Page 7 - BiTS_07_JULY_2020
P. 7
aside from that I was also listening to little bits of things like Rory Gallagher and I was into Stevie
Ray Vaughan. All those types of players. Freddie King,
Stevie Ray Vaughan B.B. King. The early players and then eventually, I
started getting into the Keith Richards rhythm style
and the way he was writing songs. Things like that, but
all the classic players at the start.
BiTS: What age were you when
you started performing in
public?
GD: I would say I was probably
around 15. I remember I was too
young to get into bars, and we
were playing bars and my sisters
were older so they used to go
around the front and then if
there was a back door they’d
open the back door and get me in
and just hope that we wouldn’t
get caught [chuckling] because I
was too young. I probably was
Rory Gallagher
around 15, I think.
BiTS: You’ve been on the road for a long time. Do you find it difficult? Are you happy to travel?
GD: I love travelling actually. We’ve had so many great times travelling and I couldn’t say much that
I didn’t enjoy about it but I think maybe as you get older, if you’re travelling back to the same places
all the time you kind of want to start thinking about a long-term future. Do you want to be doing the
same kind of clubs, the same festivals but we were so blessed in we got to see some of the most
amazing parts of the world? We got going all over Europe and we made great friends along the way.
That was really important to us. We got going all through Scandinavia. We were down in Thailand
playing there. We went to Australia. We went to North America. We went to the North Pole. We’ve
been to some really amazing places playing music and I think it’s in your blood if you’re a musician.
You love travelling, bringing music to new people. That for me, I love the feedback of a new
audience and I’ve never found travelling a pain. I never found I didn’t enjoy it. I always enjoyed it
and I’ve one wee boy at the moment so that just makes things a little bit more complicated.
BiTS: Talking of travelling, tell me something about the Mahindra Blues Festival that you did in
India.
GD: Oh, yes. I forgot about that one. That was a great one. That was something really special and
when we were asked to play it, I was really overwhelmed because one of my favourite players was
going to be playing at it and that was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top was playing there with his
Supersonic Blues Machine and I have to say that was one of those things where it really was even
better than you could have expected. Like Mahindra obviously, but like when we went over to the