Pivotal moments in musicians careers propelling them from obscurity to infamy

It's a typically warm late spring night in Georgia as I sit across from Walter Trout on the back porch of Chip's Roadhouse. Walter, the Jersey born guitarist/singer and his band the Radicals, have just finished an evening of blistering blues before an appreciative crowd. The word 'legend' comes to mind when you consider this musician has been a sideman for John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (you know, that band that had a couple of fairly well-regarded alumni such as Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Peter Greene?) Walter is now fifty years old and is a prototypical road warrior, playing well over two hundred shows a year. And it doesn't take too long to watch him in concert to realize his immense talent. So with this pedigree, what is he doing playing in the middle of nowhere? Chip's is on a little knoll in the farmland between Atlanta and Athens, and a five year old could throw a football from one end of the bar to the other - not a five year old Brett Favre either. Walter had recently played in front of thousands at the prestigious Memphis in May Festival. So why is he here?

First of all, Walter played an extra Thursday night show at Chip's before his scheduled Friday show to help an old friend celebrate his 50th birthday, but it goes a little deeper than that as to why Walter returns year after year to play this tiny watering hole in the Georgia country side. And it says a lot about the man's philosophy on playing music as well. "For the last two years I've been on the road nine months, and I will be again this year. I love to get in front of people and play, and communicate with them and reach out to them. I love it and I've loved it from the first time I ever did it. I had a guy come up to me tonight and tell me he never heard a guitar player that brought him to tears, but two times in the course of the evening my playing made him weep, and that's about the best compliment that I ever have received. I want to create feeling, I don't want to impress people, I want to move them. This is the smallest club that I play in and people are just great here, and it's so much fun to be this close and to interact this much with the crowd. I'd never want to not play at places like this."

Let's go back in time to forty years ago when Walter was a ten year old who's musical interest was the trumpet. The great Duke Ellington was playing at a theater near Walter's home, and Walter's mother took him to the stage door of the theater, knocked on the door and told the Duke that her son was a trumpet player and wanted him to say hello to Walter. The next thing they knew they were in the dressing room with Duke, his full ensemble as well as Tony Bennett. "They befriended me and let me hang out with them all day and then be their guest that night at the show. And Duke was just a nice, warm and generous man to me. It was an incredible afternoon." Although the trumpet did not remain his instrument of choice, the musical philosophies that the Duke instilled in young Walter would apply throughout his career. "One thing Duke said that stuck was, 'If you go into this and want to do this and try to do it for a living and devote yourself to it, keep your focus on the music and the art of it and creating and being the best musician and the finest artist you have it in you to be. Don't get caught up in the hype, the glitter or the glamour. Strive with everything you can to maintain your focus at being a musician and the joy of creating the music'." Eventually, after really throwing himself into the music of Mike Bloomfield, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Walter picked up the guitar and never looked back. He started working hard, playing in a number of bar bands which helped him become involved with some fairly well-known blues performers such as Louisiana Red, Big Mama Thornton and Percy Mayfield. It was while playing with Big Mama Thornton that he was spotted by a particular member of the audience named John Lee Hooker. Hooker invited Walter to join his band, which in turn spurred interest by Canned Heat. The progressive rise continued for Walter when Canned Heat opened for John Mayall and soon afterward, Walter became a member of the Bluesbreakers. "I basically went through about twenty years of being a sideman for the legends. But when I lived in Jersey, I also had a band just like the Radicals. It was my band with the same kind of instrumentation. We did much of the same type of material. But when I moved to California, I had the dream of doing a solo band but I kept getting these gigs playing guitar for all these other people and it was very easy to go from one band to the next. But when I was with John Mayall, I realized one day that if I really wanted to pursue my dream of doing my own music, I would have to leave his band." The chance came one night when they were playing in Denmark. John Mayall was sick and had to stay at the hotel, so the rest of the Bluesbreakers played the show without him. Walter and Koko Montoya took turns fronting the band and singing. After they came off stage, a rep from Elektra Records told Walter that he wanted him to record a solo album. There was also a promoter who told Walter that if he made the record he would book a tour for him. "It was dumped right in my lap, so I went for it and I haven't looked back." Walter released his debut album "Life In The Jungle" on Netherlands based label Provogue in 1990, and released several more albums on that label as well as appearing on tribute albums to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck and a live album of the Jimi Hendrix Festival. Walter continued his hectic touring pace, gaining widespread popularity in both the U.S. and Europe, and in the late 90's, he was signed to the U.S. label Ruf Records who released his self-titled American debut in 1998. His 2000 Ruf release "Live Trout", capturing his live performance at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, reached number 15 on Billboard magazine's blues chart. Walter was also recently ranked number six of all-time great guitarists in a BBC radio poll.

In 2001 Walter Trout hit the road again with the Radicals, who were comprised of bassist James Trapp, keyboardist Bill Mason and drummer Bernie Pershey to prepare for the late May release of their third Ruf album "Go The Distance." An unexpected possible snag developed shortly after the U.S. leg of the tour began as Bernie decided suddenly to quit the band to join Eric Burdon. Some quick scrambling found a replacement; Kenny Soule, who had drummed in the late 70's-early 80's band Nantucket. "I think Kenny was meant to be in my band because he's kicking ass. He's singing harmony with me and I've never had harmony in my band. Things happen for a reason and I'm very happy with him."

It is often thought by many folks that to play the blues you have to "live" the blues, but Walter has his own philosophy on the music that he loves and performs. "It's gotta have feeling. As far as the life style, all that crap about how you have to be the hard living blues man and be drinking and doping and tormented with the broken heart and all that, I think that's a myth. I think it's possible to be a pretty well-adjusted, happy and fulfilled human being and still play this music with feeling." After the last notes had faded into the lovely Georgia night, I'm sure that the hard core blues fans at Chips would agree with Walter's blues philosophy, as I'm sure the fans do in Memphis and Tampa and all the other towns that he tirelessly makes the annual trek to. For Walter Trout is a man with a lot of talent and passion who loves what he's doing, which bodes wonderfully for his fans as they keep looking forward to that next Walter Trout show. "I'm having the most fun right now. I'm fifty years old and I'm having the best part of my life. I've got a wife that I love. I have kids I love and I'm taking care of them by playing the guitar. I'm going out on tour and living my childhood dream which is to get up and play and sing for people. I haven't had a drink or a drug in fifteen years, and I'm lucky to be alive. But I'm clean and sober, I love my family, I love my band, I love what I'm doing. I've got it all. I don't ever want to retire; one of my dreams is to make it to where John Lee Hooker is where I'm eighty-five and they're putting me on the stage and handing me the guitar and I'm playing for people. I don't ever want to stop as long as God allows me to have the ability to do this." :->