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BiTS: Is there any musician in the world at any time that you wished you could have seen but
never did?
TE: Freddie King. I never got to see him. He’s probably my main influence as a blues rocker and I
never got to see him. I saw Howlin’ Wolf. I saw Howlin’ Wolf in concert, and I saw Muddy Waters
many times and B.B. King and Albert King, but I never got to see Freddie King. It didn’t work out,
and in the mid-70s, by then he was gone, so I wish I’d seen him.
BiTS: I feel the same way about Albert Collins, I must say.
TE: I saw him and played with him many, many times. Loved him.
BiTS: Have you been badly affected by COVID? I mean obviously, you were locked down and you
wrote all these songs, but did you have lots of gigs fall away from underneath you?
TE: Oh yes. We have rescheduled the same tour three times now and we’re hoping not to have
that happen again, but it might. It might.
BiTS: That’s absolutely dreadful.
TE: Well, it is what it is, right? Nothing I can do about it.
BiTS: Is music your only source of income?
TE: Yes, but I am a songwriter, so I have 20
albums worth of songs, so I don’t exactly make a
living as a songwriter, but I have one song that
sold very well. It was called ‘A Quitter Never
Wins’ and it was recorded by Jonny Lang on his
big debut album, and he sold two million copies
of it. And then John Mayall just recorded ‘A
Quitter Never Wins’ for his new album.
BiTS: He did. I’ve got a copy of it, in fact.
TE: Yes, I’m looking forward to hearing his version of John Mayall it. I
haven't heard it yet.
BiTS: I like it very much.
TE: Well, I was so honoured because that’s like coming full circle. John Mayall is the one that
turned me on to my own music, American blues music and so here he is doing my song and I’m
very honoured by that.
BiTS: Thank you very much indeed for talking to me. Just to tell you that this is for the ezine, a
web-based magazine called Blues in the South, which is actually the south of England, not the
southern states of the US and it will be published at the end of this month for next month.
TE: I look forward to that very much and I know that Alligator records will send that to me. I’m a
big fan. I’ve looked online and read your stuff for years now.
BiTS: That’s very kind of you. Thank you very much indeed.
TE: I’m a very big fan. Thank you for everything you do.
BiTS: My pleasure. Thank you for speaking to me .
TE: Okay, I’ll look for that.
BiTS: Tinsley, thank you. Bye.