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I made enough money to buy some school clothes. The whole ironic thing about this is when I was in
the field my father was out touring the world and making a huge name for himself. Unfortunately he
didn’t send any money to have clothes bought for me for whatever reason. These days they don’t let
guys do that. I’m not saying anything bad about him that’s how it was back then and because whatever
happened to me made me the man I am today. I’m a pretty tenacious fella. My next job back then was
as a side field which is clipping grass and was that hot work. I did some dishwashing and then went
on to become a chef at fifteen working on the beach in Florida. I got a diploma in commercial cooking
and baking. I use a lot of spices when I cook.
When I first started music I got a
band together called The Stone Cold
Blues Band and we played around
Atlanta and we made $300 but we
had six in the band so if you do the
maths that’s not a whole lot. I was
singing and playing bass guitar and
I taught myself how to play Delta
blues as I thought I needed to get
my musical foundation together. My
music kept progressing from there
as I got better at it. I started playing
other places and other countries. I
came out as Big Bill Morganfield in
1998. I remember there was a
tribute concert in Washington DC
and a guy approached me about
being my manager and he called
Scott Cameron who managed my
father and Scott called my dad’s
wife and asked who I was and she
told him I was Muddy’s son. So he
got me on a show with so many big
artists like Keb Mo, Robert Lockwood, Buddy Guy and many other famous artists and I was the most
unfamous person amongst them and I ended up being the mc for the show as well as playing. So that’s
how I became known after that show was aired on PBS. So I’ve been Big Bill Morganfield ever since.
I’ve had great support since. On my first record on Blind Pig ‘Rising Son’ we brought in Bob Margolin
who I had known for some time and they brought in other members of the band that had played with
Muddy Waters like Paul Oscher and Willie Smith. That recording session blew my mind being with
such musicians who had done a tour of duty with my father and had learned how to play that music.
It was great to know that my father was like an ambassador for the blues. I’ve always believed in
developing a sound for myself that is important to me as I believe that god bless the child that has his
own. I can’t be Muddy Waters and I believe that people like things that are original. If you listen to
my records I refuse to be like Muddy Waters. Sure I learned from him.
I now have three albums out on my own label so I have total control. The name of the label is Black
Shuck Records and I had a hard time coming up with a name. As soon as I did, I would Google it and