Page 5 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2020

THE BiTS INTERVIEW: ANDREW Jr Boy JONES

Not well known in the UK, Andrew Jones is an outstanding guitar man and a fine singer. Based in Dallas TX, Ian
McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone.

BiTS:

Tell me something about yourself. I know you were born in Dallas. First of all, how for example, did
you get the name Jr. Boy? I know your real middle name is Benny.

AJBJ:

Yeah, well that was my grandmother when I was born. Of course, I'm a junior and she called me
junior boy and the name stuck and it's been ever since I was a baby.

BiTS:

Are you known as Andrew or Jr. Boy? Which one do you want me to call you?
AJBJ:

I told people a long time ago that whatever they're comfortable with because all my friends call me
Jr. Boy or Jun, or some caption of that but, I continue to use Andrew because a lot of people,

especially younger people, were uncomfortable calling me Jr. Boy. It just depends on who I'm
talking to. Jr. Boy is fine.
BiTS:

Okay. Tell me about the music in your life when you were a kid. I
gather your mother was a performer.

AJBJ:

Yes, she was a big band singer and she performed before
I was born. When I was born, she retired and she was
with a band that opened up for Nat King Cole, at the

Cocoanut Grove. She had her run of the music.
BiTS:

What did your father do for a living?

AJBJ:

Well, he worked for the railroad. He loved Little Walter and
different Chicago bluesmen and Lightnin' Hopkins.

BiTS:
I guess that that music was played in the house, was it?

AJBJ:

I heard blues at an early age. All types of music. My mum used to play Jimmy Reed and Sarah
Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and my dad used to listen, like I say, to Muddy Waters
and all the other guys.

BiTS:

When did you first become interested in playing the guitar then?

AJBJ: