Page 25 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2026

BiTS: Okay, now tell me, were you writing songs all the time that you were playing?
I mean, is songwriting your thing, do you just concentrate on the guitar playing?

OKD: No, no. I concentrated on songwriting. I wrote on the road because, like I said,

I was always on the road. Somehow or another, I learned how to write songs when
you don't have any. The Beatles used to do that too. Paul McCartney used to talk
about the fact that they'd be waiting backstage to play and they’d be writing a song

while they were waiting.

BiTS: Yeah.

OKD: And I would write songs.

I said, if I don't learn how to
write on the road, I ain't going
to write anything because I

won't have any time. So I kind
of pushed myself to learn that
and it became a thing where I

could actually write better
when I was so busy I had no
time, than I could when I had

plenty of time.

BiTS: Omar, did you feel that
you were being successful as a

band? Was it feeling
successful?

OKD: Well, I felt like I was

successful to a point because if
you weren't successful for a
point, you wouldn't be playing

every night.

BiTS: Yeah, that's true. That's true.

OKD: So I was playing every night and people always liked us, and we were the kind
of band that could kind of feel a crowd out and tell what kind of songs. I never had
a set list. I just got up and played whatever fit the moment, I played it.

BiTS: Now the reason why I'm talking to you is because I run a magazine at e-zine
online only, called Blues in the South, which is the south of England of course. One
of my reviewers wrote a review of “It Came From The Swamp”, your new record. It
wasn't until then that I knew that you'd been ill. The guy who wrote the review

included a reference to the fact that you'd been ill. Incidentally the review is very
approving of the new record. But first of all, Omar, could you tell me something

about how the illness came on and how you became aware of it?