JOHN MAYALL is an early riser. Despite the cold morning in his adopted home of California – where he has lived since the late 1960's – Mayall is already up and busy preparing for his forthcoming live shows when Uncut calls. Mayall, who is 83, is in sprightly form. “We do 100 shows every year all over the world,” he says. “It keeps us active!”
Active indeed. Mayall has only just released a new studio album, Talk About That, but already he has his sights firmly fixed on the next release. “We’re a trio now,” he explains. “It’s working out so well I think this would be the time to do a live album. So sometime on this European tour, we’ve got plans to record at some of these venues. That’ll be the next album.”
Mayall’s history stretches back to the earliest days of the British blues boom. There, his patronage of a string of hip young guitarists – Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor – who passed through the ranks of his Bluesbreakers has assumed legendary status. “Every musician, regardless of what he plays, if they’re the best, they have their own style,” he reflects. “They were the right people for the job at that time. They play the blues their way.”
In some respects, little has changed for Mayall since he started out as a musician in the early 60's. “You get up onstage and you play,” he says. “Is there much room to improvise? Yeah, of course. That’s the blues.”
Eric Clapton lived with you for a while. what was he like as a housemate? Chris Parker, Brighton
Easy to get along with as we were in the same key of appreciating American blues. He hadn’t heard a lot of my records. I had a big record collection that he was thrilled to be able to have access to. I’d turn him on to certain things, but there was no definite pattern. What did I think of Eric when I first met him? That he wasn’t a guitar player like anybody else… he was the first one I met who had a real knowledge of the blues. He was always a loner, as far as wanting to get away from other people so he could get down to playing.
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