John Lee Hooker

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety five, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My Castaway this week is the oldest star in rock music. Born seventy four years ago in the Mississippi Delta, his resonant, deep throated voice now has more than a hundred blues albums to its credit.

Presenter0:43

He comes from a family of Southern sharecroppers. He ran away when he was fourteen, and he went on the road as a musician.

Presenter0:50

Greatly revered by stars such as the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, his career seemed to have come to an end during the late seventies and eighties, and then, at the age of sixty nine, he came out with the album The Healer. It was one of the most astonishing comebacks in the history of the business.

Presenter1:08

I love people, small night clubs, and pretty women, he says. After that I just get on with singing.

Speaker 31:12

After

Speaker 11:12

That

Presenter1:15

He is.

Speaker 31:15

He is.

Presenter1:16

John Lee Hooker.

Presenter1:17

I is that why you go on singing the blues as well as you do, John, because you stay close to the things that you love?

John Lee Hooker1:25

I admit I do like pretty women. I admit I admit that.

John Lee Hooker1:29

That I wouldn't be a man, uh, whatever some of them don't, but I do.

John Lee Hooker1:33

People.

John Lee Hooker1:34

The young people trying to get them to see what the blues is all about.

Presenter1:39

But the blues, as I understand it, isn't about feeling blue, is it? It's about feeling better. It's about overpowering.

John Lee Hooker1:45

Got him.

John Lee Hooker1:46

That's what I try to get the people to see.

John Lee Hooker1:49

Blues is not a downer.

John Lee Hooker1:52

Blues is a healer. Get people to feel better.

John Lee Hooker1:55

But something on your mind really bothers you, you can put on some good blues.

John Lee Hooker2:01

It soothes your mind, it peaks you up, not put you down.

Presenter2:05

But have you got to have known?

Presenter2:08

What it's like to be blue in order to sing the blues, you've got to have suffered.

John Lee Hooker2:12

I didn't have to suffer to Saint De Blues.

John Lee Hooker2:15

God will give me this great talent.

Presenter2:17

But was it born in you because you're born of an American black family who had generations before known about suffering? I mean, is it in you?

John Lee Hooker2:26

It wasn't black, it wasn't white, it's just something that

John Lee Hooker2:31

Our automatic is

John Lee Hooker2:33

There's a born blues singer.

Presenter2:35

But then people said, you know, that that that Elvis sang like a black man, that he sang the blues so well he might have been black.

John Lee Hooker2:43

No, I wouldn't see that.

John Lee Hooker2:45

You don't have to be a color to sing the blues.

John Lee Hooker2:49

Blue ain't got no colour.

John Lee Hooker2:51

So many white blues singers could sing the blues by Joe Cochran.

John Lee Hooker2:56

The born blue Eric clapped it.

Presenter2:59

Do you tell me this, do you have to have love?

Presenter3:01

A good woman to sing the blues, and to have lost her.

John Lee Hooker3:04

No, I didn't. When I was saying the blues, I didn't even have a woman when I started.

John Lee Hooker3:09

I was just a young kid.

John Lee Hooker3:10

Very happy, very happy.

John Lee Hooker3:14

I didn't know about a hard time in a woman,'cause I never was in love at that age.

John Lee Hooker3:18

I could really sing the blues.

John Lee Hooker3:22

Blues are based upon human beings, life.

John Lee Hooker3:26

The way that it world is.

Presenter3:28

Tell me about the blues you want to take to this desert island with you. What what's the first record that you'd like to play on your desert island?

John Lee Hooker3:36

Well, Muddy Waters is a great, great blue thing. He was a great fan of mine.

John Lee Hooker3:41

and a great friend.

John Lee Hooker3:43

I definitely would have him out there.

John Lee Hooker3:46

Put on some muddy water blue and sat there on the desert aisle with nobody to me and my guitar.

John Lee Hooker3:52

No, I don't know nothing with this my music.

Speaker 33:55

I'd my whole joke working but it just gonna work on you

Speaker 34:03

Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you.

Speaker 34:12

I wanna

Presenter4:13

Love you so bad, I don't know what to do.

Presenter4:18

That was muddy waters and got my mojo working.

John Lee Hooker4:21

Oh, I know them so well.

Presenter4:23

So you were, as I said in my introduction, John Lee Hooker, you were relaunched six years ago, weren't you? When you you hadn't made any records for a long time.

John Lee Hooker4:32

And for a long time I dropped out.

Presenter4:34

And then suddenly you came back into fashion again with this album, La Healer. Was it a strange experience for you because you weren't doing anything different from what you'd always done, were you? It's just kind of fashion had come back around to you.

John Lee Hooker4:46

I ain't done anything different, but it must have been my time.

Presenter4:49

Again.

John Lee Hooker4:50

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker4:52

Uh I'm I'm I'm doing the practically the same thing I did there.

Presenter4:55

The blues don't change, do they?

John Lee Hooker4:58

Never chain like old man rubble.

John Lee Hooker5:00

This keeps on rolling.

John Lee Hooker5:02

May not roll fast, but it just keeps on rolling.

Presenter5:06

But obviously it's very versatile because it fits in with all sorts of different styles at the same time.

John Lee Hooker5:07

We never die.

John Lee Hooker5:11

Well, I'll tell you what, y you you may not agree with me there on this.

John Lee Hooker5:16

Everything come from the blue.

John Lee Hooker5:18

All music is blues at the root.

John Lee Hooker5:21

Rock, ballads, rap.

John Lee Hooker5:24

You're talking about a woman, a woman talking about a man.

John Lee Hooker5:27

You told me my heartache she left me or he left me.

Presenter5:31

But what do you think of modern forms of music? What do you think of rap?

John Lee Hooker5:36

But I don't like it.

John Lee Hooker5:38

To me, just talking.

Presenter5:41

Um and what about disco music?

John Lee Hooker5:43

Discourse has gotta really gotta go to beaten and rabbious.

John Lee Hooker5:48

I got nothing wrong with Reb. Look at Rom.

John Lee Hooker5:50

But it just ain't my bag.

John Lee Hooker5:52

But this code I kinda like it, but it's but this code doing the same thing I'm doing it, but just just different beats, but it's saying the same words.

Presenter6:03

Tell me about your next record.

John Lee Hooker6:05

Oh, nothing but a woman.

John Lee Hooker6:06

Oh, that hits a nail on her head. That that that hits me. Nothing but a woman. I love that cut. That's all I need. Nothing but a woman. But he picked a good one then.

Speaker 36:20

You can give me an hour alone in a plane.

Speaker 36:24

Pay all my tickets, wipe the slate blank. You can buy me a car, fill up the tank.

Speaker 36:32

Tell me a boat full of lawyers just sank, but it ain't nothing but a woman, nothing but a woman, no no.

Speaker 36:42

Don't need nothing but a warmer

Speaker 36:45

Anytime I'm feeling

Presenter6:47

Yeah.

Presenter6:48

Robert Cray and Nothing But a Woman.

Presenter6:50

If I got this right, John, you're the son of a preacher, the brother of a preacher, and the father of a preacher?

John Lee Hooker6:57

The brothers are preaching.

John Lee Hooker6:59

My father was a minister.

John Lee Hooker7:01

Now I got a son, Robert, you know, he's going to be preacher. And really I come from the church.

Presenter7:07

But you were brought up very much in sort of gospel singing, spiritual singing.

John Lee Hooker7:11

I was taught very to be loyal in the church.

John Lee Hooker7:15

Deal with Twiston.

John Lee Hooker7:17

I want you to hear what witness. I first sang spiritually with a group called Fire Field 4. I go to church, people that be.

John Lee Hooker7:24

hollering and yelling when I started singing.

Presenter7:27

But your father didn't, if I understand it right, didn't like you singing at home, did he? He didn't like you singing at home.

John Lee Hooker7:31

Not the rules.

Presenter7:33

The Blues.

John Lee Hooker7:33

Mm-hmm. They call it devil music.

John Lee Hooker7:36

But it's no double music.

Presenter7:38

But uh just tell me about your home then in those very early days. I said you were your family were sharecroppers. What does that mean? What was home and what was

John Lee Hooker7:47

What you mean, what what is shift trouble? own a whole lot of land.

John Lee Hooker7:51

dey rent all that land they had their own land.

John Lee Hooker7:55

They raise their own fruit, their own pigs, their own cows.

John Lee Hooker8:00

The own titan.

Presenter8:02

But tell me tell me about your home. What did you live in? How did you and the family live?

John Lee Hooker8:08

But we live good.

John Lee Hooker8:09

That's something I don't like to talk about, but uh you ask me, I will.

John Lee Hooker8:13

The South was badly b very bad back then. I know you read about it. But we was fortunate.

John Lee Hooker8:19

I never went to hungry on a day in my life.

John Lee Hooker8:23

And my dad was a big minister. He was loved by white, he was loved by everybody.

John Lee Hooker8:31

He was a big, big man.

John Lee Hooker8:35

It is owned for land, it is leased.

John Lee Hooker8:38

He was a big, big man, so we didn't see a hard time.

Presenter8:42

But eventually your parents separated, didn't they? And it was your stepfather.

John Lee Hooker8:45

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker8:47

Yes, and I went

Presenter8:48

taught you to play the guitar.

John Lee Hooker8:49

Mm-hmm.

Presenter8:50

Tell me about him.

John Lee Hooker8:53

Oh, Wilmo? He's a great guitar player. What I'm playing now, that's what he played. He taught me to play what I'm playing now.

John Lee Hooker8:59

I wish he was around to hear what he did for me.

Presenter9:02

But where had he learned to play the guitar? How did he know?

John Lee Hooker9:05

It's a good question when I met him he was playing.

John Lee Hooker9:08

You play like this, don't play no fancy cards.

John Lee Hooker9:13

Pick the guitar

John Lee Hooker9:14

and play and sing. Forget about a book.

Presenter9:18

I heard that you I read that you began by playing with a tyre attached to a barn door, didn't you? That's right.

John Lee Hooker9:26

I do that.

Presenter9:28

That was before you got a guitar.

Presenter9:31

How old were you when you got your first guitar?

John Lee Hooker9:33

Oh, but

John Lee Hooker9:34

True.

Presenter9:36

You were obviously very ambitious to get out of that place, though, weren't you, out of Clarksdale, Mississippi. You've said since that

Presenter9:43

You said two things I can quote you if I may. Right from the start I had a sense of being set apart from the rest. And you've also said I felt that all over the world everybody was going to know John Lee Hooker.

John Lee Hooker9:57

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker10:00

I was kind of different from my other family, you know.

John Lee Hooker10:03

I felt like I was gonna really do things.

John Lee Hooker10:06

I never doubted myself.

Presenter10:09

Tell me about your third record.

John Lee Hooker10:12

Burnt Harlow Roof.

John Lee Hooker10:14

And would I like to have it on the desert? Oh yes, so

John Lee Hooker10:18

So I don't know.

John Lee Hooker10:20

Listen to The Mighty Whoop, The Taildragon.

John Lee Hooker10:24

That man got a voice like an angel.

John Lee Hooker10:27

Feel the mighty wolf of the

Speaker 310:29

They call me the Howlin' Wolf Bubble.

Speaker 310:34

You found me howling at you

Speaker 310:43

They told me to house.

Speaker 310:48

Oh you found me howling at your door.

Presenter10:50

Meha

Presenter10:52

That was Howland Wolf and Howland for My Baby.

Presenter10:55

So, John Lee Hooker, you ran away from home when you were 14. Where did you go? How did you live?

John Lee Hooker11:03

At that age

John Lee Hooker11:05

You ain't scared of nothing.

John Lee Hooker11:07

I left there one night.

John Lee Hooker11:10

You know, you

John Lee Hooker11:12

I don't know how to put this to you, but when you

John Lee Hooker11:15

Twelve and thirteen, fourteen years old, you got a nerve like a piece of steel, you ain't scared of nothing. Get out of there. I left there one night with my get tired.

John Lee Hooker11:23

I remember my still blade at my mom's house.

John Lee Hooker11:27

I wanted to be in the lamplight.

John Lee Hooker11:31

And I left there I had

John Lee Hooker11:34

two dollars in my pocket and my stepbad give me about

John Lee Hooker11:40

Two weeks before love.

John Lee Hooker11:42

That was a lot of money there.

John Lee Hooker11:49

He wouldn't bother you, and I got a ride all the way to Memphis.

John Lee Hooker11:55

Then I got a little job out at the New Days of Picture Show.

John Lee Hooker11:59

You come in, I'll show you your seat.

John Lee Hooker12:01

Stop following me, please hand them a red suit or a red jacket.

John Lee Hooker12:07

Make a real neat and cute.

John Lee Hooker12:09

I did that for a long time.

Presenter12:11

How many years was it before you saw your mother again?

John Lee Hooker12:16

For what's more

John Lee Hooker12:19

Now I didn't see her again'cause she's passing.

John Lee Hooker12:23

But one more time as she passed.

Presenter12:25

How how old were you when you saw her again?

John Lee Hooker12:29

Oh.

John Lee Hooker12:32

A young man, nobody.

John Lee Hooker12:36

In my twenties I would be

Presenter12:38

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker12:38

But it

Presenter12:38

But it it wasn't until you were twenty eight, I think, a few years after the war, that finally you were kind of discovered, you were asked to make a record, weren't you?

John Lee Hooker12:50

Well, you know, I I had what it take and

John Lee Hooker12:54

This y young man, Elmer Barbara, discovered me.

John Lee Hooker12:59

I was playing in a little club and I was pulling he walked in.

John Lee Hooker13:03

And he's looking at me.

John Lee Hooker13:06

Come here, kid.

John Lee Hooker13:08

I said, uh I said, yes, sir.

John Lee Hooker13:11

You got only a fine suit and suit suit I said. I said, Yes, sir.

John Lee Hooker13:15

So all you show sound really deserves.

John Lee Hooker13:18

What are you doing?

John Lee Hooker13:20

Tomorrow so I'm working here and there.

John Lee Hooker13:22

Can you come to my shop?

John Lee Hooker13:25

I got a studio, and I want to talk to you about recording, and I want to.

John Lee Hooker13:30

And we cut up a whole lot of diss, including Brugi Chilla. We put that on a blank.

Presenter13:34

Google.

John Lee Hooker13:34

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker13:36

And it

John Lee Hooker13:38

They give me a contract.

John Lee Hooker13:41

Two thousand dollars. I had never had that much money. Up front.

John Lee Hooker13:45

I never had that much money.

John Lee Hooker13:46

Hello?

John Lee Hooker13:48

Yeah, I've already

Presenter13:51

This was before it was a hit, so they recognised it, did they? They knew.

John Lee Hooker13:54

Well, when you know, you know when you start a contract or

John Lee Hooker13:58

I had about a three-year contract they knew they would get that money back and much, much, much more.

Speaker 314:03

Hmm.

John Lee Hooker14:04

I kept that check.

John Lee Hooker14:06

About two we're gonna show them the table about. Look here.

John Lee Hooker14:08

I don't know.

Speaker 314:11

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker14:11

So another uh my landlady said she maybe pieces maybe put it in the back.

John Lee Hooker14:17

The boy put that check in put that in the bank.

Presenter14:21

But it was a great hit. I mean Boogie's Millen sold a million and then

John Lee Hooker14:25

But you know more.

Presenter14:25

In the mood. Again, I'll be right back.

John Lee Hooker14:27

And the mood soul and the mo in the mood was a big one.

Presenter14:30

So you were you were in the big time, I mean

John Lee Hooker14:32

Not in the meantime.

Presenter14:32

Uh

Presenter14:33

Yeah.

Presenter14:34

Tell me about record number four now. What's that?

John Lee Hooker14:37

He shook me by bbe oh.

John Lee Hooker14:41

I love it. Well I can say he's one of the greatest and

John Lee Hooker14:46

Devil would have him out the only devil's good.

Speaker 314:48

You shook me, baby You shook me all night long

John Lee Hooker14:53

Uh Uh

Speaker 114:53

Uh

John Lee Hooker14:53

Uh

Speaker 114:53

Uh

John Lee Hooker14:53

Oh man.

Speaker 114:53

Hello

Speaker 314:57

You're suggestly, baby.

Speaker 315:00

Students online low.

Speaker 315:06

You kept on shaking me, baby.

Speaker 315:10

Tell you messed up my happy home, my happy home, my happy home.

John Lee Hooker15:17

What a funky.

Presenter15:20

That was B.B. King with my castaway John Lee Hooker, and You Shook Me.

Presenter15:26

You made the record Dimples in 1956 and Boom Boom in 1962, both of which were huge in the UK.

John Lee Hooker15:33

Huge, huge, huge, huge.

Presenter15:35

And you you came over to live in London, I think, in the middle of the year.

John Lee Hooker15:39

Yesterday.

Presenter15:42

What was it like then? I mean it was square exact, wasn't it?

John Lee Hooker15:43

Or strange trial.

John Lee Hooker15:45

What?

Presenter15:46

It was where it was at. It was the place to be in the sixties.

John Lee Hooker15:48

That was a deep place to be.

John Lee Hooker15:52

I live on Oxford Street upstairs, all over clothes and stuff.

John Lee Hooker15:56

That was the place to be in London. When I come over there,

John Lee Hooker16:00

It was just like the President coming to town, with everybody was doing my stuff over here.

John Lee Hooker16:04

Harry Brother, enjoy your fame

John Lee Hooker16:07

I think it's a very good thing.

Presenter16:09

The animals and the stones don't eat the current eye.

John Lee Hooker16:10

Adamondston, yeah.

John Lee Hooker16:12

Yeah. And when I come over there, but you'll like him.

John Lee Hooker16:15

He's a jewel, Commodore.

John Lee Hooker16:17

And me and me and me Eddie used to run around.

John Lee Hooker16:21

We used to hang out together, go to parties and

John Lee Hooker16:24

At night and

John Lee Hooker16:27

Party all night and you go to the Kew Club they went home till twelve.

Presenter16:30

The norm

John Lee Hooker16:32

You want a day?

John Lee Hooker16:33

I'm glad I mean this boy got drowned in the pool. What isn't that Wonder Stone?

Presenter16:37

Brian Jones.

John Lee Hooker16:38

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker16:40

Although he had drowned in the pool.

Presenter16:41

But you also knew Bob Dylan, didn't you?

John Lee Hooker16:43

We up on the fraud and put them on the bandstand.

Presenter16:46

Did you?

John Lee Hooker16:47

Right then Greatest Folks City in New York City is eleven West Ford Street.

John Lee Hooker16:51

Bob wasn't doing anything just hanging around in my apartment. One night I got him on the bandstand two return of the band. Albert Grossman heard him and

John Lee Hooker17:00

Heath and Barbo.

Presenter17:02

So there you were, you know, through those those important years, rubbing shoulders with the leading players of the time.

John Lee Hooker17:09

You know, that meant more to me than any money I got right now, d those years.

Presenter17:13

Did it?

John Lee Hooker17:14

And in money, I got

Presenter17:16

Why? Because you were happy.

John Lee Hooker17:18

I was happy.

John Lee Hooker17:20

That'd mean a lot to

John Lee Hooker17:23

But you but you can't re you you can't relive'em.

Presenter17:26

Let's have some more music.

John Lee Hooker17:28

Or Steve Ray.

John Lee Hooker17:30

David Ray Vaughan

John Lee Hooker17:31

I admired him so much.

John Lee Hooker17:34

Young man with a guitar to blues.

John Lee Hooker17:37

You sound like anybody, you sound doing like I would king.

John Lee Hooker17:41

Or he could

John Lee Hooker17:42

Play that guitar. I'd have loved him.

John Lee Hooker17:44

He goin', but he ain't goin'.

John Lee Hooker17:46

The mean.

John Lee Hooker17:48

I would like to have him stinging the foot down in Texas.

John Lee Hooker17:52

and all the wires are down.

John Lee Hooker17:54

Flooding down in Texas and I like the hint. I'd love to see him sit in.

Speaker 317:59

I'm leaving you, baby.

Speaker 318:05

Lord not going back home this day

Speaker 318:16

I'm waving you, baby.

Speaker 318:23

Hello now I'm going back home.

Presenter18:25

On display.

Presenter18:29

Flood Down in Texas, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Presenter18:32

John Lee Hooker. It is a very distinctive sound, both your voice and your guitar.

Presenter18:39

It's very melancholy. Uh do you have a

Presenter18:42

Do you have a favorite way of hearing it described? It's people say it's very pure.

John Lee Hooker18:48

It's no way I can describe it, it's automatic.

John Lee Hooker18:51

It's not in a book, I didn't get it on a book, it just.

John Lee Hooker18:55

Come natural, as long as I can describe it to you.

John Lee Hooker18:58

But told to you Narah couldn't

John Lee Hooker19:02

I get no clue on that.

Presenter19:04

Some people say it has a lot to do with your hands, which are

John Lee Hooker19:08

Not my voice, uh

Presenter19:09

No, but your guitar play, that your hands are are very big and very loose.

Presenter19:16

You see you can cross all your fingers, you're showing me.

Speaker 319:19

Mm-hmm.

Presenter19:20

Are y they're double-jointed, are they, your hands?

Presenter19:24

Somebody said it's almost as if there's no bones in them. They're like the

Presenter19:28

Totally flexible.

John Lee Hooker19:30

Yeah, I like that.

Presenter19:31

Can you therefore play chords that other guitarists can't?

John Lee Hooker19:35

I can do anything I want or what it just to bring

Presenter19:39

And do you always play the same guitar, the same kind of guitar?

John Lee Hooker19:43

Yeah, they're different kinds.

Presenter19:44

What sort do you play?

John Lee Hooker19:47

Hibaphone, Gibson, Washburn.

Presenter19:50

People also say you're difficult to play with because you're unpredictable. They never know what you're going to do next.

John Lee Hooker19:58

I want it to be like that.

John Lee Hooker20:01

I can play direct if I want to type it.

John Lee Hooker20:04

But I wouldn't be John Lee Hooker anymore. I can if I want to.

Presenter20:08

What you can make it possible for them to play with you if you

Presenter20:12

But you like leaving them behind, you?

John Lee Hooker20:15

Yeah.

Presenter20:17

You can't read a lot of writing, can you? So you you you have to take in your uh learn songs yourself. Right. All your songs presumably are in your head.

John Lee Hooker20:24

Right.

John Lee Hooker20:27

Nobody gives me a song, I do it myself.

Presenter20:31

So so every song that you ever sung.

Presenter20:35

is stored in your hand.

John Lee Hooker20:36

Mine, I'm a genius. Nobody can write for John Lee Hooker.

Presenter20:40

But you did that uh you did a couple of tracks on for Pete Townsend on The Iron Man, didn't you? Based on the Ted Hughes poem.

John Lee Hooker20:46

Yeah.

Presenter20:48

Now how did you learn?

John Lee Hooker20:48

He just told me and now he's

John Lee Hooker20:52

went old a few times and

John Lee Hooker20:55

I got good good good memories like a hella

Presenter20:59

So it's all in your head.

John Lee Hooker21:01

Yeah.

Presenter21:02

Record number six.

John Lee Hooker21:04

Were you a captain? Yeah.

John Lee Hooker21:06

He's a big friend of mine, always have been, when he was

John Lee Hooker21:09

And I love the

John Lee Hooker21:11

That young man, the way he found it.

John Lee Hooker21:14

I still do right now.

John Lee Hooker21:16

I wonder one day if I to record with him, you know.

John Lee Hooker21:20

I went on my record one day.

John Lee Hooker21:22

I know you do, eh?

John Lee Hooker21:24

It's a matter of finding him and getting the time and the old'em.

Speaker 321:36

To make the best out of the siege of Asia!

Speaker 321:44

Please don't.

Presenter21:58

Leila from Eric Clapton when he was with Derek and the Dominoes.

Presenter22:04

Women, we said at the beginning, John Lee Hooker, have played an important part in your life. How many times have you been married?

John Lee Hooker22:11

Three times too many?

Presenter22:13

Three times.

Presenter22:14

What happened? They all wanted you to stop playing, did they?

John Lee Hooker22:17

How you know that? You must have read about it.

John Lee Hooker22:20

Yeah. Well, you're on the road all the time and the

John Lee Hooker22:25

What do you think jump in a woman's mind that you are there with other women and

John Lee Hooker22:29

They didn't read about musicians, how they do

John Lee Hooker22:32

How do you play around?

John Lee Hooker22:34

I was an angel, but I loved in my wise, but

John Lee Hooker22:38

Do you want me to quit playing music and just get a regular job?

John Lee Hooker22:41

Then no way o' they.

John Lee Hooker22:44

I will not do that.

John Lee Hooker22:46

And so they.

John Lee Hooker22:48

They split. Really, they did me a big favor when they did it. I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that.

John Lee Hooker22:54

I couldn't write, I couldn't think. Just be having.

John Lee Hooker22:57

Like I told you, I'm a genius.

John Lee Hooker22:59

I don't eat.

John Lee Hooker23:01

The Blues is not in a book.

John Lee Hooker23:04

You it's not an opaque

John Lee Hooker23:06

Here and here.

Presenter23:09

But you've got no wife now. You you're happier without one.

John Lee Hooker23:12

Ooh.

Presenter23:14

You said that with enthusiasm.

John Lee Hooker23:16

Oh yeah. Well it'd be the same thing if I had to be trying to stop. Well I'm already retired and I wouldn't make it much different now.

Presenter23:24

Uh

Presenter23:25

And what about your children? How many children have you got?

John Lee Hooker23:27

Batino

Presenter23:30

And one one of them is a preacher, we said. Is there any of them in the music business?

John Lee Hooker23:32

The rubber. My daughter calls the kill, she's good.

Presenter23:37

What does she do?

John Lee Hooker23:38

Same?

John Lee Hooker23:39

And she's a good writer too.

Presenter23:42

But she sings the blues, does she?

John Lee Hooker23:43

Oh yeah.

Presenter23:43

Yeah.

Presenter23:47

And you

Presenter23:48

You have all the trappings of success. You've got several homes and you've got stretch limos and personalized number plates and

John Lee Hooker23:57

Oh yeah, you know all that.

Presenter23:58

How much pleasure does all that give you? I mean, you say money isn't important to you, but

John Lee Hooker24:03

No, it ain't.

John Lee Hooker24:06

People.

John Lee Hooker24:07

Friendship

Presenter24:09

You're seventy-five this year, aren't you? How how do you have fun? What's your idea of of

John Lee Hooker24:15

Auto Alpha?

Presenter24:16

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker24:17

I'm a baseball nut and I love buying cars, I love T V.

John Lee Hooker24:22

And

John Lee Hooker24:24

Women

Presenter24:27

As long as they're not wives.

John Lee Hooker24:29

Right, yeah.

John Lee Hooker24:31

You know what reputation musicians got on the road, they think on the road and then they they tell these women that's the same.

Presenter24:36

Well, it's usually accurate, yeah.

John Lee Hooker24:39

You act like that.

John Lee Hooker24:43

There aren't even this and that over

Presenter24:45

Tell me about your seventh record.

John Lee Hooker24:48

Oh, I would king the trolls cut so

John Lee Hooker24:51

He is my main man.

John Lee Hooker24:53

If I was out there, I definitely would w would won would want him out there.

John Lee Hooker24:57

Well, I did

John Lee Hooker24:58

With my turn tailored to playing him.

Speaker 325:03

I touch your watch all over you.

Speaker 325:07

They help us all.

Speaker 325:13

I got a double play to act.

Speaker 325:16

Really that's good.

Speaker 325:18

I'm across the south, buried me in the wood.

Speaker 325:22

I'm a process.

Presenter25:26

Trust me to walk around.

Presenter25:29

And that was Albert King and Cro

John Lee Hooker25:31

If there was ever king the trolls could sow

Presenter25:31

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker25:34

Cut your wood so easy that you never know.

Presenter25:38

Uh

Presenter25:39

So we're going to send you to this desert island in a few minutes' time. Do you do you like the idea of leaving everybody and everything behind and being alone on a desert island?

John Lee Hooker25:48

Rodi.

John Lee Hooker25:50

I'm not saying it because you asked me that. Yes.

John Lee Hooker25:54

If if if there's no wolves and panners and dogs out there.

John Lee Hooker25:58

I will load the item just

John Lee Hooker26:01

Me and my music and some fool

John Lee Hooker26:03

You can think not too long, but

John Lee Hooker26:07

That's a g yeah, good idea.

Presenter26:09

But if you were really stranded there for a long time, you know, do you would would the blues help you? Would they help you find

John Lee Hooker26:15

Oh, definitely.

John Lee Hooker26:17

Nothing else but the blues.

John Lee Hooker26:20

Definitely it'll help me.

John Lee Hooker26:22

Some blues and some food

John Lee Hooker26:25

The old and recognition plated.

John Lee Hooker26:27

This play'em

John Lee Hooker26:29

The third.

John Lee Hooker26:31

Played a blue

Presenter26:32

I wonder if you feel a certain responsibility uh as being one of the the last original greats, do you feel?

Presenter26:40

You know, I mean everybody's alone now, haven't they?

John Lee Hooker26:41

I wouldn't say I'm the last, but I'm next to the last.

John Lee Hooker26:46

BB's pretty great.

Presenter26:48

Sure. Well, there's you and B. B. King, but there aren't many others.

John Lee Hooker26:51

That's right.

John Lee Hooker26:52

No odds.

Presenter26:53

Do you do you feel a responsibility somehow? Do you feel you

John Lee Hooker26:56

No, I give in a lot. I don't feel no responsibility. I have covered all tracks.

Presenter27:03

But you don't stop working, you still play quite a lot when you feel like it.

John Lee Hooker27:08

Yeah, when I quit like it. I'm not don't don't be obligated to play.

Presenter27:11

Yeah.

John Lee Hooker27:12

I call my own shot when I want to.

Presenter27:15

So you enjoyed it when you

John Lee Hooker27:15

Nobody tells me, say, well, you got to do this, no.

Presenter27:18

So you enjoy playing when you play.

John Lee Hooker27:20

When I play, I enjoy.

Presenter27:22

And there are those who said that that

Presenter27:25

Probably that's that's where you'll meet your maker on the stage. You'll probably die on the stage. Does does that idea appeal?

John Lee Hooker27:32

It probably will.

John Lee Hooker27:34

beat some maker on in on on the stage or in my house with the music.

John Lee Hooker27:38

You you you never retire completely from the blue. You just retire off the road.

John Lee Hooker27:44

You always get that urge to go out and do a little something.

John Lee Hooker27:47

Get that odd to get up and go round to for some blues clubs then.

John Lee Hooker27:50

Get up there and hear some blues and feel good jump up there and grab the mic.

John Lee Hooker27:56

I think it's a very good idea.

John Lee Hooker28:02

You don't know how you got there, but you did give it a mic.

John Lee Hooker28:06

And you know one thing? I like the small clubs. I don't like no big, big, huge clubs.

John Lee Hooker28:11

Like the little small nightclub with everybody around you.

John Lee Hooker28:16

Hooper and Holland.

John Lee Hooker28:19

And where does that work come from?

Presenter28:22

Tell me about your last record.

John Lee Hooker28:23

Bobby Bland? Oh boy.

John Lee Hooker28:27

Every thing that man do it chills me lucky.

John Lee Hooker28:31

He's got that boy.

John Lee Hooker28:33

You got that boy that

John Lee Hooker28:36

I don't know where he got it. I guess he like me. He don't know where he got it from. I don't know where I got mine from.

John Lee Hooker28:41

He is not that boy.

John Lee Hooker28:43

But the older he'd get, the muller he'd get.

John Lee Hooker28:47

mister Bobby Bland.

John Lee Hooker28:49

Play that though.

Speaker 328:54

Said I'm having my fun, people

Speaker 329:01

If I never get well no more

Speaker 129:01

The f

Speaker 129:02

Well

Speaker 329:10

Said Ma, my, my, my, my health is failing me.

Speaker 329:16

I think I'm going down slow.

Presenter29:21

Going Down Slow with Bobby Bland.

John Lee Hooker29:23

Going down slow with Mr. Bobby I call him Mr. Bobby Bland.

Presenter29:26

Mr. Bobby Blan.

Presenter29:28

Now if you could only take one of all those eight records, if you had to choose one favourite out of the eight, which one would it be?

John Lee Hooker29:36

That one did.

Presenter29:37

Bobby Bland.

John Lee Hooker29:39

I hate a said, but I would.

Presenter29:41

He's the greatest for you, is he?

John Lee Hooker29:42

Well, he ain't he may not be with a lot of people, but

John Lee Hooker29:46

I make minded man some way down to the yells.

John Lee Hooker29:51

No human red time but the world red time is good, don't be wrong.

John Lee Hooker29:54

But you gotta have a favor.

Presenter29:56

Now you're allowed according to our rules to take a book to this desert island as well, but I know you don't read, but is there any more

John Lee Hooker30:02

Well, some things I can.

Presenter30:04

Is there any kind of book you'd like to take?

John Lee Hooker30:07

book with a lot of pictures with women putty women in it.

Presenter30:12

Okay, and you're allowed one luxury.

John Lee Hooker30:15

My guitar.

Presenter30:17

Of course. What else?

John Lee Hooker30:21

Well, a human being or

Presenter30:22

No, no, no, no. I mean, what else would you take but your music? I didn't need to ask. Your music's in your head.

John Lee Hooker30:25

My music.

John Lee Hooker30:28

Right.

Presenter30:29

You take your guitar for your luxury.

John Lee Hooker30:29

Uh

John Lee Hooker30:30

Right. Anything else I could take but take food.

Presenter30:34

No, you can't have anything else. You take your guitar, you starve. But you got the blues.

John Lee Hooker30:39

Well, how long could you stay out there without food?

Presenter30:43

Not long. But you'd have your music. John Lee Hooker, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

John Lee Hooker30:49

You're welcome and I'll see you in my prayer.

Speaker 131:00

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co. uk slash radio four.