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Jimi and Stevie Ray: Like My Own Kids
Even though there's a 20-year difference in our ages, I don't consider Eric a son. But I did think of Stevie Ray and Jimi as being just as much my kids as my own 15 biological children. Stevie used to come to me just like my sons did and ask about music. As young and handsome as he was, I thought he'd want to talk about girls. But he and Jimi talked to me about chords and how to make certain sounds on the guitar.I first met Jimi Hendrix in the early '60s when he was playing for Little Richard. We toured for a few weeks together, and whenever his group had a break, he'd come by my dressing room and talk. Same thing with Stevie. He'd play something and say, "What do you think of this, B.? How does it sound?"
He would ask for pointers. It made me feel good, like a teacher feels when he sees a student doing well. Stevie was very fast on the guitar. I'd tell him, "If I could play that well, I'd probably play as fast as I could too. But since I don't play so well, I play slower to try to make my music more precise." He would reply, "I just play what I feel."
Stevie was on tour with Eric when he died in that plane crash in 1990. When I first got the news on the radio, I heard it was Eric who had died. Later I found out it was really Stevie. I hurt just as bad. Same thing about Jimi's death in 1970 from drugs -- I heard it on the radio.
I wish I'd gotten to talk to Jimi about the dangers of drugs. But when I knew him he wasn't a superstar yet, and I don't know if he was using then. He didn't really look to me for personal advice, but now I tell younger musicians, "Get high off your music, not drugs or liquor."
Stevie was different. He hung on my every word. Whenever he'd come to see me, he would sit down, lean against my legs and talk. He had a thing about him that just made him lovable.
I've been going back to Indianola, Mississippi, for 40 years now, playing free concerts in the park for children. As recently as 15 years ago, you would see just little black kids there. But in the last 10 years you'd begin to see a rainbow of color. It makes me so proud it seems my buttons are gonna pop off my shirt.
Like Stevie, the children sit down around me, this old white-haired black guy. Kids who are 10, 12, 14, they ask questions like, "Hey, B.B., what about So-and-So?" Their faces light up when I start to talk; they get close and take in every word. You might say I have thousands of children -- Eric, Stevie and Jimi have just been the most popular.
One other thing about Eric Clapton and me. Being from Mississippi, I've got a pretty bad mouth. I swear a lot. Eric never does. He's a real English gentleman. He'll do anything he can to help people. He even opened a rehab center in the Caribbean for folks suffering from addiction. He's the kind of person the world needs more of. Not only as a musician, but as a man. I just love the guy.
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