Buddy Guy reflects on his blues legacy as 'Sinners' takes center stage at Oscars

By Alicia Powell and Danielle Broadway

LOS ANGELES, March 5 (Reuters) - Blues legend Buddy Guy is gaining a wave of new fans — some from surprising places — thanks to his role in the Oscar-nominated film “Sinners.”

“After the movie came out, I went to this grocery store I’ve shopped at for 35 years,” Guy said with a grin.

“The girl who always checks me out just started screaming. I thought I'd done something wrong. She said: ‘You're in the movie!’ I said: ‘You didn’t scream the last 35 years you’ve seen me,’” he recounted.

Set in 1932 Mississippi, “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan as identical twins Smoke and Stack, who return home from Chicago to open a juke joint in an old sawmill. Their big opening night takes a supernatural turn when vampires crash the party.

Director Ryan Coogler says casting Guy had special meaning.
“Buddy Guy was the last touring musician my late uncle James would regularly go see,” he said. “It was an honor to have him in this film.”

Guy said he agreed instantly when Coogler approached him at his Chicago club called Buddy Guy's Legends. “I think I sold another album after that,” Guy joked.

Now 89, Guy still traces everything back to hearing B.B. King on the radio as a kid in rural Louisiana. Too poor to buy guitar strings, he made his own from screen wire. “I had blood coming out of my fingers,” he said. He credits King and earlier bluesmen for everything he learned.

Born to sharecroppers, Guy didn't see indoor plumbing until his late teens. He moved to Chicago in the late 1950s, working days as a tow-truck driver and playing nights for $2.

Even after nine Grammy wins, including this year's award for Best Traditional Blues Album, Guy still feels a little stunned by the attention.

“There are guitar players who can play five times better than me,” he said. “They come to me asking what to do, and I say, ‘Damn if I know, man.’”

As he approaches 90, slowing down isn't on the agenda. He'll kick off his birthday tour in Toronto after shows in Australia, aiming, as always, to “make somebody smile.”

When it comes to legacy, Guy keeps it simple: “That I loved everybody. If everybody was like me, you wouldn’t have a mad person in the world.”

“Sinners,” distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, leads this year's Oscars with 16 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Coogler and Best Actor for Jordan.