HPI-Flatline: Everyone, welcome to the Blues Chat stage Chicago legend Magic Slim!

Magic Slim: Hi there everyone!

HPI-Flatline: Slim, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us tonight.

Magic Slim: It's my pleasure!

HPI-Flatline: Where are you joining us from tonight? Are you on the road, or at home?

Magic Slim: I'm at home right now, in Lincoln, Nebraska!

HPI-Flatline: Are you ready for some questions from your on-line friends?

Magic Slim: Yup, I am!

JoyceBlues: How did growing up in Mississippi influence your decision to play music?

Magic Slim: Well, going to church, singing in church, watching the lady play the piano, I loved it, I wanted to do it, so here I am! Not playin' piano though...

JoyceBlues: Why did you switch from piano to guitar?

Magic Slim: I got my right hand hurt in a cotton gin and I couldn't play the piano, so I switched from piano to guitar!

MistyBlue: What do you find special about playing the blues?

Magic Slim: Well, I like the feelin', you know? Playing the blues you're either asking a question or telling a story... It's just a feelin' that comes from the heart!

WangDangPoodle: When did you begin playing your music full-time, for a living?

Magic Slim: Let's see here now... gotta put my thinkin' cap on now... about 1982 or '83

TxBluzFan: I've heard you weren't readily accepted on the Chicago music scene when you first moved there. Can you tell us why?

Magic Slim: Well, they say I wasn't good enough! They didn't want... y'know, the big guys didn't wanna let me play, didn't wanna let me sit in! But it didn't stop me! I just kept on pushin'! I'm glad I did!

MrTupelo: Did you ever play on Maxwell Street in Chicago?

Magic Slim: Yes, I did. Not that much, but I have!

HPI-Flatline: Can you tell us some of the artists you played with there?

Magic Slim: I played with a lot of 'em! I played with Son Seals, Otis Rush and all of 'em... Lonnie Brooks, it'll take me a WHILE to name 'em all! hehe

HPI_DRUMRDAVE: Did Magic Sam ever teach you guitar?

Magic Slim: Well, not exactly, we used to sit down and play together some, but what I didn't know was he would show me how t'do it, you know?

MistyBlue: When did you meet Magic Sam?

Magic Slim: In Mississippi

StovepipeT: I've heard you received the name "Magic" from Magic Sam. What kind of influence has he had on your music?

Magic Slim: Well, I was slim and tall, I wasn't as large as I am now... I used to play bass a lot. I never were a member of his band, but I used to go around with him a lot, playing bass and guitar. Slowly, he just started callin' me Magic Slim! So after a while he told me to just keep that name, that the name would make me famous one day! So, I did, and I'm glad I did!
*smile*

MnBlues: How long has your brother Nick been playing with you and do you have other brothers/sisters in music?

Magic Slim: My brother Nick's been playin' with me ever since I started up on my own. My baby brother, he used to play with me but we couldn't get along... He played drums, but we are the same sign and couldn't get along, so he quit! There's just 4 boys and 1 girls. Only the three of us really are into music, playing it anyway!

MnBlues: Slim, what is your current band line up...any changes since this summer when you were at the West Band Blues Fest in Minneapolis?

Magic Slim: Yeah! I have 2 new guys after John Primer. My guitar player is Michael Datsun, a very talented young man, and I like him a lot! My new drummer is Allan Kirk, and every time I get ready for him, he's right there where I am! And I got another guitar player, gonna be in my band before too long, that's my baby son! He's 20, he'll be 21 this year, and that's what I'm tryin' to wait on! He's a---of a good player, and I'm gonna let him take my place, but I'm still gonna be the band!

WangDangPoodle: What was your relationship with John Primer? He was with you so long, were you more than just bandmates?

Magic Slim: We were bandmembers, but we were just like brothers... and we still are! Somethin' happened and he had to quit, and I hate to see him go, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

MnBlues: I read somewhere that you know thousands/hundreds? of songs. How do you decide what to play at your shows?

Magic Slim: Well, I call them to the public! If it's a dancin' crowd or an older crowd... You know? I play 3 or 4 songs and judge the crowd after that! I don't really know how many songs I know though!

TxBluzFan: I really liked your CD "Alone and Unplugged". What led you to record this?

Magic Slim: I could play a whole week, every night and never play the same song twice... 'cept a request, I always play requests!

Magic Slim: Just settin' around, ain't doin' nothing! *grin* Just went to the studio and did it! We was playin' so the guys said let's get three or four more songs and make a CD, so I went for it!

TrueBlues: What is your impression of the blues scene today?

Magic Slim: I think the blues scene is getting a little better. It's always up and down, but now more younger people are getting into the blues. One thing that I dislike is that they're puttin' a little too much funk in it! there's several kinds of blues, but they're puttin' a lot of rock in it, and I try to tell my son that all those different pedals down there on the floor, you don't need that! And so far, he don't use it!



MnBlues: Does your son sing and write as well as play? Does he take after his father in playing style?

Magic Slim: I'm getting him to write! I'm doing another CD the first of February for Blind Pig! I'm gonna let him put a number on there! I'm gonna let him play it himself, but I told him he gotta write it himself! I think that's what he's workin' on now! That's the same way I got John Primer Started, and my brother, too, 'cause you know he's got HIS own CD out now! His CD's called "Don't You Want A Man Like Me" on Wolf, out of Vienna, Austria!

MnBlues: Who were some of the blues performers you liked to listen to when you were growing up? How about today?

Magic Slim: I liked to listen to all the blues, I like BB and Otis and Son Seals and all of 'em. I like to listen to all of 'em, but I don't try to play like 'em! I mostly still listen to them too! I like the way Stevie Ray Vaughan played too.

JoyceBlues: Have you ever played music other than the blues?

Magic Slim: Yes, I used to play bluegrass! There wasn't enough feelin' in it for me, but I still play it when I'm by myself!

DRUMRDAVE: Do you have a specific gig nightmare you could tell us about?

Magic Slim: There's nothin' I can think of right now!

WangDangPoodle: What does "Spider In My Stew" mean?

Magic Slim: That means when you've been out - stayed out all night - and your ole lady is about to kill ya! I found a spider in my stew! But that's never happened to me, but it's a true song! I hope it never happen to me, but it IS a true song! *hehe*

HPI_DRUMRDAVE: How did you come to name your band "The Teardrops"?

Magic Slim: Before me and my band got started I was working with a guy named Robert Perkins. He had a little band called "Mr. Pitiful and the Teardrops". I was workin' with him right before I got my band together. He quit, and his band broke up. He said 'Slim, you take that name, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, 'cause i ain't never gonna use it no more' so I took it!


MnBlues: That was an interesting article in Living Blues. Do you do many
interviews?

Magic Slim: Yeah, all of them are important, but some are more important that others. Every other week, they want you to do an interview, for the newspaper, the schools, everything, that was just one!

Hippielady: Do you find many differences in the way audiences respond in other countries, such as South America, Europe, America, etc?

Magic Slim: Yes! There's a difference in 'em! In different countries, like in Europe, I don't know how they understand the music, they don't understand what you're saying, but they tear the house UP when you finish a song! South America also! The people here in the states, they love it, but they don't tear out as much as the people in a foreign country... You see the crowd, they're nodding their heads and tappin' they feet and you can tell if you've been out there as long as I have!

HPI-Flatline: We have time for one more question.

HPI_DRUMRDAVE: Did you ever have a regular gig at a Chicago South Side Club?

Magic Slim: Oh yeah! I used to have the 1125 regular 'til I quit, then the Checkerboard 'til I quit, then at Florence's regular 'til the place got burnt down!

HPI-Flatline: Slim, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us tonight. Do you have any closing comments for your internet fans?

Magic Slim: I just want to tell you I appreciate that y'all got me on this internet! Keep your fingers crossed that I'm gonna try to keep you happy, as long as I can! Thanks for havin' me here!

HPI-Flatline: We really enjoyed the chat. Thanks, Slim.

Magic Slim: Okay, thank you all! Goodnight!

HPI-Flatline: Let's hear a big Blues Chat round of applause for Chicagoguitar legend Magic Slim.


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