♪♪ [crickets chirping] [wind chimes] In a little shack down by the bay not far from New Orleans, I met this pretty woman there, prettiest thing I ever seen.

My mama told my daddy, said we're gonna leave here as soon as we can.

Now I was a little bitty boy then, I didn't understand.

Too young to realize.

But I found out a few years later what it was all about.

Now I see what my daddy was talking about.

Man, to be the boss, you got to give up something when you're the boss.

The boss mop the floor, wash dishes.

When somebody else don't do it, the boss gotta do it.

The boss do everything.

It's a lot of the things I talk about, joke about, and laugh about, they think, "Oh, Bobby Rush, he just joking, he just laughing."

But I'm serious, I'm serious as a heart attack.

[laughs] I just do it in a funny way.

♪♪ I'm a comedian, I'm a singer, songwriter, harp player, guitar player, but I got a long way to go.

No woman, no man, no one can bound me.

Only person could destroy me is myself.

[funky Blues music playing] ♪♪ My daddy told me, "So son, I'm gonna teach "you how to play a harp.

♪♪ "I got a train and a hound dog.

I'm gonna make them race."

I said, "How you gonna do that?"

He said, "Train is coming."

[harmonica making train whistle sounds} "What about the hound dog?"

The train said, "Pfft."

[Train whistle]] The hound dog said, "Oof."

[low notes] And they got to racing, and the train said, [Train whistle] [dog bark] [Train whistle] [dog bark] [Train whistle] And the dog went way up the hill, said, "Ooh."

[laughs] Out run the train.

My daddy used to play me with that all the time when I was a kid.

I came up in an area where the Blues was the Devil's music.

But in my household, it wasn't the Devil's music.

It was just good music.

He never told me to sing the Blues, but he never told me not to.

That's a green light to me.

[crowd chanting "Bobby"] That's the Blues.

♪♪ [tape rewinding] - But while I'm talking about these young folks, I can't help but pay homage to one whose shoulders I stand up on.

Please give a round of applause for the legendary, the incendiary, the man who told us all about all kinds of stuff that I can't repeat.

How about a round of applause for the King of the Chitlin Circuit.

Please let me hear a big scream for Bobby Rush.

[cheers and applause] ♪♪ - I want the world to know that I don't have butterflies in my stomach by how the songs or what I'm gonna do on stage, how it's gonna come off.

That don't make me nervous.

It don't make me nervous when I go out and the promoter run off with my money, don't pay me.

That don't make me nervous.

But doing a documentary on Bobby Rush, my life story, that make me nervous.

Life is like a wheel.

You put a mark on a wheel and you roll it down the hill.

Sometimes your mark come back to you, sometimes it don't.

I'm so blessed for my mark to come back.

Because I found out through this journey of life, a man can live a long time without water or food.

But you can't live long without hope.

♪♪ - When you mention Bobby Rush, we know we are talking about a Blues legend.

We know he has been Hall of Fame since 2006.

We know a lot about his incredible Blues.

What we don't know is how hard Bobby Rush worked to become Bobby Rush.

Bobby, please tell us what made you want to tell your story?

- Unless you've been through something, you don't know what the Blues experience is all about.

- Well, someone asked me the other night, being serious, so what kind of singer do you pretend to be, Bobby Rush?

First of all, I'm a music man.

I like a little of this, a little of that, a little of the other, because I talk about the real deal, about really what it is.

And what it really is, I guess, is mine.

What I come up with in my time as being hardship, but then I have some good sides.

So when you add it all together, all Blues don't necessarily be sad.

Some Blues can be joyful.

Because every tear-- I wrote a song speaking about this.

The old song went, every time you see a buzzard, that don't mean nothing dead.

So every time a man cries, that don't mean he's sad.

So sometimes it's tears of joy.

And that's the way the Blues is.

Everything's not bad about the Blues.

♪♪ ♪Hey pretty mama♪ ♪I can't ride in your automobile♪ ♪♪ ♪Pretty mama♪ ♪I can't ride in your automobile♪ ♪I'll tell you why.♪ ♪You got a cute little car but you got♪ ♪too many drivers at your wheel.♪ ♪You got a man doing you like this, two men doing you♪ ♪like that, three when you're like this and four when you're like this♪ ♪Hey mama, I can't ride in your automobile.♪ ♪You got a cute little old car, but you got too♪ ♪many drivers at your wheel♪ [audience laughing] ♪♪ [audience cheering] ♪♪ ♪Singin' get outta here with your♪ ♪doncha come back no more.♪ ♪Get outta here with your♪ ♪doncha come back no more.♪ ♪Get outta here with your♪ ♪don't you come back no more.♪ Oh my goodness.

I haven't saw that for years.

Oh God, I don't even know how old I was there, man.

Maybe I'm a year old or something, you know?

I was born in a little place called Homer, Hainesville, Louisiana.

I know I got a couple pictures that I can't find, so maybe this's one of them.

I know I got a picture when I was about 10 years old with my guitar and I'm boxing.

And when I was trying to box, I don't know, there's maybe one of them.

My daddy told me, he said, "Listen, son, I "need some help from you, because you can help me raise my other children."

My dad had ten children.

Why pick me out?

I'm the seventh child.

When I was coming up, you couldn't let people know that you could read or write.

My daddy told me one day, he said, "Junior," he called me Junior, "I want you to get a job at E.L.

Burgess Gin."

He said, "They don't pay much money, but they'll pay $3.50 a week."

My job was to keep the gin lint from up in this ballroom.

They had a desk with four or five chairs around it, like a conference room today.

So they would sit around every day, the white men would sit around and talk to each other about what the cotton gonna sell for, what the grains are gonna sell for, what the hay are gonna sell for, peanuts, the watermelons, the tomatoes, the okra.

Everything that was raised for the farmer market, they would have a price on it.

And they would say things like this, "You know we "gotta keep the peanuts down at a lower price because you know the niggas still got peanuts in the field."

So the price would stay down.

You couldn't get very much money.

Everything was kind of down, was out, was... And I could tell what they were going to sell by what they were saying around the table.

Way I got real close to them, I had a rag in one pocket and sand in the next pocket.

I would take the sand and throw it around the white people's shoes.

And I would be on the floor on my knees, wiping the floor and wiping their shoes off.

They would stick them out like that while they talk.

Because I'm just a little black boy.

I got to remember this, because if they knew I could read, or write it down, they wouldn't say what they were saying.

Church was 10 o'clock in the morning, on Sunday morning.

So my daddy, he would tell everybody that he could get everybody to listen.

"I'm giving you the news from my son."

I was a placement to get information and told all the black people what to do, what to sell, what not to sell because of my information.

I had first-hand information.

What cotton will sell for this week, I knew it.

It's going to sell for 18 cents a pound, the seed was going to sell for 40 cents a pound.

I had all of that in mind.

The whole neighborhood relied on what I remembered.

I was about 10, 12 years old, at the most.

- Definitely.

You said you have how many jackets?

- Oh boy, I tell you.

There's just a lot of jackets.

- It's a lot of jackets.

- Now, I believe it's gonna be my first time that I've ever been in my dressing room with a lady saying, "You're taking a film.

In a couple of minutes, I'm finna get naked."

You understand?

[laughing] - We're gonna cut.

[laughing] - I changed my name early in my life, must have been 10, 12 years old, From Emmett Ellis to Bobby Rush.

I didn't want myself to be a big artist, come to town, and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Emmett Ellis come to town."

They wouldn't know whether it was me or my father.

So I had respect for my father, not wantin' to be a Blues singer with the same name.

So I changed it because of my father, being a junior.

No other reason.

I want somebody to say my whole name so they know who I am.

There's a lot of Bobbies, a lot of Rushes, But ain't but one Bobby Rush.

Everybody calls me Bobby Rush.

Nobody calls me Bobby.

Nobody calls me Rush.

Everybody calls me Bobby Rush.

Almost everyone, young and old, would say, "Hey, Bobby Rush."

It's just my face.

I think it has something to do with my hairdo.

Because although I wore it longer a lot of times, but yet I still got the same... ugly face, I suppose.

- I think it's more than that, though.

- You do?

- I do.

I think it is, I think it's like an "it" factor.

You know what I mean by that?

- No.

- So like, like I feel like just hearing what you're saying, your dad recognized the "it" factor in you.

- Yeah, yeah, I got you.

- That guy who hired you to run that crew recognized the "it" factor in you.

- Yeah, I got you on that.

- All of these people who gave you these shots.

And it's like, you know, he has an "it" thing that if I just give it to him, he's going to take it and run with it.

♪♪ - Yeah, man.

- Yeah, it's a little funkier.

- Yeah, it's all funky.

And y'all crazy too, man.

Y'all crazy.

I love that shit, man.

- That's perfect.

- That's great.

Thank you, Bobby.

- Thank you, Bobby.

- Thank y'all.

Bobby Rush.

- What's this whole brouhaha - Well, they're doing a little documentary on him.

- On him?

Who's this?

- Bobby Rush.

- Oh my God!

Bobby Rush?

Oh my God!

- How you doing?

- Good.

- It's the legendary Bobby Rush.

- Yeah!

- It's the legendary Bobby Rush.

- I thought you looked familiar.

- Because I'm ugly.

[laughs] [laughs] - I'm used to seeing you all dressed up though.

- I'm used to seeing you all dressed up though.

You usually dress like you're one of the old school.

- Well he said, "I'm going to be at my friend Jim's.

I don't need to dress up."

- We're country boys, man.

- Both of us.

We sittin here reminiscing about old time, where we come from and we didn't get no money.

But we didn't give up.

- Oh no, you didn't!

- Yeah, oh no, you come in.

- Well, let's go get a beer and I'll be right back out.

Oh my God, Bobby Rush?

- Yeah.

- Woman interviewer: Tell us the moment you realized you were going to be a Blues singer.

- My cousin gave me a guitar when I was about seven or eight years old.

Looked like this, but it wasn't as good as this.

[strums guitar] My daddy being a preacher, I hid my guitar from my daddy, I thought.

I thought I was hiding, but your parents know everything.

I hid it in the loft.

The sun got to the guitar and warped the old neck, and I would, every two or three days, I would take it and put it in a horse trough, or where the cows drank water, dip it in there, and the old guitar neck would straighten back out.

I hid the guitar because I thought my daddy wanted me to play Gospel songs in the church.

Him being a preacher and the pastor of a church.

I didn't want no part of the Gospel.

I wanted to play the Blues like Muddy Water and Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker.

So one day he said, "Son, bring that guitar here to me."

And he tuned it up and he said... [strums guitar] Something like that.

He said, "I'm going to play a song I used to play for a little girl... when I was a little bit older than you."

I thought he was going to sing, "Glory, glory, hallelujah, when I laid my burden down."

Either by my mama.

He didn't sing, "Glory, glory, hallelujah."

And didn't sing about my mama.

He went to sing a little song, went like this.

♪♪ He said, "Me and my gal went Chinkapin huntin'.

She fell down and I saw somethin'."

I said, "Daddy, a preacher?"

I said, "Sing it again, Daddy."

Now what I wanted my daddy to do, is sing the next verse, I already knew she fell down, he saw somethin'.

But I couldn't ask him, as a kid, and in front of my mama especially, "What did you see?"

The second verse to my little mind, supposed to explain what he saw.

He went to sing it again, my mama's in the kitchen cooking, she said, [clears throat] "Now, don't sing that kind of song to that boy."

But my daddy didn't pay me any attention or my mother.

He went to sing it again, I said, "Daddy, daddy, how big was she?"

He said, "Oh, 350 pound boy, about that wide."

I said, "What's she had on?"

He said, "Nothing but a dress."

Now, we got the fat part.

She fell down.

She ain't got nothing on but a dress.

Now, I got me a pencil and paper.

I want my daddy to draw it.

If he couldn't explain it, just draw what he saw.

E-M-M-E-T-T-E-L-L-I-S, senior.

That's my daddy.

And I'm a junior.

Look like Muhammad Ali, real black and dark.

My dad was a farmer, man.

My dad raised cotton, hog, cow, chicken and everything.

And he did it well, you know.

My daddy was a reader, was a bookworm, preacher.

Knew the Bible in and out, upside down, remember well.

I think I take a lot of that from my father.

By the time my mother was walking in the back, [clears throat] [strums guitar] He was playing just like this.

[strums guitar] ♪"Me and my gal went Chinkapin huntin'.♪ ♪She fell down, and I kept running.

"♪ So I don't know what the song would have been.

After I got grown, I said, I'm going to make a song like this.

And I said-- [playing guitar] I said, "♪Me and my gal went Chinkapin huntin'.♪ ♪She fell down, and I saw something.♪" Then I changed and said like this.

"♪Daddy told me on his dying bed,♪ [playing guitar] ♪give up your heart,♪ ♪but don't lose your head.♪ [playing guitar] ♪You came along, what did I do?♪ [playing guitar] ♪I lost my heart and my head too.♪ Lord have mercy.

♪Thinking about you, dreaming about you.♪ ♪Love that girl, but I love them chicken heads too.♪ ♪Without your love, girl, I just can't go on.♪ ♪Feeling I have for you, girl, is much too strong.♪ ♪Let me in, let me in, let me in, let me ease on in.♪ By that time, my mother walked in and she said, [clearing throat] like that again.

Didn't want my daddy to sing that song to me.

She said, "You should have had that boy singing some gospel song."

Then I started to sing.

[playing guitar] I said, "♪Swing low, sweet chariot, stop and let me ride.♪ ♪♪ ♪Swing low, sweet chariot, stop and let me ride♪ ♪♪ ♪Swing low♪ [speaking] He was all those things with me.

He was my friend.

He was my father, spiritual guider.

He was my all in all, my daddy.

♪♪ - Just keep walking past right here.

I'll meet you over here.

Just two more feet that way and you're good.

All right.

Start here.

♪Boy, you better take a good look at me right now.♪ [playing harmonica] ♪This could be the last time you see me.♪ ♪♪ ♪Got me accused of murdering.♪ ♪I never, never harmed a man.♪ ♪They got me accused of forgery and I can't even write my name.♪ ♪Somebody tell me what kind of justice could this be?♪ ♪♪ ♪You better take a good look at me right now.♪ ♪This could be the last time you see me.♪ ♪♪ [applause] See y'all later [applause] [applause] Thank you.

[applause] - How much time would you say in any given year do you spend on the road?

- haha I spend 90% on the road, man, to be honest.

- You spend 90% of your time on the road?

- 90% of the time on the road, either going or coming to the gig.

[music playing on car radio] ♪♪ - All right, Mr.

Bobby.

- All right, baby.

- All right.

- Thank you, man.

- Yeah.

I got you.

I got you.

♪♪ ♪She said, "Once you leave, so she can move♪ ♪in, get what you got.

"♪ ♪♪ [band on stage starts playing] ♪♪ - Hey.

- Hey.

♪♪ - I mean, it's so mind boggling to think that this guy is running up on 90. and the energy that he has, the amount of time that he can go on stage and just transform.

I mean, we get on the bus and he go to sleep, right?

But get off the bus and he... grow wings.

You know what I'm saying?

He amazes me, man.

He amazes me.

He really does.

♪♪ - You can teach a man how to play a guitar, blow a harp, play piano.

But you can't teach a man to do what I do.

I'm an entertainer.

You gotta be born to do that.

I'm an entertainer that plays the guitar.

Not a guitar player want to be an entertainer.

That is different.

Horses are horses, cows are cows.

They're both important.

But guess what?

One give milk, one pull a wagon.

They're both important.

Neck is a neck, arm is an arm.

You can live without your arm, but you can't live without your neck.

I'm a neck.

♪♪ ♪A bow-legged woman and a knock-kneed man♪ ♪There's a bow-legged woman right there.♪ ♪There's a bow-legged woman over there.♪ ♪There a bow-legged woman out there♪ ♪♪ ♪There's bow-legged women somewhere everywhere♪ ♪♪ - Hey, I love y'all.

I love y'all.

[cheers and applause] [train whistle] - [female reporter] Bobby Rush's story is also that of so many people who are victims of racism and discrimination.

Your parents fought racism because your mother, Maddie, was white, blonde, blue-eyed, and your father, an African-American preacher.

In public, she had to pretend to be your babysitter.

And your dad, in public, pretend to be your driver.

How did your parents explain things to you?

- What was her name?

- Let me tell you about my mom.

My mom is named Maddie.

Maddie Spivey.

Her roots are from Jackson, Mississippi.

Probably the reason why I'm here.

On my mom's side, beyond my grandmama, on my mom's side, the best of my knowledge, there's no black people.

My mom was a white woman when she had to be.

She was black when she needed to be.

My mom was my babysitter.

She was babysitting me when we was out in the public.

I was her son.

She was my mama when we got home.

My daddy was her chauffeur when we was out.

He was her husband and my dad when we was home.

I can remember when my mama was about 43 years old, there was a guy called Mr.

Bear.

He had a store in Louisiana.

I was in the wagon with her.

She said, "Junior?"

I said, "Yes, ma'am."

She said, "Sit in the back of the wagon."

Two men came on a horseback.

He said, "Maddie."

She said, "Yes."

She said, "What you doing with this nigga?"

She said, "I'm a nigga too."

As you get older, you say, "Wow."

You get back in the room, you cry about it.

But we never talked about it.

We never talked about that.

But we all kind of suspicion in our heart because my mom was white when she had to be.

She was black, when she needed to be.

[drum beats and indistinct conversation] - He's a great leader because, like I say, he only, he demands the same thing with himself that he demands of you.

Sometimes, there are certain things that might interject themselves until the day or the performance, but he'll overcome it and get around it quickly.

And also, he'll show us at the same time, say this is really not an issue at all, keep the eye on the ball, keep that eye on the prize, you know, and that's that's who he is.

- Hey.

You said it right with the wrong place.

[recorded music plays] ♪Just like you.♪ ♪♪ ♪Just like you.♪ ♪♪ ♪Just like you.♪ No, no, you're low.

One more time.

I'm gonna say it in the right place, you say it behind me.

I'm going to show you the meter of it.

- You want to just do that one or you want to both of them?

- Uh, your first one was cool.

Just next one.

♪♪ No snare, that's the sock only for now.

Two, three, four.

♪♪ Yeah, yeah.

♪♪ Yeah, hear that?

♪♪ Hear that?

♪Merry Christmas.♪ ♪Santa Claus is coming to town.♪ ♪♪ ♪Bearing down with♪ See where it changed?

♪And love is coming down.♪ ♪Don't care what you say or do.♪ ♪♪ ♪Santa--♪ Aw, come here man - It's supposed to break.

- Yeah, but break on break.

Don't let that linger.

One, two, three, pop.

You have to kinda do it like that, you have to have a real ticket See, I switch them around.

Like a horn player, he playing the wrong note.

You say, "Shh, don't play it so loud."

He said, "Dit, dit, dit, dit, dit."

You say, "Man, that's good, but play two of 'em."

"Dit, dit."

"Still a little bit too much.

"Play one."

"Dit."

"Now you got it."

[laughing] You almost got him out of there.

♪♪ There was a place called Ghoul's, a little boogie joint.

And that's where I kind of started my little guitar work.

Going in the club, 13, 14, 15 years old.

Sneaking in the club, I would take a match and scratch it, four or five of them, blow it out quickly, and draw me a mustache.

Draw me a Fu Manchu.

Put me a cap on and sneak in the clubs.

That's where I met all the guys that I look up to.

They were just taking a liking to me, you know?

'Cause I could play a little harp and do a little buck dancing and act crazy or what have you.

My life as a musician hadn't started 'cause I just wanted to play and get the girls to look at me and be famous.

But I knew I wanted to be free.

I knew I just wasn't free.

I said, "I'm gonna go to Chicago 'cause Muddy Waters and all the guys have said, 'You need to get out 'of the South, come to Chicago.

'It'll be like heaven for you.

'You'll be a free man as a black man, as a musician, as a Blues singer.'"

And I got to Chicago in 1951.

There was a place on the suburb of Chicago, the man hired me to work behind a curtain with a white audience, to work behind a curtain because they want to hear my music.

They didn't want to see my face.

- Well, you do it because you're original.

You don't do it... You don't do it for the money.

You don't do it.

You do what you do because that's what you do.

- I didn't do it for the money, but now I do it for the money.

[Laughs] - I ain't got there yet.

- Maybe he [laughs] I do it for the money now.

I do it a lot for the love of it, but I do want to get paid for what I do.

And I laugh about that, but I don't want nobody putting things in my mouth about the Blues, because when we talk about the Blues and talk about the Chitlin Circuit, most of the time people talk about the Chitlin Circuit are the people who read about it, don't really know what the Chitlin Circuit is.

But let me set it straight to you.

The Chitlin Circuit is, is come from because they were paying black men and people like us chitlins, that's what was our pay.

- Oh, really?

- That was our pay.

That's what you don't know about this.

The Chitlin Circuit come from, not the juke joint.

It had nothing to do with the juke joint.

That's what we got paid.

We didn't have no place to stay.

We couldn't go to no hotel.

And I played in places where it said, "No color allowed."

- I'm going to tell you another one.

- It wasn't about black people then.

There was no colors allowed.

There'd be no black people allowed.

Chitlins are the inside of a hog, the guts of a hog.

What they paid black people to play, and your pay were chitlins.

I remember when I first started, I was so good, I would get four bowls of chitlin, four hot dogs.

I could eat one hot dog, one bowl of chitlin.

I could sell the other for $.25 a piece, and sell a hot dog for $.20 a piece.

I was making a dollar and a half a night on my chitlins that they were giving me.

Because the club owners were paying me sometimes $30 a night, me and the band and everybody.

I hired Muddy Waters in 1951 for $5.50 a night.

That's the Chitlin Circuit.

- Now the question is, do you play drunk?

- No, I play like I'm drunk, but I don't be drinking.

[laughs] - That's all right.

I live like I'm drunk.

[laughs] - Rush and his six-piece band put on a show for local students and talked about the significance of the Blues and how it's become such a popular music genre.

Rush was the headliner at the Untapped Blues Festival this weekend.

- I'll tell you, if you were able to spend any time outdoors today, certainly you weren't blue, because the weather was just phenomenal.

[bird chirping] - Now, first of all, you're my friend, but when I see somebody, because I guess you can cheat like you're the boss.

We over there in the sun talking, and you sitting back in the shade, ratting.

And I just walked over here to tell y'all, "It don't make no sense, man.

"Get me over there working, and you sitting over here in the shade, ain't doing nothing."

[laughs] Well, now, you can't record this, but you're full of shit.

[laughs] - The man is a good storyteller, and he has humor, and he's funny, you know?

I like his humor.

He has the ability to get your attention, right?

And that happens all around the world.

We have been from one end of the planet to the next.

- China.

- Russia, China, Japan, Middle East, Africa, everywhere.

just by playing the blues.

[laughs] ♪♪ - When I made me a bass, I took a number three tub and stuck a stick down in the bottom of it and put a wire on it.

You know, you couldn't-- and then stand it straight up.

Can you imagine this, a wire on it?

On one side of the tub, up till it gets there.

And the only way you could tighten it up when you're leaning, [imitating bass sounds] you know, you go tight.

[imitating bass sounds] - Yeah, yeah.

- You know, you- - I saw that being played.

Yeah.

It's still a-- I saw that.

- I got-- I got that-- [imitating bass sounds] You go-- you go just-- [imitating different bass notes] That's all the sound you can get out of it.

- It's like the Blues, basically.

- Well, no, it wasn't the Blues.

You learn how the part can sound just like it.

[imitating bass notes] - Oh, okay.

- And that was the beginning of the funky Blues.

- That was the beginning of the funky blues.

[laughing] - Thank you very much, Bobby.

Thank you.

- That was a lot there.

- No, that was good.

That was good.

[indistinct conversations] - If you got yourself together, you can survive any bump in the road.

But the only bump in the road that hurts a man or woman when they don't have themselves together.

Because the bump goes and comes.

That's part of life.

That's why all these years I got me together.

So if anything goes wrong with anybody else, as long as I got me together, I can survive the rat race.

My mother fell dead when she was 83 years old.

And I was going to Mound Bayou, Mississippi to play a gig.

Myself, Syl Johnson, I believe, and Al Green was headlining.

I didn't want to miss the gig because I was just beginning to get into that thing, playing, opening up for Al Green.

I regretted leaving and going to work.

But after I got to work, just the relief of being, not thinking about her death gave me the relief.

I did not know it was going to make me feel that way.

But I caught myself kind of forgetting about the death of my mother in my performances.

And it always seemed like music has been this link.

It seemed to take me away from the valleys of troubles, the ups and the downs of things that happen in my life.

When things are not going well in my household, You know, you had your ups and downs, the ends not meeting, I get my pencil and I write, and I talk to myself, and I write.

So it's been like that all my life.

I mean, you left at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Bruce, when I buried my mama at 3.

Means went to do a show at 5.

- Yes, we did.

The same thing with my mama.

- With your mama, too.

Nobody was there.

Who was there with you and your mama?

- You.

- Me.

- Yeah.

- I'm not talking about I'm so good, but I've been some places.

- Your father also.

- That's right.

♪♪ [on the phone] Hey, boy, what's on there?

I'm just looking around at everything.

All right.

I'm just going to go and see what happens.

Okay.

Alright.

♪♪ I'm just... I'm just so full and so thankful that God has given me the time in life and be smart enough to know that I don't know anything.

Because when a man talk and tell what he know, he won't talk long, because man don't know anything.

♪♪ Hello?

I can hear you but I'm overseas.

What's happening, Babe?

Uh, seven days.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I'll be back by the 10th, 10th or 12th of November.

Okay.

Okay, baby.

Well, I won't be back in the States another 7 or 8 days.

Okay, buddy.

Alright, that's us.

- Then another question about organization, not about the contents.

Do you yourself manage the encore?

Will you make a fake exit and then come back?

Or should they come on stage and say thank you and so on?

Do you want one more?

And everybody shouts one more, one more, he shouts one more.

- One more, one more.

Come off the stage, one more, go back on stage and off.

- They call the one more?

- They call it.

- So they come on stage how many minutes before, ten minutes?

- After you say one more, I'm going to do another hour.

[laughter] No, I'm just kidding.

- Just an hour.

- Yeah.

♪♪ - Let's figure our what we're gonna do.

[instruments warming up] - I know this song.

[laughing] - I know that song.

- You're a surprise.

- You want to have a player do it?

- Yeah.

♪♪ [announcement in foreign language] - I'm telling you all this because I would like you to appreciate his music, to get a little closer to his heart, knowing what his story is, his life, and above all, let them understand how happy we are to see Bobby Rush!

♪♪ - ♪Ah, ah, ah♪ ♪There it is.♪ ♪I said, I said, I said♪ ♪[scatting]♪ ♪Hmm there it is.♪ Everybody say, "There it is."

Everybody over here, let me hear you say, "Ooh, ooh."

Everybody over here say, "Ooh, ooh."

- Ooh, ooh.

- Everybody in the back say it.

- Ooh, ooh.

- Everybody in the front says - Ooh, ooh.

- Everybody in the middle says - Ooh, ooh.

- In the past, when I was 30 years old, having two black ladies or five black ladies on each side of me shaking their butt, they built right and built nice and whatever, that was a threat to most people.

But now it's a little different because it's not as much of a threat now.

They're saying, "Well, Bobby Rush is 80-something years old.

"Ah, he's just an old man.

What could he do?"

[up tempo harmonica music] ♪♪ [laughter] ♪♪ Yeah, he's got me down.

You think you-- see, you a lady now, so let me ask.

Ladies, how I look?

- You look nice.

- How I look?

- You look wonderful.

- Real nice.

- I don't care what the men think about this.

- Real nice.

- I don't care what you guys think about this.

[laughing] Taiwo, see, I didn't ask you how I look because I really don't care how I look to you.

Yeah.

- I was going to tell you you're ugly anyway.

[laughing] - I know that.

I know that.

So is a monkey, but they call him cute.

[laughing] Monkey's ugly, but my mother said, "That's a cute little animal."

When you know you're black, like if you're in the woods with a bunch of snakes, put some boots on.

Put something on when you know snakes in the woods.

I knew I was black when I was born.

The work hadn't been hard because I was doing what I wanted to do.

But it had been such a strain on me, being a black man doing it, not knowing what the other end was going to be.

You know, what people are going to think about it.

In 1968, I was going to go to Motown.

Calvin Carter said, "Why you go to Motown, man?"

He said, "We need to cut a record owned by Bobby Rush."

He said, "Bobby Rush, you have a song?"

I said, "Yeah, I got a song, man."

He said, "What's the name of your song?"

I said, "Chicken Head."

He said, "How do the song go?

Sing a little bit for me."

I said, "Daddy told me on his dying bed, "give up your heart, but don't you lose your head.

"You came along, girl, what did I do?

I lost my heart, head went too."

Which had nothing to do with a chicken.

They said, "Yeah, man, that's good!"

And I said, "Ooh, I got 'em."

A couple other guys was in the studio.

I had a bass player, and I had a guitar player there.

"We're gonna cut this song," and I had this guitar.

I said, "Listen, it go like this."

♪Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.♪ I wasn't playing guitar on it.

I was getting them to play it.

They played it about four or five times.

I said, "Oh, man, y'all can't get it."

"Play it your damn self, Bobby Rush.

You know how the damn thing go."

I said, "I'm gonna play it from the front to the back.

"We're getting to the top of you guys.

"Now, y'all get it now.

Listen, here's the way it go."

And I sung it with the microphone.

♪Daddy told me on his dying bed.♪ ♪Give 'em your heart...♪ Sung it.

And that's the way the song go.

Ralph Balfe was in there.

He was the engineer.

He said, "Good cut, Bobby Rush.

Good cut."

I didn't know he was recording it.

That's how the song came about.

I was showing the guy how to play it, and he recorded it.

We didn't have to do nothing else to it.

That's what come of the record.

Didn't have to overdub, nothing on it.

That's all it's ever been, that's all there was on it.

And didn't cut it no more.

♪♪ [laughing] ♪♪ [indistinct conversations] That's the way to steal it.

- I just love this clip because this is a prime example of how- You know, the younger generation was getting inspired and taking from the older generation and writing on top of it.

A Tribe Called Quest obviously is one of the greatest hip hop acts of all time.

One of the most influential.

And they're just in the studio picking out their favorite records.

There's Kanye.

- Yeah.

Ha!

Oh man.

Who would have ever thought I would influence people like this?

♪♪ ♪Have you ever been mistreated♪ [playing harmonica] ♪by someone you sho' nuff loved?♪ ♪♪ ♪Outta all the men my woman could have left me for♪ ♪♪ ♪She left me for the garbage man.♪ ♪♪ ♪No matter how bad she treated me,♪ ♪♪ ♪still can't get her out of my mind.♪ ♪♪ ♪No matter how bad she treated me,♪ ♪♪ ♪still can't get her out of my mind.♪ ♪♪ ♪Every time I see a garbage can♪ [laughter] ♪♪ ♪I think about her and the garbage man all the time.♪ ♪♪ You understand what I'm saying?

I said to you earlier, I'm telling you something that ain't never been talked about.

My family don't even know it.

But what I'm saying is it's gonna come out.

They gonna know it then.

My wife was having an affair with a policeman.

Oh, my God.

- [Taiwo] But this happened several times like that?

Like you got arrested several times?

- Yes, three or four times.

But I thought it was-- I thought they had something on me.

Till I found out, they were making sure I was in jail so they could be at my house.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

- Yeah.

- They would lock me up for three or four days to be with her.

I ain't never talked to nobody about this.

[voice breaking] I was there in jail sometime three to four days, man.

While they was at my house.

And I have to take it or die.

Oh my God.

I've been there, done that.

This is a terrible way to live.

[ominous music playing] ♪♪ [Bobby Rush sniffs] - [Director] Why don't you give me.... I like the back light there.... Let's kill 22.

Let's kill house lights next.

♪♪ You good?

- I'm good, I'm good.

We're good.

- [Director] Do you have dreams at night, when you're sleeping?

- Yeah, I have dreams.

My bicycle.

And every time I go to ride it, I'll be riding my bicycle, it will turn into a sack that I picked cotton in.

When I get to the end of the little driveway, wherever I'm on, then it falls over.

It's not a bicycle anymore.

It's a cotton sack, something I have to work with.

I've dreamed that all of my life since I was a kid.

Always by the cotton site.

And about a bicycle.

[water lapping] [baby crying] When you come to me, you say, "My wife's having a baby."

You come back and showed me the baby.

Oh God, the little bitty old.

Man, that got me.

And I had tears.

I walked away from you with tears in my eyes because I saw you made a turn.

I hadn't planned to talk about this like this.

If I didn't talk about it, let me say go farther.

And you notice that when you showed me the picture, quickly I pushed it back to you.

Let me tell you why.

I was married to Hazel Adam when I was 18 years old.

She had three sisters, Pearlie Mae, Reuben, and Faye.

Three sisters.

When I got married, I took her in and the three children in.

The three kids were my sisters-in-law, but they thought I was their daddy, because they were small kids.

Then me and my wife had three children.

Four or five years later, her sister passed.

That same year, the other sister passed.

A year or two later, her other sister passed.

Then her mom and dad-- was my daddy-in-law and my-- father-in-law and mother-in-law treated me like mom and dad.

They passed in my house.

Then I had three children by this wife.

Valerie was the oldest one.

She passed.

Sherry was the next one.

She passed.

Donnell was my son.

He passed.

I had no family.

When you show me your baby, it remind me of my family.

So when I push you back that because it reminds me so much of my children.

[ominous music swells] Most people smile when you come into this world.

Especially our culture.

A child is born.

I'm saying that because... I saw your baby and I laughed.

Was happy for you.

But then something that can happen to your child that'll make you cry.

- And when I called her today and told her that we was gonna be down here, She said, "Well, okay, I'm gonna come and I got the ticket."

- So, you got an award.

That's what you told me.

You had an award.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Old folk, old folk.

- She first said that it was an award.

- Oh.

- But, when she got it, she changed her mind.

She said, "It's the ticket to the Old Folk's Home."

A one-way ticket.

- But I was concerned about, did she really say, "Smitty, this is a one-way ticket for you."

Did she said, "Bobby Rush, did you put me in it too?"

She said, "You four old--" what you call us?

- Four old kooks, I probably said.

- What four?

I know Mr.

Green and myself, but who the other four?

- Emmett.

- Emmett.

- Oh.

Another one of those.

Another one of those.

I had the best time with Smitty with that.

I'm saying, you all are out to catch what?

The only thing you can catch is a cold.

That's it.

[laughs] - This is what you get in a beauty shop, or a barbershop.

Now, if you're thinking, "Only thing I can catch on a one-way ticket to the old folk home," you got another think coming.

Now, I ain't studdin' you.

[laughing] ♪♪ You know what?

♪If y'all think I'm gonna leave my woman♪ ♪cause of what somebody said♪ ♪you might be crazy♪ ♪and outta your damn head♪ ♪I ain't studdin' you♪ ♪Let me tell you one thing♪ ♪I ain't studdin' you♪ ♪See my daddy done told me to leave that girl alone♪ ♪mamma done told me, too.♪ No, I'm in England right now.

I won't be back Friday, I won't be back to Monday or Tuesday.

England.

Yeah, I'm overseas, uh-huh.

I'll be back Tuesday.

This coming Tuesday.

Well, let me see if I'm available, but give me a call on Tuesday when I get back, okay?

What kind of .....can you say?

What kind of show is it?

[laughs] Well, not really, but I can make it interesting, depending on what you're paying me to do.

[laughs] Yeah.

Okay, buddy.

Okay, man.

Okay, buddy.

All right.

Man, I've lived a long time.

I don't drink, smoke, don't get high, no form of fashion.

But I do, I still look at big ladies, they'll kill you too.

[laughs] - But nevertheless, man, I don't try to be just a goody two shoes guy.

But I tell the truth about me.

I wrote this book called "I Ain't Studdin' Ya", I wrote this book, and I told on me, I told on other people.

But the main thing I want people to get out of this book, that if I can make it as a little country boy, living here in Mississippi, you can make it too.

I know I'm gonna get in trouble with this, what you're asking me.

I remember when they didn't let me go in certain places because I was black.

If it wasn't for the white men and women who love the Blues and playing the Blues, it wouldn't be what it is now.

I don't mind that, but tell where it's come from.

Tell where it come from.

We got a few people who do it.

Bonnie Raitt is one of them.

She tell where it's come from.

But most of the guys out here now, women who play the Blues, play the Blues, you say they're the King of the Blues and don't tell where they come from.

And they're singing B.B.

King's song or somebody black.

The Rolling Stones were playing the music, but they weren't talking about it.

They didn't talk about Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf until they were dead and gone, or old men.

They ain't gonna talk about me either.

But I'm not waiting on them to talk about me.

I'm telling my story now.

So hopefully that someone can learn that I ain't just a man.

I ain't just a Blues singer.

I'm a proud black man and a Blues singer.

♪♪ Your hot water ran in the tub.

Don't get in that shit, brother.

[laughter] If you do, your ass will swell up this high.

[loud laughter] - Every show to me is different.

Every show is different.

Every last one of them.

No show is the same.

- Get awful slick when you do wrong.

[laughter] She'll act like she be the one that did wrong.

[laughter] - Every night to me is an adventure because it's something... He's spontaneous.

He's so spontaneous to where I have to watch him like a hawk.

- Buy you some beer.

Buy you some whiskey.

Whatever you drink, makes you drunk, take your home and make love to you.

And when you go to sleep... she'll sit in your face.

[laughter] - On stage, he wants absolute control.

Absolute.

- I already put my hands on it.

She said, "Hell, that ain't nothin'.

I do that every night anyway."

[laughter] ♪She'll take a little goopy dust♪ ♪spread it all around ya bed♪ ♪Now when you wake up the next mornin'♪ ♪Here's the bad part, brother,♪ ♪You'll find your own ass dead.♪ ♪Please don't you do it.♪ I remember this not long ago, maybe 20 years ago.

Some guy was saying, black guys I'm talking about, were cutting the Blues.

They said, "Well, Bobby Rush, I'm going to cut this kind "of Blues because I think this is what white people like.

"I'm going to cut like this because I think this is what black people like."

I'm so blessed to be able to be, have the state of mind to cut good music and I hope everybody will like it.

It's not a black and white issue with me.

It's about the music.

I wrote this song, "Sue," because of a little girl that I know in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

It's in Sherry, right out of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Her name was Emma Jean Rainey.

Never forget this.

She was 15 years old, and I was about 15, maybe 16.

And I liked this girl, man.

She was in shape, she was built.

You know, I kind of like em kind of healthy.

[Laughter] And I told my dad, I said, "I got to go to Reverend Rainey's house."

Reverend Rainey was her father, was a friend of my daddy.

Both of them preachers.

He said, "Where you going over there for?"

I said, "I'm going to run up to see his daughter."

He said-- my daddy said, "You don't need to "talk to that girl.

She'll do anything."

Man, what do you want to say that for?

[laughter] [upbeat Blues music] ♪♪ ♪When I was about 15 years old,♪ ♪I was in love with this girl called Sue.♪ ♪Now Sue lived across the railroad track♪ ♪in my hometown.♪ - I love all of his music but if I have to say my favorite is what I grew up on when I was a little girl.

I listened to "Sue" a lot.

I heard it in the family when we were cleaning up.

We would hear "Sue" in the background while we were cleaning up.

So I'd have to say that's one of my all time favorites.

- [Taiwo] What makes "Sue" so-- everybody really loves "Sue."

Why is that the one?

- Well, I think it's because that's the song we all kind of grew up on.

You know, he got plenty of music, but that was one of those ones you were guaranteed to hear when you're doing your Saturday morning cleaning.

"Sue, Sue."

- Come around that way there, baby.

You think you know?

♪♪ [inaudible] If you want to be in this business, be good at what you do.

You could say, "Well, I don't like old Bobby Rush.

But damn he good."

Now I'm gonna try this just one time.

♪♪ [audience screaming and laughing] I'm gonna try this one time.

There don't need to be no pictures of this!

Brother!

Brother!

He was just hoping I wouldn't notice!

Please don't record any of this!

You promise me??

Raise your right hand.

[laughter] Don't nobody mention this.

[laughing] That's just a little something.

I want to leave that with you, put a little rhythm in there.

Okay?

Someone asked me, "So why "do you sing the Blues?

"Is it because your woman left you?

- Uh-oh!

- Yes.

[laughter] You have the Blues when your woman leaves you, but you also have the Blues if they stay too long.

[laughter] Let me explain to you in music what I'm talking about.

[playing harmonica] ♪♪ [upbeat Blues] ♪♪ [music continues and audience cheers] [new song begins] ♪The thing that I used to do♪ ♪Lord, I won't do no more♪ ♪Oh no I won't♪ ♪I said the thing that I used to do♪ ♪Lord, I just won't...♪ - Do you get tired of it?

- Yeah, you know, you're only human, your body gets tired, but your mind don't.

My mind is all set to do this forever.

♪♪ - Thank you so much, Mr.

Rush.

- You're welcome.

- Make sure they look good, or I can do another one for you.

- They look good.

He look good.

- Oh, y'all got that.

- Thank you so much.

Thank you.

- See you tomorrow.

- Hey, Jeff.

Right around the corner from the place, driving back.

Yeah, I'm in my van.

Yes.

- I know you had some quite important mentors in the blues world, too.

I know B.B.

was one of them.

Would you mind talking about the people you learned from the most?

- Yeah, he want to know about the people I learned from the most.

I don't have time to tell all of that.

But I can tell you B.B.

King, I learned from B.B.

King because he was the kind of guy who sung the Blues and nothing but the Blues.

Maybe because he couldn't do nothing else but the Blues.

But it showed me that if you stay still at one thing, get good at it, that's all that matters.

I did not know that was his last show that he was gonna do in life.

I did the last show with B.B.

A few months later, B.B.

passed.

Out of all the things that we are doing and plan to do with this story of my life, this is most touching to me than anything.

I knew B.B.

King from 1951 until his last breath.

This ain't a funny matter, but it is a celebration matter.

That a man live that long.

It's nothing to smile about, but it's something to be happy about.

I just wish all of us could get that.

[applause] - So to B.B.

♪♪ [harmonica music continues] [music fades out slowly] Sitting here at the grave of B.B.

is a mirror on the wall to myself.

Now it make me think about, you're doing this documentary on me for what I have done, but I'm at a crossroad today.

What am I getting ready to do?

[blows kiss] Bless you B.B.

I was 83 years old before I won a Grammy.

And I appreciate the people around the record who worked so hard.

How many guys got their first Grammy when they were 83?

That's that wheel again... coming back to me.

[applause] People have always been tricking me to make me feel better.

Even to today.

- What do you mean?

- You tricked me today.

You asked me to come down and didn't give me too much of what we're going to talk about, but it's a good trick.

Now I'm sitting here talking about my life.

I'm talking about what I know about, where I come from, what I'm doing, what I did, what I'm planning to do.

This is good.

It's good because it takes me out of my valleys.

- Yeah.

- It takes me out of my valleys.

It's always been like this.

It's about my music.

I had no idea that I'd be sitting here looking back and reminiscing over my life, about my father, my mother, my sisters, my brother, my family, my children.

I had no idea.

There's some things brings tears to my eyes, But there's so many things bringing joy to my heart.

If you notice, when you went all overseas with me the whole bit, I doubted one little thing.

I think I did.

- On the boat?

- No, no.

- Okay.

- I went to-- you know, y'all told me, we're going to do a thing later on this afternoon, down at the church.

I said, "What the hell we gonna do at the church?"

I'm a Blues singer, you know, I've done my biblical study, but I said, "What we gonna do at the church?"

But then I was walking, and Taiwo showed me when I was walking, he showed just my foot.

That's all.

He could just see my feet walking.

And then it's nothing else.

And he said, "You're walking to the church."

[laughs] And didn't know what I was gonna do or say, you know?

I said, "What we gonna do in the church?"

But to me, that was my scene.

[playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" on harmonica] ♪♪ I thought a man was in trouble when his back was against the wall, when he didn't know where to turn or what to do.

But I found out since I've been sitting here, the best place a man can be when he get in a position where he don't know where to go, or where to turn, or what to do next.

That's the best position to be in.

Now you've got to turn to God for the help.

Because as long as a man can do for himself, or think he know where to go for himself, he try to figure it out.

But I can't figure out where to go from here.

- I just don't see a stopping point to it.

- He's never stopping, never.

- Retirement is not in his DNA.

[laughs] As a matter of fact, slowing down isn't in his DNA.

He's constantly doing something.

- When the love for what you do is that great, no, there's no end.

When he says it's all over, you've done well.

- Yeah, and that's that.

- That's that, but as far as him physically stopping himself, I don't think it'll ever happen.

Everything is synced, because it's all linked together.

- It's like one song.

- If you're there, it'll be E and then F out.

- Yeah, that's like one song.

Although it's numbered like three songs, but it's really one song.

Middle of the thing, you know what I'm talking about?

- Now what to think about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like the one.

[laughter] - He know it.

He just got the gist of it.

- Yeah, yeah.

[laughter] Yeah, that's fine.

- Exactly.

- That's all right.

- Yeah.

- Well, that's it.

I'm going to give the ladies this so they'll know where they come up at.

- Do we keep one of those?

- Yeah, just for you.

[laughs] - This is where it all happens at.

- Yeah.

- It's where it all happens at.

- It's where it begins.

- They got a costume.

A thousand, thousand-- - No, no, no!

No!

- A thousand pieces of costume.

- I'm going to need you to stand on your feet and make some noise for my man, Bad Bobby Rush!

[band plays a drumroll and hype music] ♪♪ ♪♪ [rocking Blues song begins] [crowd cheers] [song fades out] - Now y'all go to work and do what you gotta do, cuz I know some editing gotta be done.

Y'all can get some whiskey, drink, and get drunk, and get up again.

And cuz a lot of the stuff we have is good, but you can't use all of it.

So now you got a problem, but you got a good problem.

- That's right.

- Got a lot of good shit you got to throw away.

Because you got enough to make five, five good movies.

- We really do.

- We got hours, like probably now, 50 hours of footage.

- And you're looking for-- sixty hours of footage, looking for two hours of footage out of sixty hours.

- Oh, you hear him?

90 hours.

- You got to be kidding!

- No.

90 hours.

We roll on you the whole day.

We haven't even cut these cameras all day.

- You cheater.

[laughs] - Man, I wouldn't have said that other shit.

[laughs] - All right, look.

All you had to go was 4:40.

- Man, I got to go.

- Put the house lights on.

- Put the lights on, let him get his back.

Give me $200 for this microphone.

[laughs] - Man, I got to go.

We've come a long way, but I got a long way to go.

Someday I hope we all find a way to get the shackles off your feet and the chains off your mind.

I'm free.

Look at me.

I'm free.

I got the shackles off my feet and the chains off my mind.

No woman, no man, no one can bound me.

Only person could destroy me is myself.

God done delivered me to do some things now that I never done before for me and someone else.

My plan is now to do all I can, while I can.

When it come a time I can't do, I won't regret what I did not do.

♪♪ [pool balls breaking] [upbeat soulful Blues playing] ♪♪ ♪I don't want to be an imitating man.♪ ♪I just want to be myself and do my own thing.♪ ♪Some, uh, try so hard, do like others do.♪ ♪What's good for others, sometimes may not♪ ♪be so good for you.♪ ♪Stick to your own thing, don't worry 'bout anybody else.♪ ♪Just do your thing.♪ ♪Whatever it is.♪ ♪And be yourself.♪ - Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Bobbyyyyyy Rush!!

[cheers and applause] - Wow!

♪Be yourself, girl, go on.♪ ♪Just be yourself, y'all.♪ ♪That's all you gotta do!♪ ♪Oh, be yourself, y'all.♪ ♪Look here, let me tell you something.♪ ♪I don't want to be a phony.♪ ♪I'm always for real.♪ ♪I'm not ashamed to do what I like,♪ ♪no matter what it is.♪ ♪Someone's got too much pride♪ ♪to get on down wit it.♪ ♪Forget about your pride!

Push that pride aside.♪ ♪Get down nitty gritty.♪ ♪Ow!

Come on, baby.♪ ♪Everybody!

Come on.♪ ♪Be yourself tonight.♪ ♪Be yourself, baby.

Be yourself.♪ ♪I don't care what you do.♪ ♪As long as you're being yourself.♪