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BIG BILL MORGANFIELD

Interview, by Mike Stephenson, took place in Chicago in 2017. Many thanks should go to Jim
Feeney and to Lynn Orman for their help and support in making the interview possible.

I’m one of the sons of Muddy Waters and I was born in Chicago in 1956. I became aware of my musical
heritage as I got older. I was aware that my father was a musician and I was aware that he was my
father. My mother took me from Chicago to my grandmother and she told her not to tell me who my
father is. But my grandmother thought that was silly and she told me who my father was. I was told

that my grandmother raised me from six
months old and she passed away six
months before my father passed away.
My mother moved me from Chicago to
South Florida to be raised by my
grandmother. I did have contact with my
father as he would come by time to time

but it wasn’t the kind of contact I was
satisfied with. I was always going to
have that conversation with him but he
passed away before I could and I was
going to ask him where he was when I

was growing. I found out the answer to
those questions myself as I picked up the
guitar and started being a bluesman
myself so it all unfolded to me that the
answer to my questions was there. I had
a normal childhood I guess but I can
always remember thinking why all my

friends had their mothers and fathers
there and I didn’t have my mother or my father only my grandmother but in black families it seemed
that a lot of fathers didn’t stay around and in the perfect world it would be good to have your mother
and father raise you. It didn’t happen for me though. I study history and I look at slavery where black
families were ripped apart, kids were sold, spouses were sold, we were snatched away from our

country so it’s just a different culture that I was brought up in. Still some of my black friends still had
at least their mother there. When I was young I didn’t have any control on my life but I guess I was
lucky in that my grandmother gave me a happy home and she stayed at home and she worked two
jobs and I understand what struggle is about and the importance of working hard to achieve whatever
it is you want to achieve. She instilled those things in me and I’m sure I would not be the man I am
today had it not been for her. A lot of kids end up in jail or involved in gangs or drugs it’s so easy to

get side tracked into those directions and you can never return from that.

Before I got into music I was a student as my grandmother always impressed upon me the significance
of having an education. I left high school, I was an athlete, I went to basketball scholarship at a major
university and I graduated with honours and that changed my life and how I looked at things even
now running my own business Morganfield Enterprises. I have my own record company and I handle

all aspects of the business. I was a good basketball player and I played Tuskegee university and I went