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HippieLady: Welcome to Blues Chat, tonight's featured guest, Bullseye Blues Recording Artist Otis Clay will be right with us.

Hippielady: Please welcome to the Blues Chat stage.....Bullseye Blues Recording Artist OTIS CLAY! Hi, Otis, thanks for taking time to join us this evening!

OtisClay: Hello there everyone, how are you?

Hippielady: Fine Otis, thank you! Did we catch you at home tonight, or on the road?

OtisClay: I'm home - I just returned from Kansas City!

Hippielady: We have a LOT of questions waiting from your fans...so we're going to turn this right to the audience, if that’s O.K. with you. Also, I’d like to welcome Sharna to our audience tonight, signed on all the way from Byron Bay, Australia!

OtisClay: I would love to welcome Sharna too! I really want to go to Australia, and we've discussed it - so one day I'm sure it'll happen!

WangDangPoodle: What do you find different between Chicago's blues scene today, compared to your younger days?

OtisClay: Oh wow! Well, y'know, you had all the legends - they was still living in the early days, and I was just really starting out! I worked at a place called Curley's, on the corner of Madison Homan Avenues where everyone played! They always used that term 'the Real Deal'. Sonny boy, Muddy, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker - the first time I worked with him was at Curly's, Tyrone Davidson and myself! You don't have the same caliber of players and singers as you had in those days - there are still many good ones, but it's not as many as it was then!

JoyceBlues: What was your first professional singing gig?

OtisClay: hehehe... My first. I never will forget this! I was singing with the Blue Jays and it was in Ludlowville, New York - nobody's ever heard of it, but I was 18 years old and I'll never forget it!

eMBlues: How did you decide to change from singing gospel to R & B/Soul?

OtisClay: Well, we come back to the Blue Jays again - because we were billed as "Variety" singers. They were singing the jubilee style - that's sort of pre-rap. But you have to have a LOT of talent to sing jubilee, so you wouldn't really equate the two. Some of the songs were taken from the bible, some were taken from life! So went I went on the road with the Blue Jays, we were singing in schools and Kiwanis clubs - we were billed as singing "Old Negro Spirituals and Plantation Melodies", that oughta kill you! hehe. So we were singing, and after a while - this was in 1960, we added the twist to the show because it was very popular then! That was a point in my career where I was doing so many styles with the Blue Jays that going into secular music was easy because I'd already touched on it!

MrTupelo: What was it that made Hi Records so successful on the 70's Soul market, in your opinion?

OtisClay: Of course, Willie Mitchell - the brain behind all of these things. Willie was a great musician himself - he pretty much raised the Hi rhythmn section, they were his back up band, so they were well-versed to his thinking and how he did things. so when they went into the studio after all the years of travelling and being on the road with him, we were doing all sorts of things, Al Jackson was involved too - he was at Stax, and he'd come over to Hi records. These were the guys who were responsible for making Hi Records! We had a great feeling going on - almost everyone was from the south and we got on real well. We just had - we'd sit in that studio, we were always together - we could put a lot of stuff together!

Mudster: Otis, one of the first dates I took my (now) wife on was to an Otis Clay show at the Grand Emporium in Kansas City. You played lots of sexy dance numbers and some hot ballads. She loved the show and I got major points, Thanks man, I owe ya!!

OtisClay: hehehe! Just buy the CD and you'll be paid in full! And stay with your wife! hehe!

sharna: How did you enjoy your tour of Japan, I was there in 92 and loved the Japanese version of the blues...

OtisClay: Well, y'know, in Japan, it was just really... Japan really showed me the light for the first time! Of course I was doing great gigs in the United States, but going there the first time I recorded a live album and that couldn't happen in the US at that time, with my status! The album was a GREAT album! It was voted the best soul album of '78 in Japan! We've been doing business there ever since - 20 years later, I still do business with the Japanese musically! So I've had a great relationship with them - it's quite unusual, people thought it was a novelty! We figured that once I was there that was IT, but I even went back the next year so you can imagine how I felt! hehe

morTone: Otis, I have the 1992 Bullseye release "I'll treat you right" and that is such a well done session, the musician line-up is also outstanding. My favorite song has to be "Leave My Women Alone". What can ya tell me about that particular song as there is no credits on the disc? Thanks Otis!

OtisClay: That song was originally recorded by Little Milton about 1976. It was always one of those funny songs, we always liked it! 'Y'know, all the help you're givin me, I really don't need!' hehe...that was what you'd consider a good blues song!

BlueByU: What music did you listen to when you were growing up?

OtisClay: Wow! As you know I was in the south - in Mississippi. There was very little black radio - I grew up on Rufus Thomas out of Memphis. Every Thursday night I'd listen to the Grand Ole Opry, so I listened to all sorts of music! I think that makes me a real musician, because I'm able to listen to all sorts of music - I always have!

JoyceBlues: How does it make you feel when pop stars like Bob Seger cover your hits, like "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You?"

OtisClay: I think it's GREAT! When you get a cross-section of people, well, it just goes to show you how music brings people together and crosses borders! I was always flattered by things like that - like when the Eagles sort of tried to copy "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You", and I was talking to Bob Seger about it. Bob was saying that the first time he heard it, the Eagles and he were together and we were talking about what a great song it was, and a few months later he heard The Long Run - Which sounded a lot like Tryin' to Live My Life Without You. He said well, it's seven months later, it'll go! hehe. People become friends through music and music goes beyond the pigeon holes people put it in!

Mudster: Otis, one of my favorite songs you recorded is "It Was Jealousy." I've seen you live many times and never seen you play that song. Do you still perform it? I wish you would!

OtisClay: Oh wow, now that's a good one! Believe it or not, someone asked me about it the other night! It was really a B side from the last Hi single - the other side was You Do Something To Me. I must say, to be truthful with you, I've never played the song live! It is a great song, it's just one of those songs that I never got around doing it! A lot of people got into the song much later - I think it was released in '74. We'll probably get around to it, after things like this - talking to the fans! Y'all give me great ideas - and now, since this is the second time in a couple of days, I better think about playing it! hehe.

TxBluzFan: What are your plans for the next year or so, from a musical standpoint?

OtisClay: As you know, between the album I'll Treat You Right and the new album, it's been 6 years, and that's MUCH too long, especially from a creative point of view! I have my own studio, but I'll probably go to Memphis and hang with Papa Willie! I'm gonna make plenty of music from now on! There were some legal things between me and Rounder and now we're getting along famously. It's almost like starting over when you go that long without making new music - the reissues came out, but it's hard when there's that much time between stuff, and yeah, we're gonna keep maki8ng new music now! We're gonna keep it fresh!

sharna: Otis, I really like your style both musically and the man that I am hearing talk now. You have a universal soul and that comes across. Thank you. My favorite on that album is "I Can Take You To Heaven Tonight" and you do ever time I listen. It is a buzz to talk to you cant wait to tell the locals!

OtisClay: Well thanks so much! I love people, and I think that's the thing about the art. I've heard the saying that all civilized societies support the arts - because again, it brings people together. I was fortunate enough to be on the road at 18. I met people, we were in places like Ludlowville - there aren't a lot of black folks in Ludlowville! hehe. I have friends all over the world, we talk about music, and to a great degree I'm well-versed in the history of music. The very first live show was in Clarksdale Mississippi, and it was Muddy Waters! When you travel you meet people and get to know people! And if it's a good person it's a good person and you know them a long time!

WangDangPoodle: You performed at Luther Allison's Memorial Jam last year. Were you and Luther close?

OtisClay: Now this is really a good one, we've got to go back to Madison Street in Chicago. When someone asks about the caliber, and talent in Chicago, Luther Allison, Tyrone Davis and Harold Barrage - this was in the very early days. There was a little tavern that Luther and Robert Elam was playing bass and J. T. was the drummer, the was the 3 piece band there. We all used to go see them there! We're talking the mid-60s and Luther was just a local guy here! That's how far we go back! I mean we didn't get to see him much later on because he was in Europe, but when he came back here... well, Luther was really on the edge of being a superstar. We go so far back and I wish we'd seen more of each other in later years, but we did, musically, grow up together. I was very proud of him - the way his career was going, and then the bad news.

Mudster: Otis, I saw you in Clarksdale in 1991 and you were selling a 2 or 3 cd set that was called something like "Memphis soul revue live in Japan." It was you and some other artists, Ann Peebles I think was one. Is this set still available? How can I get it?

OtisClay: I don't know if it is. It's called Memphis Soul Night in Europe. It was from a tour - this'll really get you, we were touring in Europe in 1989 we had just left Berlin a few days before the wall was torn down! We always said maybe it was 'cause of the show! hehe... Well, that album will probably pop up sooner or later on some other label or something, because of the way this industry is. It was coming out of Amsterdam, on Waylo records. It was really Willie Mitchell's label, but it was Waylo, Europe, and I kinda lost track of the people who were distributing that. The people that were on that album were all David Hudson, Ann Peebles, Willie Mitchell - that was the first time they dragged him out there on the tour! And the original Memphis Horns.

Hippielady: Otis, thanks so much for taking time to be with us tonight. Any closing comments for your online fans and friends?

OtisClay: This is the very first time, and I hope not the last time doing this! It is so great to be able to communicate this way - computers are a great thing! Thank you for the interest, and thank you for your insight, because it really DOES impact our performance! I'm going to get a computer - I can't wait to talk to folks all over the world! We are gonna do our best - everything that we do is what people want to hear! We do some of our songs, just because people ask for them, it's GREAT when people think enough of your material, like our song "That's How it Is" which we recorded 30 years ago, to ask us to do it again! This was great to do, and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again!

Hippielady: We'd love to have you back again. Thanks again for joining us tonight!

OtisClay: Thank you so much! Take care all!

Hippielady: Folks, be sure to come back tomorrow night at 10 PM Eastern for Blues Trivia, and make plans to join us Tuesday night for Chicago Blues Chat, 10 PM Eastern. BE SURE TO PLAN on visiting our site a LOT this coming Friday and Saturday. We'll be coming to you on location from the Kalamazoo Blues Festival uploading photos of such great artists as Tinsley Ellis, Deborah Coleman, Lonnie Brooks, Eddie King, Little Ed, Magic Slim, and more! Also, we'll be uploading interviews right from the fest site. If you're in the Kalamazoo area, be sure to stop by our booth! This is Beverly Howell, your host for HPI Blues Chat, signing off. Good night!

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