George " Buddy " Guy, born July 30, 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana, is an American musician of blues and rock music. He is the father of rapper Shawnna.
Influenced since his childhood by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin 'Wolf who will later make him want to emigrate to Chicago, he makes himself at the age of thirteen a makeshift guitar from a mosquito net and a piece of wood. But, it is at sixteen that his father offers him his first real guitar, a two strings. Buddy simply plays guitar to pass the time.
Some time later, while he is sitting on the doorstep of his house playing guitar, a stranger approaches him, tells him that he watches him play every night and that he wants to give him a guitar new. And this is how Buddy finds himself the next day with a brand new guitar, more motivated than ever to imitate his idols. From then on, he trained hard and quickly gave himself in concert at Baton Rouge with local bluesmen such as Big Poppa John Tilley Band, Lightnin Slim, Guitar Slim, Slim Harpo or Lazy Lester. But Buddy already knows that his future is not in this segregationist South and is already thinking of moving to the North of the United States. In search of a well-paid job, he left in 1957 for Chicago, the city of his idols. At this time, he can not imagine a career in music.
Arriving in Chicago, he travels the city for several days, without money, until he meets a man who asks him if he can play guitar for a whiskey. Buddy Guy accepts and packs the stranger who immediately takes him to a box where one of his friends, a certain Otis Rush plays. And even as Rush prepares to leave, Buddy starts playing The things I used to do. Otis will only tell the boss to hire him.
