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But really, for improvising and all that, I had to go in a whole other direction. Actually, what
happened was after we got the piano, I got bored with it and my father said well, we’ve got the
piano now you're going to have to play it. So I said, how about if I find a teacher who could teach

me more blues and jazz, and I did, and that got me going. Then I learned how to improvise and
learned all those things.

BiTS: How old were you when you first started working with bands?

MW: Well, when I was a teenager, you know, like 13, 14, we started rock and roll bands. It really
was The Beatles, The Beatles and the Stones at that point. So I started doing that, but actually
forming my own band really when I was about 20 or 21, when I came out to California.

BiTS: And that was at the same time as you started the band?

MW: Yeah. Well, my initial band it was called Mitch Woods and His Red Hot Mama, [chuckles]
and it was my girlfriend who was the singer, and I would just play piano. I wasn't singing yet at
that time. And we did a lot of Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith and Fats Waller-type tunes, and
that was the beginning of
it. Eventually that ended,
and I started the Mitch
Woods and His Rocket 88s
in the early 80s.

BiTS: Do you have a
favourite piano player
from around that period?
I mean the time when I
guess boogie was

developing, starting.
MW: I do. Well, I have a
bunch of them, but I think

Champion Jack Dupree
was one of my favourites. Champion Jack Dupree

BiTS: Oh, how wonderful.
I saw Jack on a number of occasions.

MW: Oh, you're a lucky, man. Yeah, I got to see him finally because you know, he never came to
the US until he got really old. And he finally came back, and I actually helped get him a gig, and
that was great.

BiTS: I'm sure you know he lived in England for a long while?

MW: Yeah. Yeah, I thought he was in the Netherlands too, right? He lived there.

BiTS: And indeed, the Netherlands. Yes, that's right.

MW: Yeah, yeah, you’re lucky you got to see him [chuckling].

BiTS: Late 50s and early 60s, I must have seen him half a dozen times, I would think, something
like that. Absolutely fabulous entertainer.

MW: Oh yeah, you know that's what I love about some of the older guys, they were great
entertainers and Champion Jack Dupree was one. He might not have been the best piano player
in the world. He was very, rudimentary, but you know, he could really pound it out and entertain.