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Ireland years ago with a group performing as Whitey
Johnson.

BiTS: That's absolutely terrific. I didn't know half of this
stuff. This is absolutely wonderful. Tell me something
about some of the people that you worked with – B.B.
King, Bonnie Raitt, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson.
There's a huge list of names. Is there anyone that's
outstanding as far as you're concerned, as an entertainer
or a musician?

GN: Well, they're all outstanding, of course. B.B. King was
one of my very first influences as a guitar player, along
with Freddie King and all the others. I've been so
fortunate to write about 20 songs that Buddy Guy has
recorded, and Bonnie Raitt is one of my favourite artists.
I've been fortunate to have her record a few of my songs.
Once I had five songs of mine on an Etta James record. I’ve always loved Etta James. Recently I

wrote a song with Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ that they did for their TajMo project. I've been writing
some more songs with Joe Bonamassa. That's another great guitar player that I enjoy working
with.

BiTS: You've done quite a few with Buddy Guy as well, I think.

GN: Yeah, he's recorded about 20 of my songs.

BiTS: Now there's one name that I dug up off your website, which you may be surprised that I
mention, and that's Stephen Bruton. The reason why I mentioned him is because I knew his late,
well he’s late of course as well, I knew his late brother, Sumpter.

GN: Oh yeah, I knew Sumpter very well and Stephen and Sumpter were from Fort Worth, I was
from Dallas, and I knew them a little bit in our teen years, but I got to know them much better in
the 70s. Throughout the 80s, Stephen and I began to collaborate a lot. We had a song recorded
by Jeff Bridges for the Crazy Heart movie.

BiTS: That's right. I remember. I used to work in Fort Worth for a while. I was associated with
the Police Department in Fort Worth, believe it or not, and I used to regularly visit Record Town.

GN: Oh wow! Yeah, that's a great spot. I love going there. My friends T Bone Burnett and Stephen
grew up in Fort Worth and they hung out at Record Town, and they had access to all the great
recordings that they could just order whatever they wanted and have access to all of those records
because Stephen’s parents had the record store.

BiTS: And at the same time, one of my favourite songs of yours is actually based on Fort Worth,
that is ‘Jacksboro Highway’, which I think is a fabulous song.

GN: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. There's a lot of truth in that song. The first time I ever heard
a real band on Jacksboro Highway at the White Sands Supper Club. I was just a 14/15-year-old
kid and my neighbour across the back alley, he took me and my friend to Jacksboro Highway, and

we heard a band that I later learned was King Curtis with Cornell Dupree on guitar. Of course, I
didn't know who they were at the time, but it was a life-changing experience.

BiTS: Always something going down, as the lyrics say.

GN: Yeah, right.