“Years ago,” he was quoted in a conversation in Downbeat, “I’d say back in ‘47 or ‘8 - Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, and myself, we would go around looking for bands that were playing. We called ourselves the Headhunters, ‘cause we’d go in and if we got a chance we were gonna burn ‘em. We’d come in and win the contest, they’d have an amateur contest with a prize, but the guy would come up to me after he found out who I was and say, ‘Uh-uh, Muddy, you’s too heavy. You can work for me if you wants, but you’s too heavy to be in the contest.’” He recalls those days with relish but then adds, “Of course I ain’t like that no more. I know different now. Cause you can’t be the best. You can just be a good ‘un.”
- Muddy Waters, 1971
(via atane)
