Page 5 - BiTS_05_MAY_2020

THE BiTS INTERVIEW: INNES SIBUN

Innes Sibun (born 1968) is a British blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He
has released eleven albums to date. His most recent was Blues Transfusion

(2015). Aside from playing in Robert Plant’s band, Sibun has opened for some
of rock’s most influential guitarists, including Johnny Winter, Taj Mahal, and

Peter Green. Ian McKenzie spoke to him at his home in Bath, Somerset.

BiTS:

Can you start by telling me how you got into music in the first
place? Did you start when you were young, or what?

IS:

Yeah, I was about ten or 11 or 12, something like that. I was
never really interested in music up until I heard B.B. King on
the radio and funnily enough, I was in the kitchen with my
mum. I was listening to the radio with my mum. I think I was
ten, 12 years old and heard B.B. King and that was the big

moment for me. It was like an epiphany moment for me,
really.
BiTS:

And that made you want to start playing guitar, obviously?

IS:

Yeah, it did. A couple of the kids up our street had
acoustic guitars and we used to mess around on
them and maybe play a few chords or whatever,
but actually hearing B.B. King, which is a bit weird as a

12-year-old kid really, but it made me want to go down that
route and find out how he was making that amazing sound.
I just remember thinking how can anybody make that sound,
it was so beautiful, so definitely B.B. King was the first
person for me.

BiTS:

Did you do a lot of what they call 'woodshedding' then? Sitting and learning to play.
IS:

I did because I got myself a guitar, I borrowed actually an acoustic guitar from one of my mates and

I just sat there with a B.B. King record hour after hour after hour, just trying to play what he was
playing and I think then all my paper round money. I had a paper round and I had a job at Tesco
after school, all that money was spent going to the local record store. I think having B.B. King Live
at the Regal, John Lee Hooker and Freddie King, it was a complete adventure really delving into that
completely unknown world for me.

BiTS: