The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.
Leave your ego, play the music, love the people.
In the blues, it just takes so long for us to get recognized.
I have as much input to the blues; I just never got the chance, the opportunity or maybe the respect.
I've been waiting for that bright sunshine to show up and shine in my back door someday.
Before I left, I opened a lot of doors for a lot of people to play the blues.
But my big thing was always the blues.
Jonny Lang has the power to move the music into the next millennium by reaching the ears of a new generation. The great musicians have the power to break all of the 'isms'-race, age, sex, et cetera. Jonny Lang is one of those musicians.
I don't want to be in some big beautiful place that nobody want me, because I play the blues.
Well, I've had to deal with everything in my life... leavin' the family, learnin' what not and what to do.
I look in music magazines now and see things on Luther Allison, and my name's getting out there more, thanks to all the good people at Alligator Records and at my management company.
Well, I first started going to Europe in the late '70s.
I want to play in a place people want to hear me.
Coming from the cotton plantation, the southern regions, I was brought up with real nice kids, mannered kids, who would go to church on Sunday.
What I want to do, is play music for somebody who believe in me.
I want people to recognize Luther Allison when I play.
I think I'm the most positive guy still going in my generation, and I'm out there to prove that.
When I got to Chicago I had to find my way.
Me being a skinny guy, I could crawl into the steel pit.
In the States, it takes you a lifetime just to get from Chicago's South Side to the West Side.
