concert in
Copenhagen and actually it was in
the, it's called the Børsen [Stock

Exchange, ED) You know the very
old building that just burned.
BiTS: Oh yeah.

KL: Yeah. I heard Brownie McGhee
and Sonny Terry in that place that
burned down, and I went backstage,
and they were so nice, especially
Brownie. We were talking and he
asked me about what kind of guitar
are you playing? And then, just
before they went through on stage,
he opened his guitar case and you
know that little compartment where
you usually have your strings or
whatever, he opened that up and he
had a bottle of Johnny Walker, and
he just emptied half of it. I was 15. I
was like, wow, I would fall asleep
after half a bottle of Johnny Walker.

BiTS: Now, did you continue to play with Jack until such time as he passed away, or did he stop
playing with you when he came to live in England?

KL: He didn't live in England after 75. He left England in 75 because he was divorced from his
wife. He had two kids and an adopted kid. Shirley was his wife's name. She had this kid when

they met. Actually she had just given birth to this little girl and put her in the orphan home and
then met Jack. That must have been around 1960 or 61 or something like that, beginning of the
60s. Shirley was very young and when she told Jack that she had a daughter in the orphan home,
he went directly in his car and went to the place and picked her up and adopted her because he
grew up in the orphan home. So it just broke his heart to hear that.

And then they had two daughters after that, Jackie and Georgiana, which I knew when they were
kids, and I still have contact with them on Facebook. It's many years since I saw them. I was his
steady guitar player since the tours in 79/80, until he passed away in 92 and we were on tour
one month before he died actually.