By Paul Freeman [Dec. 2011 Interview]

Blues-rocker Elvin Bishop has been raising hell on stage for nearly 50 years. And for half of those, he’s been doing it clean and sober. Along with his exuberance, that’s a big reason for his longevity.

The Oklahoman was born in 1942. Picking up a guitar, Bishop immersed himself in blues, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll.

He went to college in Chicago, a blues hotbed. There, Bishop met many of the blues greats, including Little Smokey Smothers, who became a mentor, as well as Muddy Waters, Magic Sam and Otis Rush.

He also hooked up with Paul Butterfield. Bishop played with Butterfield’s group for five years.

In 1968, his own Elvin Bishop Group signed with Graham’s Fillmore Records. In 1976, he had a massive hit with “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” from his “Struttin’ My Stuff” LP.

Bishop, a Marin County resident, has survived quite well. His latest album is the rousing, “Raisin’ Hell Revue.” He has just shot a live DVD, at the Club Fox in Redwood City, Ca.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
Where did the fascination with blues and R&B begin?

ELVIN BISHOP:
I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma, originally. I was in high school like in the 1950’s. A long time ago. I heard it on the radio, was what happened. This was back before civil rights and integration and all that. And Oklahoma was a fairly hardcore Southern type city. So the radio was the only chance you were going to get to hear it, really.

PCC:
What about the music grabbed you? The honesty, the storytelling?

BISHOP:
I don’t know, just the sound of it. First of all, I remember when there was no rock ’n’ roll. It was all just like the Frank Sinatra type stuff and ‘How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?’ That was what you heard on the radio. Then when Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and Fats Domino came in, that was really great. That happened when I was a young teenager.

And then, the first time I heard the blues I just went, ‘Wow, this is where the good part of rock ‘n’ roll is coming from!’ And that was it, you know?

PCC:
And deciding to go to college in Chicago, was that because it was a blues mecca?

BISHOP:
Yeah, the education was a little bit of a cover story, you know? Just to keep the family happy.

PCC:
Was that an amazing atmosphere for you?

BISHOP:
Oh, yeah. I didn’t really know what school to go to. I was lucky I had a scholarship. I could go just about anywhere. I chose the University of Chicago. It turned out to be in a neighborhood called Hyde Park, which sort of like an island in the middle of the southside ghetto, which was where the blues was happening then. This was 1960 and blues was like the living music of choice. It’s like rap is now for the black people. And there were hundreds of blues clubs and all the great blues musicians were in their prime. It was just the luckiest place in the world for me to end up.

PCC:
Hooking up with Paul Butterfield, was that just a case of like minds finding one another?

BISHOP:
It was another huge accident. I was living in a dormitory the first year. And I was out walking around the neighborhood to see what was going on. I saw a white guy sitting on some steps, playing a guitar, drinking a quart of beer. And it was Butterfield. And there weren’t hardly any other white people that were into blues at that time. So we fell right together.

PCC:
You were able to meet a lot of the blues greats. Which of them had the most direct impact on you?

BISHOP:
A guy named Little Smokey Smothers, who just passed away earlier this year. He was originally from Mississippi, as most Chicago blues guys were. He kind of took me under his wing and really helped me a lot.

Within the first year, I was really lucky to get to meet Muddy Waters and Magic Sam, Otis Rush, a bunch of really great blues guys.

PCC:
Did that give you a perspective on spending a lifetime in the music?

BISHOP:
Well, I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking in those terms at that time. I was like 17 or something. And when you’re 17, you’re not thinking of a lifetime of anything. It is what it is, as they say. And I just wanted to play that music. And that was as far as I could see. The guys were really nice to me. It was great, because I knew blues from records only and I got a chance to meet the people and stay with them and see how they lived and everything, and just to see what the words on the records meant.

PCC:
After studying with the greats, were you conscious of wanting to create your own style? Or was that just a slow, natural process?

BISHOP:
Well, it was something I always wanted to do, but it took quite a while to happen. I guess, like you said, it just happened naturally.

PCC:
During that era were people open to something different, musically?

BISHOP:
Well, I think that the blues and the white public were overdue to meet. I think that it was lucky getting involved with the Butterfield Blues Band, because there was such a high caliber of musicians in there and it was so on fire for blues that it was kind of like the perfect vehicle to help cross it over.

It’s kind of sad, but true. You know how people are. They were much more willing to accept blues from young white faces than they were from old black faces, just to be honest with you.

And then, one of the main things that I think got blues crossed over was Bill Graham. The combination of a very perceptive, smart guy like Bill Graham and big audience stoned out of their minds on LSD. He just kind of eyeballed them and said, ‘These people will accept just about anything. Let me try and put some real good stuff in there.’ He’d come up with Albert King, Ravi Shankar and Charles Lloyd or Rahsaan Roland Kirk and B.B. King and, God only knows, Aretha Franklin or something. And it just really opened up a lot of people’s minds.

PCC:
And so, for a lot of that music, it was just a matter of getting the exposure, giving people a chance to discover it?

BISHOP:
That’s what I think. Yeah. Which wasn’t really happening, in the natural course of things at the time.

PCC:
What about your magical connection with the Red Dog guitar?

BISHOP:
I don’t know if I’d call it a magical connection. It just turned out to be the type of guitar that suited me. So I stuck with it. I really love it, the Gibson 345. It’s got that nice, full, sustained, fat sound that I like.

PCC:
“Fooled Around and Fell In Love,” you didn’t know instantly that this was a song that would be huge for you?

BISHOP:
No, everything that’s happened, in life, as well as in music, has been a total surprise to me. I’ve never been able to plan things out and get them to come true. I just sort of do the best I can and hope somebody else likes it.

PCC:
Having such a huge hit, was that a mixed blessing, in terms of raising expectations?

BISHOP:
Well, I didn’t have any expectations in the first place. I’ve written hundreds of songs. And you keep throwing stuff against the wall, something’s going to stick eventually. I wouldn’t say it’s a mixed blessing. It’s a lot better to have a hit than to not have one, as far as making life a little easier on you. It’s not just making more money. It’s the money lifting you out of the situation where you have to do things you don’t want to do, just to survive.

PCC:
From the ‘Raisin’ Hell’ CD, it sound like you’re still having as much fun as ever, making music.

BISHOP:
I’ve always felt lucky. I’ve felt blessed to be able to make a living doing the music, because, before I got into music, I did a lot of hard work. I grew up on a farm and I worked in the oil fields and I worked in the steel mills in Chicago and construction and stuff like that. And it sure makes the music seem easy.

PCC:
What’s been the greatest challenge as far as sustaining the career in music.

BISHOP:
I don’t know. It’s all been good. The one struggle I had was cleaning up my bad habits. I got to the place, I’d say around the late ‘70s, and part of the ‘80s, where, to be honest with you, I was having a little too much fun, with the drinkin’ and the drugs. And quittin’ that was a little harder than I thought it would be. But I eventually did it. It’s been like 23 years ago.

PCC:
And what was the key to turning that around? Was it your own determination?

BISHOP:
Yeah, just keeping at it until I got it accomplished. I had a little bit of help here and there, a couple of good examples set for me. I’d never seen anybody playing blues that didn’t drink. Until, finally, Albert Collins showed me that it was possible to cut down on the drinkin’ and still play real good. And a guy named Luther Tucker. He played on a lot of Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson records, Chicago blues stuff.

PCC:
So the life outside the music, around the music, is a little tamer these days?

BISHOP:
Well, yeah. I’m not out there raisin’ hell and stuff. [Laughs] But it was amazing. I thought, ‘Well, you won’t be able to get the intensity in the music. You won’t be the same. And you’re going to be around places where people are drinkin’ and doing drugs all the time.’ I thought, ‘How are you going to handle all that?’ The first gig I did, I said, ‘Hey, this is way better.’ I could hear the stuff so clear. I can see somebody else drink or smell a glass of whisky or a beer and it don’t move me at all. I don’t want it. The hardest thing is, when I smell a cigarette - it’s been about 20 years since I had one - it still smells good.

PCC:
The rewards that make it all worthwhile, have those changed over the years?

BISHOP:
The main thing is, it’s its own reward, just the feeling of being able to play the music. It just makes you feel good. It does me, you know?

PCC:
Still lessons to be learned in music, for you?

BISHOP:
Yeah, all the time. Basically, the farther you go along, the more you realize you don’t know. I’m just glad that people appreciate what I’m doing, that people like my music, because there’s all kinds of music in the world, so the fact that I can entertain people with mine makes me feel real good.

PCC:
Are you confident that blues will always be alive and well?

BISHOP:
No. I don’t know. Albert Collins said, every 10 years, a generation of blues fans is born. But I don’t know if that’s true anymore. It kind of looks, to be honest with you, like blues is heading for a place in American music like jazz has now, where it’s almost like a classical form. Not like classical music, but it’s just not the music of choice of a big body of young people these days, it doesn’t seem like to me.

PCC:
So it’s becoming more of an historical form?

BISHOP:
Historical - that’s the word I was looking for. That’s why you’re a writer.

PCC:
So does that notion disturb you? Or it’s just the way of things?

BISHOP:
Why get disturbed? That’s just what’s happening, you know?

PCC:
Do you view yourself as a preservationist, as well as an entertainer?

BISHOP:
I don’t know. I wouldn’t ascribe any idealistic motives to what I do. It’s just, like I said, I try to play the music I like and hope somebody else likes it, too.

For the latest on this artist, visit www.elvinbishopmusic.com