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result and the product so that’s how it came about. Now I wish I had used Castro as I like my name, but we have branded
Mr. Sipp so that’s what it will be.

My first album as Mr. Sipp was an independent thing, it was on my label Baby Boy Records and Malaco picked it up
later on. When I cut that record I was still an artist on Malaco as a gospel artist and I told them what I was going to do
and they didn’t believe me. They told me nobody is listening to that type of music and they told me to write more
gospel songs. I told them they were telling me what I wanted to hear, as all my life people have been telling me what
can’t be done. So that record, I sold three hundred and ninety six thousand dollars’ worth. That record is all me, all
original material, all instruments played by me and so on. When I showed Malaco the physical numbers of what I had
sold, they wanted to cut a record on me, which was all good for the game and I didn’t mind, and I knew I could only
go so far as an independent. I could make money but I couldn’t go further and for me getting further and building more
relationships was important. That money I made did pay off some bills and put back some college funds and tied up
some insurance for the girls, my daughters. It also put me in a position where I do have a budget to promote any record
I release, whether a label would promote it or not, that means that I put fifty per cent of that money away for music use
only. I would never have a record that was not promoted and as it is my career I cannot wait on any one person to do
something, I would try and make it happen.

I think I have brought something different to the blues game. First of all I run a clean and respectful organisation. We
are not drinking smoking or getting high, we are not chasing women all over the world. We are businessmen that love
the music and love people and stay out of everyone’s way. That is the
kinda camp that I run. The other thing is the twenty years of gospel
gave me an edge. I’ve mastered the craft of connecting with people.
The church taught me that and the other thing is I never have a set list.
It’s because I’ve been totally trained how to read a crowd. My guys
never know what I’m going to sing until I turn around and say, as
examples, ‘Can I Ride’ or ‘Mrs. Jones’. I’m watching the crowd and
I mix with the crowd before I hit the stage as to what moves them and
what doesn’t move them.

My second release was on Malaco and is called ‘Mississippi Blues
Child’ and that album was quite different from the ‘It’s My Guitar’
record. Malaco is a soul based label so what I did is to give them
something they could work with and promote. I did half soul type
music and the other half what I call the Mississippi blues. I didn’t
know at that point that the label didn’t know what to do with the type
of blues I was playing. So hence the half and half music mix which
worked out for me, as that created another audience for me to play. I
put money behind that record on the blues side to get it in certain places and on certain stations, because Malaco didn’t
have those connections. As for the songs on the record that fitted their label, they knew where to send it, so with the
fifty fifty split I thought that was fair and it worked and that album won me a BMA.

Go back a little and after 2013 and I didn’t win the IBC I quickly put a show together, so I worked from June throughout
2013 and did the challenge again in Vicksburg, as I decided I wanted to go back to the IBC. I won the regional again
and then I ran into a problem as I got cast in the James Brown movie ‘Get On Up’ and my original character and the
filming date was during the same time as the IBC. I was afraid to take that
main role because I knew I was going to do the IBC, so I had to make a
decision, either be in the James Brown movie or be at the IBC. I explained to
the producer what I was up against, so they gave me a lesser role and I became
Les Buie, James Brown’s first guitar player so that meant I had lesser scenes
that would allow me to do the IBC. So I went to the IBC and I made the right
decision as I won the 2014 IBC. This is the great thing about taking a lesser
role. The role that I took gave me more face time than the role I would have
kept. The guy I was going to play in the movie was Jimmy Nolen and it was
Jamell Richardson that played him. So it all worked out for me.

My second album on Malaco was ‘Knock A Hole In It’ which came out in
2017. Now currently I am touring as a blues and gospel guy and not many
people have been able to do that. I am currently touring as Mr. Sipp or Castro
Coleman And The True Believers. The True Believers have a new album out,

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