Interview: Joe Louis Walker, Blues Legend

By Martine Ehrenclou

Originally from San Francisco, Joe Louis Walker, Blues Hall of Fame inductee, and four-time Blues Music Award-winner, celebrates a career that exceeds a half century. His musical legacy as a prolific torchbearer for the blues is proven by his recorded catalog of 27 albums. A true powerhouse guitar virtuoso, unique singer, and prolific songwriter, he has toured the world extensively, performed at the world’s most renowned music festivals, and earned a legion of dedicated fans. He’s been nominated for Blues Music Awards a whopping 52 times.

JLW has performed as a guest on Grammy-winning albums by B.B. King and James Cotton. He’s performed/collaborated with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Herbie Hancock, Tower of Power, Ike Tuner, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Buddy Miles, Otis Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, Steve Miller, John Mayall, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many more.

Joe Louis Walker is set to release his new album, Eclectic Electric on November 12 on Cleopatra Records. The album features performances by Doyle Bramhall II, Jimmy Vivino, Murali Coryell (Larry Coryell’s son) and Waddy Watchel,  Bette Smith, the B.B. King Blues Band and Steve Berlin from Los Lobos.

Martine Ehrenclou: I’m really enjoying your upcoming album, Eclectic Electric. It’s a great mix of originals and inventive covers. One of my favorites is “Regal Blues.” Is that an ode to B.B. King by you and JoJo Russo?

Joe Louis Walker: Yes. We wrote it years ago. B.B. was coming in town when I was living in California and we were going to go see him. I had to leave and I said, “JoJo, you go see B.B.” JoJo was working with Elvin Bishop then and he went and saw B.B. and he played the song for him. B.B., being the sweetheart that he was, he started getting emotional. He said, “This is the second song Joe Louis wrote up for me. And you guys are thinking about me all the time.” He said, “I just love it.” And B.B. couldn’t do the song because it’s a tribute to him. I don’t know if you remember, but about a year and a half ago, the B.B. King Blues Band let out their record.

Martine: I do remember.

Joe: That track was on their record, but without Baby Doyle (Doyle Bramhall II). I told them, “I’ll let you use the track. But this is my song and I’m going to do my song at some point. It worked out good because I’m like this–if it’s a good song, it can lead itself into two or three or four different interpretations.

Martine: I want to ask you all about your new record, but since we’re on the topic of B.B. King, I’d like to hear about your friendship with B.B. I listened to “Everybody’s Had the Blues” with you and B.B. What are your thoughts about him?

Joe: It’s really hard to say anything about B.B. that hasn’t been said already. I’ll just speak from a personal standpoint. The only way I can personally describe B.B. King for guys like myself, and guys like Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Eric Gales, Christone (Kingfish Ingram), any of us brothers that are coming up here now, is that B.B. made it so that we could go from the outhouse to the penthouse. And by that I mean that B.B. did the same for us African-American guitar players what Muhammad Ali did for African-American boxers. They weren’t making any money before Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali came along and took control of his boxing career. All the brothers that fought Muhammad Ali, they all thanked him because Ali was the type of guy that made it so that whatever happened for him trickled on down to the rest.

It was real trickle down to the rest of the brothers. And I’m not saying that in terms of negating anybody else, any of the Hispanic fighters who are great fighters, or any of the Caucasian fighters or any of the whoever fighters. But when you see what was going on in boxing at the time, you see great Americans like Joe Louis, the real Joe Louis, I call him, the boxer, broke and poor. When Joe Louis went into the United States army, he did exhibition boxing matches. And you know what? When he came home, they taxed him for them. That helped put Joe in the poor house. This is the thing people don’t know.

You could take that same template and put it on B.B. King. B.B. had some hard, hard times, which he would not talk about to a lot of people, because he knew it would make certain people uncomfortable to hear the real deal.

B.B. King didn’t start his career in a million dollar bus. None of us did, but some other folks were fortunate enough to do that. And God bless them. But with B.B., he set the stage for someone like Buddy Guy to make the kind of money he’s making now. He set the stage for someone like Robert Cray. I’ve done a lot of B.B. King tributes for the Grammy Foundation for this and that. I don’t say this with any malice, but they have a lot of really great young players going out. We see who the big stars in blues are. It’s not straight blues now, it’s rock blues now. You might as well throw straight blues out the window. And I don’t mean as a genre. I just mean if you ask somebody about blues, they’re going to say, “Oh man, you rocking the blues.” I always say, “No matter how big a rock blues star gets, he cannot be the next B.B. King.” I can. Christone can. Selwyn Birchwood can.

Martine: Definitely.

Joe: But a lot of other people can’t be, but they don’t need to be (laughter) because they already rolling around in million dollar buses and you name it. But that lifeline, that door that opened with B.B., his collaborations with everybody, from U2 to Zucchero to Pavarotti, like I said, he literally took us from the outhouse to the penthouse. That’s due to his personality and due to him being that generation of older guys like that. People like me and Elvin Bishop or Charlie Musselwhite were fortunate enough to be around. They were around them a little bit more than me because they’re older than me. But I knew Mighty Joe Young, I knew Magic Sam. I knew Muddy Waters. I knew Howlin’ Wolf. Those older guys very rarely complained.

Mississippi Fred McDowell, when I played with him, he never complained. Lightnin Hopkins, Lightnin would bitch, but ‘woe is me’ type complaining. They never complained because they literally had left the fire where they were from. They left hell on earth. The way they looked at it was like, man, we got a chance to do this and people are loving us. And whoo man, I’m going to take advantage of this and most of them did. B.B. took advantage of it and so did Muddy Waters. I’d never seen Muddy Waters turn away anybody–black, white, brown, green, or yellow if they wanted to come play the blues and they wanted to play it right. Muddy and B.B. were like that.

All of them were the most accepting people I’ve ever met and considering where they came out of? Guys like my dad came out of? My dad never talked about the South once he got out of it. He said it was a good place to be from. That’s the dynamics of a part of the blues that’s history. That’s the reality.

Martine: Do you think Albert King fit into that also?

Joe: Well, Albert was … how can I put this? (pause) If B.B. King was Martin Luther King, then Albert King was Huey P. Newton. (Laughter) It was just the facts. Just the reality. Because I ain’t feeling it. (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter)

Joe: (Laughter) Albert’s like, “Hey, who’s this guy stealing my solos note for note taking them out of “Oh Pretty Woman” and putting them in “Strange Brew.” That’s some strange stuff. How do you steal my notes for note? Well, you know he was right. (Laughter) For every B.B. there was an Albert and a Gatemouth. (Laughter)

Martine: Tell me about your new album, Eclectic Electric.

Joe: I don’t know if you remember, but the last record I did Blues Comin’ On was going to be a double album. To let out a double album nowadays is extremely hard. Number one, people just don’t have the attention span, everything’s singles now. Which is really weird because it’s like the music business has gone full circle. I said, some of these songs might make for another project and a few of them did. But when you last called me, we were in the studio and had recorded the three songs, “Werewolves Of London,” “Hotel California,” and Danny’s (Kortchmar) song “All She Wants to Do is Dance.”

When I usually do a song by other people, I like to have some connection to either the song or the song writer. Sometimes it just makes me feel better. Or I’ll call the songwriter and ask what they think about it.

Martine: On “Werewolves of London,” you not only have a connection to it via Waddy Wachtel but he co-wrote it and he’s playing on the song. (Laughter)

Joe: (Laughter) With Waddy, when we recorded it, I sent it to him just to get his opinion. I always do that with Waddy anyway. And he said, “Oh Joe, that’s the way I wanted Warren (Zevon) to do it, shit.” (Laughter) He said, “I’m going to put some loud on it.” That’s what we call Waddy’s guitar. We don’t even call it guitar, we just call it some loud. (Laughter) We put some loud on it, which was just the juxtaposition I wanted. I wanted my soulful thing with Waddy’s rockier thing. And it worked out pretty good. I mean, he liked it and that was really important.

Martine: It’s a killer cover. I love the way you changed it up.

Joe: Thank you. I wish I could take credit for it, but when the band came into the studio, they said, “Joe, we got some ideas.” And the first idea they played was that, and I said, “Don’t go no further. Just let me sing it. We can switch this baby up.” And that worked out. With Danny’s song, it was a similar thing. Danny (Korchtmar) was going to play on this, but The Immediate Family got busy. They’re doing a movie about him or a documentary. The outlier was “Hotel California.”

Martine: Which is also killer. The groove you put on that was so good. Tell me about that too.

Joe: I’m glad you see one thing. You can have a great song. Anybody can have a great song. I’d say 75% of any song is the arrangement. You get the ideas and if you ever see any great group or any videos, or if you’ve seen Standing in the Shadows of Motown or Let It Be, you see groups in the studio working and they’re playing it 90 different ways, 16 different keys. You just keep searching, you know what I mean? With “Hotel,” I didn’t even have to do that because when the band came in, and we all sang the backgrounds and I did the vocals, they had some good ideas of which way to go with this. My whole thing is I’m looking for the soul. What I didn’t want to do with that song, is the guitar army thing because you ain’t going to do it better than Joe Walsh. (Laughter)

I wanted to tell that story because originally being from California like I am and touring California all those hundreds of years, and if you were a musician or anybody that’s been in California in the music scene, you know that there are places like Hotel California. You get in at three in the morning. There’s nobody at the desk. And there’s somebody hanging out at the side over there and you’re saying, “Hey man, I’d like to check in” and they’re cracking jokes. (Laughter) “Yeah, buddy, you can check in, but you can’t check out.” Or you finally get a room, and there’s no mirrors in this room. Then you look up and there’s mirrors up in the air. This is the stuff they have in California. (Laughter)

Or you go to a hotel and it’s all laid out in like shag rug. (Laughter) I mean like your grandma’s shag rug and it’s never been cleaned. That is Hotel California. (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter)

Joe: (Laughter) That’s the story that I wanted to tell. And I was fortunate to get Murali Coryell to come in and play guitar. You can tell my guitar because I don’t play a lot of notes. Mine is mostly legato. I try to make it sound like a voice. When Murali’s playing all those great licks, and you really get in that, just digging in on that raunchy tone, I’m the foil to that.

Martine: How did you choose “Hotel California”? It wouldn’t be an obvious choice to a lot of people.

Joe: This is a true story. About 20 something years ago and I was going on the Blues Cruise. I twisted my leg and I was in a wheelchair and an old guy that I used to play with, he was in a wheelchair–Charles Brown. Somebody who was from the same neighborhood I’m from, she was in a wheelchair, Etta James. So, we’re all in wheelchairs.

Martine: (Laughter) The way you describe that, Joe, just somebody from my neighborhood and it’s Etta James.

Joe: Well, she was from the same projects. I ended up spending a lot of time with Etta on that tour. Etta’s a private person. She was like Aretha Franklin. I heard Etta’s version of “Take It To The Limit” and I asked her, “Etta, why’d you do that? She said, “I love that song by the Eagles.” She said, “Joe, it fits me. A good song is just a good song.”

I thought, that’s true. I do believe there’s only two types of music–good and bad. And if something’s so called bad, that could fall under that category of, hey, maybe you just don’t get it because how could it be bad if 20,000 people out there are having the time of their lives and you’re the only one there that don’t like it. (Laughter)

I have a little bit of adventurous in me–dare me, dare me, and I’ll do it. Let’s take one of the most iconic tunes that’s out there and flip it on its head. We’re back to “Hotel California.”

Martine: When we spoke last, you said that your album Blues Comin’ On was a collaboration. Do you feel the same way about Eclectic Electric?

Joe: No, because this record was definitely not. I didn’t have any guests in mind, period. The track with Baby Doyle (Doyle Bramhall II) on it, I just said to him, “I got this song and I hear you playing on it.” And he said, “Just send it to me, Joe.” That was because Baby Doyle is like family with me. I didn’t consider that a guest. Baby Doyle and the B.B. King Blues Band too, they’re like family to me. Waddy (Wachtel), he’s like family to me. He was on the last record. He’s all over this record. He’s playing lead guitar on “Wine.” He’s playing the low note guitar on “Make No Mistake.” Waddy is my truth control when it comes to music.

Martine: Your truth control. What a great expression. What is that?

Joe: There’s no fake bones in his body when it comes to playing music. If you don’t want to know the truth, don’t ask him. That’s why Keith (Richards) hired him for the Winos because with Waddy, you basically have a top flight producer on stage, a great guitar player, great showman, original as hell. And he’s crazy as a fucking road lizard like the rest of us. And we love him for it. This record didn’t start off with a bunch of guests. Some people are recurring in my life since I’ve lived on the East Coast. And Juma Sultan is on this record, playing great percussion on “Hotel California.”

Martine: You’re out there performing again, you’re on tour. How’s that feel after being cooped up for a while like the rest of us.

Joe: We’re going in fit and spurts. I start my own tour on November the 11th near Pittsburgh. And then I go to Cleveland and Iowa, Minnesota, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Chicago, blah blah, promoting the record. I did a little tour around the East Coast here with (George) Thorogood. I opened some shows for George. He was kind enough to have me come out. That was fun.

Martine: How does it feel performing with the Covid thing—some wearing masks, some not.

Joe: Just to be honest, if any of us are honest, we just have to say there is a big element of uncomfortability because all the political stuff that’s been thrown into it. It just turned brother against brother, sister against sister. As much as I’m trying to tip toe around it, and as much as people try to tip toe around it on these tours, it is the 500 pound gorilla in the room.

And that permeates into the backstage area because it really is like this, Martine. You got 10 people–five people are doing one thing, five people are doing something else. Who’s going to tell everybody what to do so we can all march in the same direction? Nobody. You may have someone backstage who’s the head of the tour saying, “Hey, my artist is not coming out until we know everybody’s masked up and vaccinated.” And in fact, nobody should be back there. I mean, most of my friends they’re doing their tours in a bubble, the bigger acts. The bubble is that unless you’re part of the family or the immediate group, you don’t get around the artist for the whole tour.

I just had a couple friends do huge tours, big sheds, and the whole thing was in the bubble. It’s like, “Hey Joe, I’m sorry, man. I’d love to see you, but you can’t come, man because we’re in the bubble. When we ain’t in the bubble, we are headed out to some house way out of town.”

Martine: That’s intense.

Joe: Yeah. Music is about inclusion. Everything with the dynamics of the marching orders for us, for the pandemic, is not inclusive. In fact, it’s keeping people away. Whereas most of us musicians, we’re always about bringing people in. It just has this weird thing. The political part of it is just breaks our heart. Just breaks our heart.

For more information about Joe Louis Walker and his new album Eclectic Electric see his website here.

Listen to “Werewolves of London” by Joe Louis Walker feat. Waddy Wachtel