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Matthew Joseph: Yeah. If we could just begin,

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if you can just tell me your
name and tell me the bands you play in.

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David Kimbrough Jr.: The band I played in?

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: I'm David Kimbrough Jr. All right.

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Now I've got a project in Fayetteville
called Country Punk Blues,

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and I'm doing my own thing, 
the David Kimbrough Jr. Band,

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which consists of, right now,

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my brother Kennan, and partially my other brother,
Robert Kimbrough, Kennan on drum,

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Robert on bass, and all of us, the **SU**
couple more other cats, you know,

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hanging out, in and out,
freelancing with us.

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MJ: Right.

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Um, so if you could just, 
if we could begin, if I could ask you, uh,

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to describe the Northern
Mississippi sound,

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because it's a lot different
than other blue sounds.

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DKJr: Yeah. It's different. 
It's different from the Delta blues, cause uh,

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it's a in the class of its own, 
because it's got like this thing, that call, this trance beat,

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you know,

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once you get off into the grooves of North 
of here, and just that groove just,

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just constantly go, go, go, go, go. 
And doing a whole lot of changing, you know,

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stuff is just the category 
that just goes on and on, repeated it all over again.

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And it stays right there until you get it off 
into your soul to everybody just

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having just a good time off
that one sound, you know, that,

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I guess that's what made the Delta
different from the North Mississippi.

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MJ: How do you think it got that sound?

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DKJr: I come, I sound, it basically come through
a lot of old character. That's this,

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this season going on and definitely,
my dad and RL Burnside,

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but that was others before them.

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MJ: Right.

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DKJr: Like Eli Green,

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Claude L,

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and a whole lot of, a host of others,
that where even known about, you know,

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uh, they created that boom, boom, boom.
You know, that boom sound, I call them.

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So it can come from those cats. 
They created that.

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MJ: Do you think there was anything specifically 
about this region that created that?

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DKJr: I basically think that 
it was just a, a bunch of guys, you know,

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getting together, but I think from my childhood, 
from what I saw, yeah.

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Even Charlie Feathers, he was,

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he was hanging around the house,
every day at our house out there.

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Four or five years old. Yeah.
That was it, mom, "what the white man doing out there?"

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You know what I'm saying?
Him probably sitting on the porch,

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you know, and he was drinking cold whiskey
and all kinds of stuff.

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And I went to school with his nephew,

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James Feathers and Diane Tells 
and all of them, you know, and he said,

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and she said, "That's your daddy's friend.

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Don't you said that no more.
Blah, blah, blah." And so even leaving,

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doing the same thing they was doing, 
but lately for a couple of changes, you know,

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in this song, but yeah, 
off the back, you know, it just, uh,

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it was just a bunch of guys getting together, 
just playing this, this,

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this style of music, man. It was just,

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they just all played the same kind of way, 
you know, do, do, do, do,

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do,

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do one of them doo doo doo doo doo do do dodo.

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And they sang that. 
They did that. They all got,

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I think that's where it comes from.

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Basically it just come from them
probably being in church and uh,

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adding little less spiritual stuff to it. 
You know what I'm saying?

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And I can't really just say
exactly how it came about,

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but I know from what I saw, 
45, 40 years ago,

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a bunch of guys getting together
drinking and just dumping, you know,

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and it creates the sun.

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MJ: Um,

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a lot of people say that it's closer  
to its African roots than a lot of other

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blues music. 
Do you think that that's true?

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DKJr: That is true.

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You know why I said it's true, 
because if you listen to the African music, I mean,

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it's the same thing. 
It's just a thump, you know,

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normally look bad. You'll sound. 
They had the same thing. It's the same thing.

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It wasn't Delta and stuff. 
Yeah, it does have the traditional, uh, sound.

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MJ: Well, so, uh, I mean not to, 
not to press the issue,

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but I mean, why do you think it is then that, uh,

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in this particular region it's closer
to its African roots than the Delta is?

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Because, I mean, in both places you have ancestors 
of black slaves from Africa.

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DKJr: You know, I not really, basically 
I think it was a coincidence though.

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That's what I think.

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I don't think none of them cats up here
put in their mind that they was gonna

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to create something that sounded 
like something from Africa.

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: It was just,

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it was, it was just something that was in there.

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It just they're just embedded in it.

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And it was better for them 
to get their messages out, you know,

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just by doing one group and seeing
what they had to say, instead of going,

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trying to create all the different kinds 
of notes and skills and stuff,

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you know, like they gonna play a lot of stuff 
saying like, you know,

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changes and stuff, but they,
I guess they figured, you know,

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what I'm thinking is, um, 
they figured that maybe, hey, you know,

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it'd be better for us to just stay right here 
and just sing what we got to

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sing, you know, that type of thing, maybe,

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maybe one or two changes or something. 
Yeah. But, uh,

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that's basically what I think, 
I know I couldn't really call it to a T.

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MJ: What influence do you think 
the fife and drum tradition had on the blues music

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that your dad played or the blues music RL played?

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DKJr: Basically, you know, you said fife and drum 
you talking about stuff from Africa.

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: Now I don't, I don't know the concept on Uncle Othar.

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I don't know what he had in his head, you know?
Uh, but I,

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but when I hear them, I hear Africa.

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: That's what I hear in them,

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you know, for sure.

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MJ: Um, so blues songs, uh,

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often contain kind of references
to leaving Mississippi.

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And a lot of times guys like
Muddy Waters or Howling Wolf,

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they did leave Mississippi.

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DKJr: All of them.

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MJ: Yeah. All those guys. Um,

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but those guys were mostly from the Delta.

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DKJr: They from the Delta.

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MJ: Um, yeah. Right. Um,

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Your dad and RL, they, for the most part,

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with the exception of RL with little
time in Chicago State and Mississippi,

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why do you think they stayed when others left?

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DKJr: Well, see, because the ones that left from here, 
like you said,

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they didn't leave from here in North Mississippi. 
They left from the Delta.

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Yeah. You know, um, back in them days, 
um, cause uh, you know,

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the slavery stuff and all that, uh, you know,

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racial stuff that was going on,
and they didn't want to be part of it.

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They wanted to get away,
and they felt like they was,

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they was musically inclined enough
to go and make a living at it.

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So they wanted to get away. 
Doubt, you know, like David, he left from, uh,

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in the North, went to Memphis
and um, I think that his name,

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um, gave him his style.
Uh, no, not bubbly white though.

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Oh God, Sonny boy, boy, boy.

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And he was playing the club over in Memphis, you know? 
And it's like, uh,

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he saw this kid, he, you know, 
and BB always wanted to play and stuff.

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He basically, you know,

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Sonny Boy was the talk of Memphis
back in them days. You know,

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I did some research on, 
I know about it, but, and then the family,

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he got sick one night and he said,

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I didn't have nobody else to run the club, 
do the club. So he said, yeah,

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you get that little boy right there.
I want him do, he take my place.

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They did. From there, he went on, he didn't stop. 
And so basically that's,

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you know, um, here, RL partner. I mean,

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you know,

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it was comfortable him for that, 
because it's something about this town always

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has been like the, yeah. That the people here,

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The white people here, 
wouldn't like the white people

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Off in the Delta and stuff. 
For some reason, I don't know why, man.

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It was just like, you know, uh, 
I can't really explain it. You know,

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you had to do your chores and stuff
and work in the field and stuff.

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Cause I did a little bit, I
left at 12 years old. Yeah. So,

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um, but my dad and he was always 
on a good job working, the John Deere place,

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you know, nice job, you know, 
and um, fixing tractors and doing stuff.

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And they just loved him. 
You know, he was the only black guy there. 
MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: The only black guy working there
that John Deere place.

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MJ: Yeah. Yeah. Um,

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how do you think that staying in Mississippi 
kind of made your dad's music or,

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RL's music distinctive?

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DKJr: Well, because you know what, 
the way I look at it,

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they stayed true to what it was from. 
And they represented,

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they represented where they're from.

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That's how they got known like that
because he, by them seeing him like that,

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you know what I'm saying?

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: And later on, as the years went by,

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yeah. They both had, you know,

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got their own establishment going. 
RL on this end of town, pop was on this end

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And they run into each other little clubs or something,

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Family that gets the juke joint. 
We had the house party first.

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MJ: Yeah.

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DKJr: And then, you know, 
when they started doing it,

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they had people of every color there.
Right. Yeah. I mean, everybody, you know,

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and I was like, man, what in the hell is this? 
You know, blah, blah, blah, blah,

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blah. You know? So, um, that's
what got them known because people,

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the word leaked out that is something going on here. 
You know what I'm saying?

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It's just the cats here, man. It's man,

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Named RL Burnside, one named Junior Kimbrough.

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But then you had some other ones that
was him with bad to the bone. Yeah.

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Little, uh, he didn't don't, Clyde Spike
I can't think of the dude name.

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Uh, he a little midget, 
but he was super bad. Yeah. Yeah.

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He take that guitar and jump
out across, he was bad. You know,

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he died before he got a chance to pop him.

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Somebody would record him if they
had got a chance to get to him,

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but he was dead for even come about. 
But Claudia was dead.

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Eli Green class fight? Uh, Oh,
a whole host of them. Yeah.

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That was great, man. 
I'm telling just the greatest popping song,

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probably better.

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Eli Green with something like
somebody that you would say like a

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Robert Johnson type person, you know,

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and Claudia was like, you would
say somebody like, uh, um,

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he sounded, he sounded to me like
somebody like Fred McDowell. Yeah.

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Yeah.

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MJ: But I mean, again, like all those guys stayed 
as opposed to, to go up North.

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I mean,

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obviously there must've been a sense
that they could have made more money up

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North. So was that, was that
just not as, as much of an issue?

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DKJr: No. Not to them live cats. 
See what them cats did. I watched them.

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I was five years old, six when I got,
six **when I went to state.** Yeah. I, five years old,

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followed them guys from house to house
and them guys was enjoying themselves.

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They did that from their heart. They wouldn't,

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they wouldn't think about no money. 
I tell you straight up.

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They wasn't thinking about it. 
They did from the heart man, because it was like,

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you know, cause I go out now,
see, at that young age,

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I was still thinking about, get me a dollar,

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something so I can go buy me some **now
ladies** and stuff makes me some money.

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You know what I'm saying? 
I wasn't thinking about what was going on. And so, uh,

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uh, them guy, they, uh,

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From what I saw,
they was enjoying themselves so much

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they'd get them a big jug of 
Moon White Lightning, call

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em whiskey we call them. Moonshine
Of White Lightning call whatever you want to call em.

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And uh, they'll give them five or $10,

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a gas money to come to a house party.
Yeah. It'd be so many folk you can't see.

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And they just enjoyed that. They enjoyed.
And they worked every day. They know,

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they felt like the little 40,
$50 they make a week, you know,

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they were doing good.

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And then the defendant said
they didn't want to go nowhere.

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They wanted to stay right here represent.

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MJ: Um, so I mean,

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would you call a Northern Mississippi
kind of isolated from the rest of

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Mississippi and from kind of the
rest of the counties? Yeah. I mean,

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DKJr: I that's what I'm saying, man. You know what? 
I'm going to be honest with you.

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You know, house range is in a
Category of its own wherever it is. No man. Yeah.

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I mean you either part of these folk or you not, 
they would destroy you here.

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If you don't watch yourself, you ain't,

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if you ain't a part of what
they got going over here,

217
00:11:46,430 --> 00:11:49,610
you ain't going to be good.  
You going to be bad. And if you're good,

218
00:11:49,610 --> 00:11:51,620
you're going to be with them. 
If you're bad, you going to be in prison.

219
00:11:52,220 --> 00:11:55,600
That's just how it go here. 
And they just, you know, Hey, you know,

220
00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,630
it's different, man. 
They just do their own thing. You know?

221
00:11:59,260 --> 00:12:01,840
I don't know how that happened. 
Like I don't know how they let it work like it,

222
00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:02,740
but that's how I work here.

223
00:12:03,030 --> 00:12:06,450
MJ: I guess what I'm wondering, is do you think 
that that kind of isolation could

224
00:12:06,450 --> 00:12:11,450
have been a driving factor 
for why this music was so unique?

225
00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:13,530
DKJr: I do. I'm going to tell you, I really do,

226
00:12:13,530 --> 00:12:16,200
because see now you got to
understand something that see

227
00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:21,390
These folk in this town know what it needs 
just as much as anybody that's out there.

228
00:12:21,420 --> 00:12:24,300
Know what I'm saying? And they,
you know, I mean, they, they, they,

229
00:12:24,570 --> 00:12:25,400
I'm gonna tell you what they do.

230
00:12:25,590 --> 00:12:28,380
MJ: Yeah. It's one of the few places 
where there's still a black audience for the blues.

231
00:12:28,890 --> 00:12:30,960
DKJr: Yeah. Yeah. They love it. Now,

232
00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,300
if you be here Sunday to go down there
and when I go down there.

233
00:12:33,300 --> 00:12:33,720
MJ: Yeah.

234
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:35,730
DKJr: You see some different, 
you see something different.

235
00:12:36,870 --> 00:12:40,230
It's like the white
peoples in this town know

236
00:12:40,230 --> 00:12:44,250
that means just much to the blacks.
And they pushed that music by,

237
00:12:44,340 --> 00:12:47,070
I'm going to tell you what they used to do.
I was nine years old.

238
00:12:48,540 --> 00:12:51,840
**We were playing every Jewish house in town.
My daddy,**

239
00:12:52,380 --> 00:12:56,370
when I got up there and they took me 
in front of the judge, and said, David,

240
00:12:57,030 --> 00:13:01,050
you won't take a plea bargain.
You go down here. Yeah. I said,

241
00:13:01,470 --> 00:13:03,920
I'm not taking no plea bargain cause
I ain't did nothing.

242
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:05,280
MJ: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

243
00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,380
DKJr: So he said, this was the DA.

244
00:13:09,380 --> 00:13:09,990
MJ: Yeah.

245
00:13:09,990 --> 00:13:10,500
DKJr: All right.

246
00:13:10,500 --> 00:13:10,900
MJ: Yeah.

247
00:13:10,900 --> 00:13:16,140
DKJr: So he said, well, you need to go talk to the judge,

248
00:13:16,140 --> 00:13:19,950
walk in, the judge sees me. 
He just turned red in the face. He like,

249
00:13:20,970 --> 00:13:22,800
he ain't thinking about that stuff. 
Cause he knew it.

250
00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:27,240
**One of those set up at Jay said to
me, he knew, he said, Judge Lackey.**

251
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,720
I love him too. The day I die. He said,

252
00:13:31,740 --> 00:13:36,390
and the sheriff had Kenny Dixon.
I love them too til the day I die.

253
00:13:37,020 --> 00:13:39,090
He said, David,

254
00:13:40,170 --> 00:13:42,690
you're the spitting image of your dad. Yeah.

255
00:13:42,810 --> 00:13:45,810
I'm up here trying to see what they
talking about about this stuff. I did.

256
00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:48,690
I said, yeah. I said, he said,
sit down, let me tell you, something.

257
00:13:50,790 --> 00:13:51,620
He said,

258
00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:56,840
what's going on here in this time
is that these people is trying to send you

259
00:13:57,060 --> 00:14:00,030
away for a long, long time. He said,

260
00:14:00,210 --> 00:14:04,320
and I'm not saying you did nothing. 
He said, cause far as I'm concerned,

261
00:14:04,590 --> 00:14:08,550
I don't see nothing here to say you did nothing.
But they said, he said,

262
00:14:08,580 --> 00:14:12,020
I listened to, did he say, 
I want you to listen to me. He said,

263
00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:14,970
I ain't got nothing against you. 
He said, your daddy

264
00:14:15,660 --> 00:14:20,070
He used to play at my daddy's house.
When I was a little boy, all the time.

265
00:14:20,130 --> 00:14:22,090
MJ: And this judge is white, right?

266
00:14:22,090 --> 00:14:23,020
DKJr: Judge Lackey.

267
00:14:23,020 --> 00:14:24,090
MJ: He's white, right?

268
00:14:24,090 --> 00:14:28,320
DKJr: Yeah. He said, and I ain't got
nothing against you. He said,

269
00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:30,480
but I'm going to tell you what
I want you to do. Do it for me.

270
00:14:30,930 --> 00:14:33,720
It was the judge told me, he said,

271
00:14:33,750 --> 00:14:38,750
if it's any way possible that you can
leave in a day and go home and eat **ham

272
00:14:39,210 --> 00:14:42,810
Hawks. And pixie with your cheer, like
I'm fixing to do.** He said, you do that.

273
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:44,400
He said, because here's the deal.

274
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,730
If you go out there before
the, the, the jury right there.

275
00:14:47,970 --> 00:14:52,760
And they find you guilty, not saying you guilty, 
but if they find you guilty,

276
00:14:53,060 --> 00:14:57,170
he said, I'll have no choice whatsoever. 
But to, but to, uh,

277
00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:02,920
to give you the maximum of that sentence
and that sentence carries 25 years to life.

278
00:15:04,180 --> 00:15:08,690
And I said, each time you talk about that,

279
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,050
then went out in the hall. 
He said, we, I didn't that, that Judge Lackey,

280
00:15:12,410 --> 00:15:16,970
I don't care what y'all do. Yeah. 
He said, I'm going to get my $5,000.

281
00:15:16,970 --> 00:15:20,600
Regardless what y'all do. I ain't in it. 
The judge told him I ain't it.

282
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:21,260
MJ: Yeah.

283
00:15:21,260 --> 00:15:22,680
DKJr: They were making, so my lawyers come in,

284
00:15:22,710 --> 00:15:27,710
I had two lawyers out of Oxford, 
Davis Maynard and Dave Hill. Dave come and

285
00:15:28,190 --> 00:15:32,510
say, David, I can beat this case. 
You ain't did nothing. He sat in this. Yeah.

286
00:15:32,780 --> 00:15:36,440
I know. I said, I'm just tired, man. 
Sometimes that shit,

287
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,040
He said Dave, come here. Yeah. 
Kenny Dixon, sheriff here.

288
00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,010
He said, you better take that year house arrest.
Yeah. He said,

289
00:15:46,010 --> 00:15:48,810
cause you go into, in front of the jury, 
you said they gonna find you guilty.

290
00:15:49,100 --> 00:15:50,960
I'm telling you what I know. 
And then he said,

291
00:15:51,230 --> 00:15:54,530
your whole career is going to be over with.
He said,

292
00:15:54,530 --> 00:15:55,910
you just listen to what I said. He said,

293
00:15:55,910 --> 00:15:59,390
you could stay at home a year,
That ain't gonna hurt you. He said, just take it.

294
00:15:59,390 --> 00:16:04,190
Ain't nothing. It ain't nothing.
I said, man, I can't say I'm guilty.

295
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:08,990
He said, listen, this. He said,
well, we played wolf versus fox

296
00:16:09,180 --> 00:16:11,420
And that, you know, you didn't
want to go out there. You know?

297
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:13,880
So the jury go considering
the fact of how, you know,

298
00:16:14,750 --> 00:16:17,930
it could destroy me if they did
Find me guilty cause it ain't my first time.

299
00:16:19,770 --> 00:16:22,910
So that's how that worked.
Yeah. So I would, I,

300
00:16:22,910 --> 00:16:27,320
I went home and asked the judge 
and everybody went to the house on house arrest,

301
00:16:27,350 --> 00:16:29,720
not knowing what house arrest was,
thinking I was still free.

302
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,230
And some asshole came along
and said, well, we know it

303
00:16:34,230 --> 00:16:36,380
Ain't gonna be to make us, you don't
know what it is, his first move he makes,

304
00:16:36,380 --> 00:16:39,290
we're going to throw him away. 
And everybody has to make 15,

305
00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:44,300
16 major mistakes. 
They let them back out. Come right away.

306
00:16:44,530 --> 00:16:48,940
MJ: Yeah. Well, I mean, so I mean
with that kind of story in mind,

307
00:16:48,940 --> 00:16:50,980
I guess one thing I'm curious about is, uh,

308
00:16:51,910 --> 00:16:54,790
how do you think that life here
was easier than it would have been,

309
00:16:54,790 --> 00:16:56,050
had you grown up in the Delta?

310
00:16:57,070 --> 00:17:01,030
DKJr: Uh, basically I'm thinking of
**[inaudible]** I had grown up in debt.

311
00:17:01,060 --> 00:17:02,900
I think I would have made it.

312
00:17:02,900 --> 00:17:03,370
MJ: You wouldn't have?

313
00:17:03,370 --> 00:17:05,650
DKJr: I would have, I think I would have,

314
00:17:05,650 --> 00:17:06,480
I just,

315
00:17:06,700 --> 00:17:10,780
MJ: Well, let's say for the average African-American, 
I mean, you said the life was,

316
00:17:10,780 --> 00:17:12,610
is harder than the Delta, how so?

317
00:17:12,910 --> 00:17:17,440
DKJr: Well, uh, I, well now I didn't mean it
was hard in the Delta. I mean, it's like,

318
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,530
uh, when I was saying that, that the,
you know, the music was different,

319
00:17:20,650 --> 00:17:23,530
you know, but no, the life
In the Delta, I mean,

320
00:17:23,530 --> 00:17:26,980
probably they had me on some type of, uh, uh,

321
00:17:27,090 --> 00:17:30,760
control where I would have really
actually did right. In the Delta,

322
00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:33,490
because it's like, uh, it was right there.

323
00:17:33,490 --> 00:17:36,490
It's right there where Parchman 
the prison and everything. And you know,

324
00:17:36,490 --> 00:17:39,220
you know, you get down there
and down there, you know,

325
00:17:39,220 --> 00:17:43,300
if you would've been working,
you know, Hey, it was, you know,

326
00:17:43,330 --> 00:17:44,680
you had a chance down there, you know?
To be a good boy.

327
00:17:45,580 --> 00:17:50,370
MJ: Yeah. So you don't think the life there
is harder if you were, for the average

328
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:52,190
African-American than it is here?

329
00:17:52,190 --> 00:17:53,570
DKJr: Now, these days?

330
00:17:53,570 --> 00:17:55,820
MJ: Now, or when you were growing up, whatever.

331
00:17:55,820 --> 00:17:58,010
DKJr: When I was born, I knew it was rough, I know,

332
00:17:58,820 --> 00:18:03,470
But now, these days **[inaudible]** nobody,
they don't care about nothing.

333
00:18:03,470 --> 00:18:06,350
Nobody don't care about nothing. 
White or black, they don't care about nothing.

334
00:18:06,950 --> 00:18:11,900
And they just, the devil caused them
as cynics. Just like, you know, shit,

335
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,700
I'm going to Chicago. Yeah. 
They said, it's just so you know,

336
00:18:17,150 --> 00:18:18,020
it's the meantime.

337
00:18:18,890 --> 00:18:23,210
MJ: Um, so, uh, I wonder if you 
could tell me a little bit about, uh,

338
00:18:23,420 --> 00:18:27,460
just growing up and going to juke joints,
what was it like? Uh, you know, what,

339
00:18:27,460 --> 00:18:29,810
what kind of stuff happened
in those juke joints?

340
00:18:33,890 --> 00:18:38,570
DKJr: You know, um, now when I,

341
00:18:38,660 --> 00:18:40,130
when I started playing the club,

342
00:18:40,550 --> 00:18:43,250
one thing I call it a club
and juke joint different. Yeah.

343
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:47,150
But not in the club scene. 
It was just, you know, just one big old party,

344
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:52,180
you know, and you know, this and that
and a lot of drugs and this blah, blah,

345
00:18:52,180 --> 00:18:54,980
blah, but now the juke joints
on the other hand, different yeah.

346
00:18:55,460 --> 00:19:00,140
Because you going to juke joint, 
you ain't pay nothing to go into the juke joint.

347
00:19:00,740 --> 00:19:04,670
You just go in there, everybody's crowded
and you're going to be packed out.

348
00:19:04,670 --> 00:19:04,860
You know,

349
00:19:04,860 --> 00:19:07,700
people get off of work and want to come
out and dance and didn't hit the blue

350
00:19:08,150 --> 00:19:10,250
and I be there. And if you go in there,

351
00:19:10,550 --> 00:19:15,350
they let him in free and **they bind the
fish place and being home boom whiskey.**

352
00:19:15,710 --> 00:19:18,440
That was the different in the club
we played with, meet me, Duwayne,

353
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,990
can't stop playing. 
They was charging them, you know,

354
00:19:21,020 --> 00:19:25,040
briefly they was charging 
when my dad was playing in the end of it. Yeah.

355
00:19:25,130 --> 00:19:27,630
The juke joints, what I call the juke joints

356
00:19:27,630 --> 00:19:31,790
It was like a house party
and you know, uh, uh,

357
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,050
they called row houses and stuff, blues houses, you know,

358
00:19:35,050 --> 00:19:38,900
where the people, like a house full of folk 
that he playing right here that just,

359
00:19:39,050 --> 00:19:42,930
you know, **move out of friendship.**
And the first, only juke joint,

360
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:47,060
the first juke joint was the place 
that my dad had had before he got to play was

361
00:19:47,060 --> 00:19:51,770
Red Refers.
That's where I met Duwayne at, way back, you know,

362
00:19:51,770 --> 00:19:54,290
and some of that 30 years ago. And, uh,

363
00:19:56,300 --> 00:20:00,020
it was, uh, trying to become **modern**.
They were trying to, you know,

364
00:20:00,020 --> 00:20:04,310
do charge $5 at the door and stuff. And,

365
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,450
you know, they was trying to come out
to juke joints, spirit, I think. Yeah.

366
00:20:08,750 --> 00:20:11,990
But then after that, you know, 
the guy lost the place. And then, like I said,

367
00:20:11,990 --> 00:20:16,130
I was incarcerated when I come back. 
Yeah. But dad had the place, so.

368
00:20:17,330 --> 00:20:19,880
MJ: Well, I mean, what, what kind of stuff happened inside? 
What would people be doing?

369
00:20:20,870 --> 00:20:25,250
DKJr: They just be in there just 
drinking and dancing and just kicking jokes

370
00:20:25,250 --> 00:20:28,640
And just having fun, you know? 
And just, it just,

371
00:20:28,910 --> 00:20:33,230
they definitely was into the music.
They was into that every song. Yeah.

372
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:34,370
MJ: Yeah.

373
00:20:34,370 --> 00:20:34,970
I mean,

374
00:20:34,970 --> 00:20:38,990
so the Hill country has a much stronger tradition 
of juke joints than do a lot

375
00:20:38,990 --> 00:20:40,100
of area, other areas.

376
00:20:40,340 --> 00:20:44,240
How do you think that shaped the music
and just the close proximity of everyone

377
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,740
in this place, you know,
and having this every week?

378
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:53,470
DKJr: Um, well, you know, I really,
you know, like I say, you know,

379
00:20:53,530 --> 00:20:56,470
uh, here I can speak about here is like, uh,

380
00:20:57,220 --> 00:21:00,160
this is all of that they had.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

381
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,590
My daddy was the first music here, you know,

382
00:21:02,850 --> 00:21:06,680
that really captivated the people
that lock them in, you know, and they,

383
00:21:07,060 --> 00:21:09,730
they come, this is all they had
and what they did, they came,

384
00:21:09,730 --> 00:21:13,740
they appreciated it and they stayed
there to help mold it. You know, they,

385
00:21:13,740 --> 00:21:17,620
they was there every, every
Friday, Saturday, Sunday night,

386
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,800
they was there to help mold this music 
and to help, you know,

387
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,950
outside and understand how to,
how to utilize, how to dance to,

388
00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:27,130
and how to act with it, you know, how to holler to it. 
You don't to, you know, stuff like that.

389
00:21:27,130 --> 00:21:30,940
You know, they was, they was a big part
of that too there.

390
00:21:31,650 --> 00:21:32,480
MJ: Yeah. Um,

391
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:37,560
so why do you think it took Northern Mississippi blues 
so long to catch on?

392
00:21:38,100 --> 00:21:42,720
Because I mean, you know, Muddy Waters
and that kind of Delta blues was,

393
00:21:42,750 --> 00:21:47,100
or Chicago blues was basically dead by the seventies. Um,

394
00:21:47,130 --> 00:21:52,130
and yet your father's blues and RL's blues 
didn't catch on really with a wide

395
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,600
audience until the nineties.
Why, why do you think that was?

396
00:21:55,110 --> 00:21:57,990
DKJr: No, because, uh, uh,
people didn't understand it.

397
00:21:58,140 --> 00:22:02,010
They didn't understand that 
at the time they didn't understand it. Uh,

398
00:22:02,310 --> 00:22:07,260
I I'm saying they didn't understand
it on the script of, uh, mainstream.

399
00:22:07,710 --> 00:22:11,610
You know what I'm saying? It was, 
it was, it was, it wasn't recognized, uh,

400
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:15,480
because, uh, there was nobody to promote it and, uh,

401
00:22:16,380 --> 00:22:18,090
they didn't understand it, it, it, it, it,

402
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:21,450
they didn't have nobody to help them understand 
what was going on here, you know?

403
00:22:21,510 --> 00:22:25,830
And it's like, I, I discovered
it years and years ago. And when that,

404
00:22:25,890 --> 00:22:30,420
like I was telling you earlier, I was,
um, my intention was to come back here.

405
00:22:30,690 --> 00:22:33,390
When I was in Chicago with
the staple singers, musician,

406
00:22:33,660 --> 00:22:34,830
I told them all about my dad.

407
00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:37,890
They was willing to come back here 
and record my dad. Yeah.

408
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:39,690
But I got under the influence.

409
00:22:39,690 --> 00:22:43,620
I came back and went off the deep edge 
and lost my interest in it.

410
00:22:44,140 --> 00:22:47,430
And my dad called me and told me that, uh,

411
00:22:48,450 --> 00:22:52,350
he was on his way to Tokyo. 
They said he had a number one hit in Tokyo,

412
00:22:52,860 --> 00:22:56,310
"Hands off that girl." 
No. I said, what is it? You know,

413
00:22:56,370 --> 00:22:58,500
This is way back in the eighties. Yeah.

414
00:22:59,490 --> 00:23:03,480
MJ: Well, I mean, uh, so you mentioned that, 
uh, you know, it, it just,

415
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:07,020
it wasn't recognized. 
It wasn't, it wasn't appreciated by, I guess, the record companies.

416
00:23:07,410 --> 00:23:08,490
Why do you think that is?

417
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:13,320
DKJr: Because the music was dirty. It was dirty.
Yeah. It was out, it was out of tune.

418
00:23:13,380 --> 00:23:15,180
It was out of key. Out of tune. Yeah.

419
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:19,590
And there is right now a so
superb and unique standard.

420
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,040
They couldn't fix themselves to believe
that this, it could be anything. Yeah.

421
00:23:23,220 --> 00:23:26,310
You know what I'm saying?
Um, because you know,

422
00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:30,300
you got a lot of screaming
[singing], you might have

423
00:23:31,890 --> 00:23:36,330
somebody going [singing]
change over him. They don't,

424
00:23:36,350 --> 00:23:41,340
[singing]
It wasn't clean in no kind of way.

425
00:23:41,340 --> 00:23:44,150
It was just total out getting him, you know?

426
00:23:44,150 --> 00:23:46,070
MJ: Well, I mean, and

427
00:23:46,070 --> 00:23:50,450
When I think about songs like, uh,
"You Better Run" or "Snake Drive" for RL.

428
00:23:50,450 --> 00:23:55,130
I mean, I obviously it's got that 
really bold sound, bold imagery, bold lyrics. Uh,

429
00:23:56,630 --> 00:24:01,160
why do you think it had such
that kind of boldness to it?

430
00:24:01,340 --> 00:24:04,640
Because, I mean, again,
other types of blues just didn't, I mean,

431
00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:09,480
Muddy Waters could have never gotten away 
with making a song like "You Better Run".

432
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:10,940
DKJr: No, he couldn't have did that.

433
00:24:10,940 --> 00:24:12,050
MJ: So how,

434
00:24:12,050 --> 00:24:16,280
how is it that the Hill country developed
this tremendously bold in your face sound?

435
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:17,210
DKJr: Well,

436
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,380
You know, like then again, you know,
like I was saying earlier, you know,

437
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:24,280
these cats, um, this is what they did,
they're live, you know what I'm saying?

438
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:25,110
They, they, they,

439
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:30,480
they themselves made this sound massive
themselves by playing it for 30 years of

440
00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:35,710
The same stuff. And it got it, you know,
late on the years, I'm, I'm saying,

441
00:24:35,710 --> 00:24:38,740
you know, uh, 
because "You Better Run" came out.

442
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:42,810
And when he didn't come out, when, uh, uh,

443
00:24:42,970 --> 00:24:47,140
old man and meet me in the city,
you know, stuff like that. But, uh,

444
00:24:47,620 --> 00:24:49,810
and "Snake Drive" 
and all that stuff that RL done,

445
00:24:49,810 --> 00:24:52,270
and they was just basically,
like I say, you know,

446
00:24:52,270 --> 00:24:54,070
working on this stuff 
for years and years and years,

447
00:24:54,070 --> 00:24:58,900
and all of a sudden 
when it did gain recognition, it was big. Right.

448
00:24:59,050 --> 00:25:03,610
You know, cause it was totally different.
Everybody will burn out on Wolf and,

449
00:25:04,010 --> 00:25:08,260
uh, uh, Mr. Waters and all them came, you know?

450
00:25:08,710 --> 00:25:12,130
Uh, and then the one that been going on,

451
00:25:12,370 --> 00:25:16,870
we just young kids, rock kids are picking
it up and making rock songs and stuff.

452
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:17,690
And this,

453
00:25:17,690 --> 00:25:21,790
it was just totally different to everybody.
That made it bigger than the rest of it.

454
00:25:21,790 --> 00:25:26,170
That's what made it so bold. 
And it had the sound because of them, uh,

455
00:25:26,170 --> 00:25:30,100
years and years and years of rehearsing
and practicing and playing the house

456
00:25:30,100 --> 00:25:32,320
parties and stuff. When it finally hit...

457
00:25:33,910 --> 00:25:37,690
MJ: Well, I mean, along those lines, 
do you think it needed punk music? I mean,

458
00:25:37,690 --> 00:25:42,690
cause Fat Possum, Epitaph, 
that paired your dad's music and more,

459
00:25:43,450 --> 00:25:46,000
more so RL's music with punk bands.

460
00:25:46,630 --> 00:25:51,630
Do you think that that the Hill country blues 
needed punk rock to become popular?

461
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:58,200
DKJr: Uh, no, not really, 
but I can tell you one thing, it,

462
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,580
it did help out a lot.
It helped that

463
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:07,560
they didn't need it,
even though it was, uh,

464
00:26:07,690 --> 00:26:11,920
but you know, but for them kids 
to get out there and play that music last night,

465
00:26:12,460 --> 00:26:16,330
That let the world knew. 
Know right then and there that they was some special.

466
00:26:17,110 --> 00:26:22,110
That's why the mainstream audience 
and producers and record labels came forward.

467
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,110
They were like the kids playing and stuff. 
You know, for instance,

468
00:26:26,110 --> 00:26:30,490
like there's one group that kids 
I called Cubic Old Mens,

469
00:26:30,490 --> 00:26:32,710
I guess, the Black Keys.

470
00:26:34,660 --> 00:26:37,480
I never knew him. 
Don't know if this is very bad.

471
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,080
I just know the music,
and I listened to it on YouTube. Uh,

472
00:26:42,430 --> 00:26:45,870
what they, with that music. Yeah.

473
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,020
It was a good thing for me. 
You know what I'm saying? I mean,

474
00:26:49,020 --> 00:26:53,100
cause the kids were like, 
Oh man,

475
00:26:53,430 --> 00:26:57,990
yo one kid come and told me,
Cause it ain't been long ago I loved there.

476
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,940
Yeah, man, you got to hear
these kids, man. That's it?

477
00:27:04,530 --> 00:27:07,050
He said, man, I don't know what this stuff 
they playing, man.

478
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:11,640
This shit is bad ass. Yeah.
It was my daddy. That be it.

479
00:27:13,130 --> 00:27:17,720
MJ: They did an EP of your dad's covers.
The Black Keys did an EP.

480
00:27:18,830 --> 00:27:22,910
DKJr: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said, 
Oh, who is it?

481
00:27:24,980 --> 00:27:28,940
He said the Black Keys. Yeah.
I said the Black Keys.

482
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,960
The dude didn't know who I was. 
I said, Oh, I said,

483
00:27:32,990 --> 00:27:35,270
Them boys there, they're bad.

484
00:27:35,810 --> 00:27:40,760
I knew them cause every song they sing 
on that TV is my daddy's song. So he said,

485
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,150
your dad who's your dad?
They didn't even know him. See,

486
00:27:44,150 --> 00:27:46,670
they knew the Black Keys.
Yeah. That's, see, so that's,

487
00:27:46,670 --> 00:27:50,240
that's what I'm talking about.
Mainstreaming them cats

488
00:27:50,270 --> 00:27:54,230
Took it to another level 
with the audience now because they had something to

489
00:27:54,230 --> 00:27:55,060
work with, see?

490
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,410
MJ: Well, I guess I'm gonna **convince** 
Something to you.

491
00:27:57,410 --> 00:28:00,500
I probably wouldn't have heard 
your dad's music had it not been for the Black Keys.

492
00:28:00,500 --> 00:28:01,310
DKJr: That's what I'm saying.

493
00:28:01,310 --> 00:28:05,180
MJ: Um, but uh, so I guess along those lines,

494
00:28:05,180 --> 00:28:09,800
the question that I have there is, 
uh, so I mean those groups,

495
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:10,820
like the Black Keys,

496
00:28:10,820 --> 00:28:14,990
you can also talk about a group 
like the North Mississippi All-Stars, you know,

497
00:28:15,050 --> 00:28:18,440
usually, uh, in those,
both of those cases, uh,

498
00:28:18,470 --> 00:28:20,690
they are white musicians, white artists.

499
00:28:20,690 --> 00:28:22,700
DKJr: There's a difference though.

500
00:28:22,940 --> 00:28:27,940
MJ: Right. Who take, are influenced by your father's music 
or R.L.'s music and tend to

501
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:31,910
make a lot more money than your father or RL.

502
00:28:33,860 --> 00:28:38,240
So that's a negative obviously, but uh, but the,

503
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:39,440
on the positive side,

504
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:44,060
it gets people like me to learn 
about your dad's music.

505
00:28:44,450 --> 00:28:48,770
So do you think that there's more negative
than positive or more positive than negative?

506
00:28:49,250 --> 00:28:53,030
DKJr: I think it's more positive than negative, 
you know, because it's like, uh, you know,

507
00:28:53,090 --> 00:28:57,200
uh, I'm going to tell you why. Yeah. See, uh,

508
00:28:57,710 --> 00:29:02,630
it's not just owning pop and RL.
It's the, it's the songs too.

509
00:29:02,810 --> 00:29:05,150
That got the same talent.

510
00:29:05,450 --> 00:29:07,850
That pop and RL got.

511
00:29:07,850 --> 00:29:11,060
Actually, they're playing this stuff and backing them up
and making them sound just like they

512
00:29:11,060 --> 00:29:12,320
were sounding as well. Yeah.

513
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:17,420
So you got several different
levels of kids that play, you know,

514
00:29:17,420 --> 00:29:21,410
from their young, like in their pram, like me. 
They got,

515
00:29:21,830 --> 00:29:25,790
Kids now 60 years old. 
They played with them when they were, you know, like,

516
00:29:25,820 --> 00:29:30,170
uh, you know, 18, 19, 20 years old. 
That was your hand.

517
00:29:30,170 --> 00:29:34,820
And RL had this sound machine.
It was all his sons. Yeah.

518
00:29:35,390 --> 00:29:39,530
My dad had had me, Joelle, all of them. 
That was his sound.

519
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,630
Then later mix it can get,
you know, like that. Okay.

520
00:29:43,630 --> 00:29:47,980
So it's not just only them that's broke.
They say, yeah.

521
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:51,460
Now I feel like we shouldn't be broken. Yeah. You know,

522
00:29:51,670 --> 00:29:56,530
now I'm gonna tell you people 
like Bono, U2,

523
00:29:57,550 --> 00:30:01,390
Uh, you got people like
Widespread Panic. Yeah. Uh,

524
00:30:02,020 --> 00:30:06,850
People like, um,
I'm calling names in a good way. Not in a bad way.

525
00:30:06,850 --> 00:30:07,650
I'm not putting nobody down.

526
00:30:07,650 --> 00:30:08,330
MJ: Iggy Pop.

527
00:30:08,330 --> 00:30:09,340
DKJr: Iggy Pop.

528
00:30:09,340 --> 00:30:12,970
But before my dad died,
15 shows, he did with him and it,

529
00:30:12,970 --> 00:30:16,720
**golden stone goes on buddy **
It goes on and on.

530
00:30:16,750 --> 00:30:19,120
He did a tribute to my daddy called "Sweet Tea."

531
00:30:19,630 --> 00:30:24,460
It was a tribute to Junior Kimbrough 
for him to come here and look over me and Kent

532
00:30:24,460 --> 00:30:27,400
and him and all of us and not even
paying any attention to us,

533
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,600
just fouled us. You know, that was foul. 
You know what I'm saying?

534
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,560
How can you set up and do this music?
First of all, not unless you just,

535
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,350
just frankly, didn't give a shit about it. You know,

536
00:30:38,350 --> 00:30:40,060
just going to do something
just for the money,

537
00:30:40,390 --> 00:30:44,560
but you've come right in our hometown
and claimed to do a tribute to our dad

538
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,830
And didn't even notice his children 
right here in the town. That wasn't cool.

539
00:30:48,580 --> 00:30:52,240
You know what I'm saying? 
And after having said that one, cool. But I love Mr.

540
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,150
God, Bob, my heart.
But the thing is it's like,

541
00:30:55,780 --> 00:31:00,670
we still broke. 
Now if I go out there and I do,

542
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,590
"You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog"
By Elvis Presley.

543
00:31:05,740 --> 00:31:08,560
And get super big off it,
where at some point in time,

544
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,440
I want to see Lisa Marie.
I want to give her something.

545
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,440
I'm going to give her if she ain't out there. 
What I'm saying as a star. Yeah.

546
00:31:14,830 --> 00:31:17,170
I want to present her. Yeah.

547
00:31:18,070 --> 00:31:22,570
But it seemed like to me that
there is some type of intimidation,

548
00:31:23,230 --> 00:31:27,940
this keeping the cats 
from presenting us for some reason,

549
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:32,370
you know what I'm saying? It shouldn't be.
I think there'd be another elevation form.

550
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,370
They said, Hey, look man, 
Tonight. Guess what, dude,

551
00:31:36,300 --> 00:31:40,230
we got Junior Kimbrough's boys in the house.
The man that we love so much.

552
00:31:40,230 --> 00:31:42,960
We went out there and did this and
y'all got to check them out tonight.

553
00:31:43,170 --> 00:31:46,020
Y'all got to love these
Junior Kimbrough's son. In fact,

554
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,620
you got his son, David Kimbrough Jr.,

555
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,630
Kenny Kimbrough and Robert Kimbrough 
put your heads together and they know we're gonna rock.

556
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:59,130
See, uh, ladies and gentlemen tonight. Well, you know,

557
00:31:59,130 --> 00:32:01,110
they didn't present the Burnsides many times.

558
00:32:01,110 --> 00:32:04,330
I don't know what happened with that deal, 
but we never get presented.

559
00:32:04,330 --> 00:32:05,970
MJ: Who presented the Burnsides?

560
00:32:05,970 --> 00:32:09,510
DKJr: The All Stars, Dave Matthews,

561
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,710
a whole lot of them, they had many breaks
with out there, man, you know,

562
00:32:14,390 --> 00:32:15,820
The Kimbroughs never had a break out there.

563
00:32:15,820 --> 00:32:17,420
MJ: Why do you think that is?

564
00:32:17,420 --> 00:32:23,790
DKJr: I think I, you know what? I think, I think that,
uh, here's the deal, man. You know, uh,

565
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,970
you got to consider, you know, my, uh,
background, you got to consider my,

566
00:32:27,990 --> 00:32:29,940
my level of talent too. You know,

567
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:34,590
people could be intimidated about 
a lot of different things, you know? And I,

568
00:32:34,590 --> 00:32:39,030
I don't blame them. Be intimidated, 
but be intimidated in a good way. No, that,

569
00:32:39,110 --> 00:32:43,040
uh, uh, like this cat, you know, hit
me on, on faith, but he didn't hit me,

570
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:47,990
hit somebody and I read it. 
He said the Black Keys, David Kimbrough Jr. and the Black Keys,

571
00:32:47,990 --> 00:32:52,520
should do something together.
The world know this Black Keys.

572
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,430
Don't give a damn they making money. 
They don't care about that.

573
00:32:55,550 --> 00:32:58,850
You know what I'm saying?
So this is my main point.

574
00:32:59,330 --> 00:33:01,610
Now I want you to hear what I'm saying. 
Cause I'm not negative.

575
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,720
I appreciate the Black Keys that I put in this. 
A young girl come out.

576
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:10,100
She will start undercover style, 
The Heartless Bastards.

577
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,210
You ever heard of them?
The Heartless Bastards. Yeah.

578
00:33:14,870 --> 00:33:18,680
I'm on my computer researching all over this world
for everything I could find

579
00:33:18,710 --> 00:33:22,910
pertaining to us. 
**The fan that you damn ran across the scare. Yep.**

580
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,730
You need to write her name down.
Look at it. This girl or something.

581
00:33:25,940 --> 00:33:29,870
She from David Letterman
saying, you know, uh, she wasn't saying old man,

582
00:33:30,110 --> 00:33:34,010
but she did "Old Man". 
By my father Junior Kimbrough.

583
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:39,860
And I'm willing to bet you 
that if this girl, you gain or

584
00:33:40,130 --> 00:33:42,770
uh, received any knowledge
of the fact of who we are.

585
00:33:42,770 --> 00:33:44,510
I bet she didn't want
to come forward. Yeah.

586
00:33:45,020 --> 00:33:48,740
Now I can't see why the Black Keys and
I can, because through Fat Possum

587
00:33:48,740 --> 00:33:49,490
they hated our guts.

588
00:33:49,490 --> 00:33:52,330
MJ: Well they're not with Fat Possum anymore.

589
00:33:52,330 --> 00:33:53,540
DKJr: Not no more. Yeah.

590
00:33:53,540 --> 00:33:57,200
But they was. Yeah. Okay. 
And I never met him. No, know him or nothing.

591
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,110
I seen him on TV, you know, YouTube. But uh,

592
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:04,610
she said I done got old.
The Heartless Bastards.

593
00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:08,540
And she gets, got a group going dude then,

594
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,570
then, then, then, then, then, then,

595
00:34:13,210 --> 00:34:17,380
but it's so bad ass dude.
Yeah. I didn't if I said,

596
00:34:17,380 --> 00:34:21,760
what is she doing? Yeah.
Where's she coming from?

597
00:34:23,140 --> 00:34:26,500
Clicked on another video. 
She's on Dave Letterman. Undercover styles.

598
00:34:26,500 --> 00:34:27,820
I call them ghost stops.

599
00:34:27,820 --> 00:34:28,400
MJ: What's her name?

600
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:32,050
DKJr: It's the Heartless Bastards.

601
00:34:32,050 --> 00:34:36,820
It's a female singer I found 
with a bass player and a drummer and she bad ass.

602
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:40,630
She bad ass. And I'm not doing no contact,

603
00:34:41,290 --> 00:34:45,280
You know why I ain't contact nobody,
won't talk to nobody. I don't talk to people.

604
00:34:45,940 --> 00:34:50,470
I don't know how I did this. 
I did this because I felt like, Hey, this cat,

605
00:34:50,710 --> 00:34:53,860
they come down and talking to everybody. 
I'm going to go hit on time.

606
00:34:53,980 --> 00:34:56,020
I don't talk to people.
Yeah. You know why?

607
00:34:56,020 --> 00:34:59,770
Because I changed my lifestyle, and you know, 
when I was under the influence.

608
00:34:59,770 --> 00:35:01,480
I talked to you. 
If you paid me to talk to you,

609
00:35:01,780 --> 00:35:04,930
cause I got to go get my next fix.
You know what I'm saying? Type thing.

610
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:08,230
But I hold my own money. 
I do my own thing now. But listen,

611
00:35:09,850 --> 00:35:12,550
I said, it'd be a good thing. 
When you talk to this young man.

612
00:35:12,550 --> 00:35:13,300
Now, how old are you?

613
00:35:13,300 --> 00:35:14,370
MJ: I'm 19.

614
00:35:14,370 --> 00:35:15,870
DKJr: 19 years old.

615
00:35:15,870 --> 00:35:16,410
MJ: Yeah.

616
00:35:16,410 --> 00:35:16,960
DKJr: See what I'm saying,

617
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:21,100
you got so much to offer me. 
Listen. Listen.

618
00:35:21,430 --> 00:35:23,860
I'm an old man. You know how old my oldest daughter is?

619
00:35:23,860 --> 00:35:24,950
MJ: How old is she?

620
00:35:24,950 --> 00:35:26,500
DKJr: She'll be 30. Her birthday.

621
00:35:26,500 --> 00:35:30,610
Okay. Yeah. Now, I got shoot, man. Uh,

622
00:35:31,090 --> 00:35:34,840
my oldest grandchild, probably 16. 
I don't know. But anyway,

623
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,670
let me tell you this end, you know,

624
00:35:38,670 --> 00:35:41,920
I'm not gonna go out here and beg nobody for nothing, 
You know why?

625
00:35:42,570 --> 00:35:45,840
I ain't had none. 
Ain't never had nothing all my life. It don't bother me.

626
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,530
Now if they gave me a million dollars right now, today,

627
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,020
I'm going to be honest with you. 
It won't mean nothing to me. Yeah. All things.

628
00:35:54,030 --> 00:35:54,540
I mean, to me,

629
00:35:54,540 --> 00:35:58,380
it's just getting my kids a college fund
and get them ahead of themselves.

630
00:35:58,770 --> 00:36:02,430
But me, I would never enjoy it.
Never. I'm in my heart attack day.

631
00:36:03,030 --> 00:36:04,980
I never enjoyed the money. Nothing.

632
00:36:05,550 --> 00:36:09,210
I got enough money to go to the store
or send more to my girls over there and get

633
00:36:09,210 --> 00:36:12,060
some food, uh, pay a bill. I'm straight.

634
00:36:12,900 --> 00:36:14,400
You know what means the most to me?

635
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:14,850
MJ: What's that?

636
00:36:14,850 --> 00:36:18,300
DKJr: It's the crap that my father left me. 
You know my jewel,

637
00:36:18,750 --> 00:36:22,620
this is my jewelry man. 
And it ain't about money. See,

638
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,010
I can go out there, you know? 
Course I want money like everybody else,

639
00:36:26,550 --> 00:36:30,390
but I can go out there. 
Like I'm gonna go to Texas on the 31st,

640
00:36:31,170 --> 00:36:33,360
the folks down here,
I'm gonna show you that,

641
00:36:33,420 --> 00:36:35,610
that old man told me a long time ago.

642
00:36:35,790 --> 00:36:40,560
And this is a scenario that you need 
to fix it in your mind to kinda stick it in your

643
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:44,220
sub, your subconscious. 
And just think about what I'm finna tell you.

644
00:36:44,220 --> 00:36:46,670
It'd be on there. You can listen to
it whenever you're ready. Listen.

645
00:36:48,110 --> 00:36:52,700
The same people that can hurt you,
can also help you.

646
00:36:53,510 --> 00:36:56,660
Let me show you something. 
They want to grow. They went against this.

647
00:36:56,660 --> 00:36:58,220
Decast down in Texas

648
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:02,600
and you got a band called the Black Squeeze. 
You ever heard of them?

649
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:03,300
MJ:
I haven't, no.

650
00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:07,610
DKJr:
Like the Black Keys, they play all Black Keys stuff. Yeah.

651
00:37:07,610 --> 00:37:11,210
And the number one record that they're
going to play down here at this party in Texas

652
00:37:11,210 --> 00:37:15,710
is "Truly Home".

653
00:37:15,770 --> 00:37:20,330
By the Black Keys. Entirety.

654
00:37:20,570 --> 00:37:21,860
Yeah. Now,

655
00:37:22,850 --> 00:37:24,000
so the kids..

656
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:25,230
MJ: That's a cover of a cover

657
00:37:25,230 --> 00:37:27,200
DKJr: Of a cover, but not yeah,

658
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,290
they're coming over down that level.
Then check this out.

659
00:37:30,770 --> 00:37:35,480
They called well a family. 
They said, well, Hey look, we went private. Yeah.

660
00:37:35,930 --> 00:37:40,190
Hey man, I need your number to, to talk to you. 
Yeah. I said, well,

661
00:37:40,190 --> 00:37:42,890
I don't get my number out man.
Not on my website,

662
00:37:42,950 --> 00:37:47,090
None of them type of computer. No. 
You give me your number. I'll call you.

663
00:37:47,540 --> 00:37:50,870
So I call him, 
He said, man,

664
00:37:50,870 --> 00:37:54,850
even consider them blues man. 
He said we played the same thing,

665
00:37:54,900 --> 00:37:58,760
Black Kids and everybody else, like I
said, yeah, I know how that go brother.

666
00:37:58,940 --> 00:38:02,750
I said, well, listen, I know y'all
want big buck. Like they got, yeah.

667
00:38:02,870 --> 00:38:07,850
That's how I talk. I said, yeah. I said,

668
00:38:07,850 --> 00:38:10,790
but that don't mean nothing to me. 
I said the money,

669
00:38:11,030 --> 00:38:12,620
I need some money to survive.

670
00:38:13,190 --> 00:38:17,960
I said the debt don't mean nothing to me. 
When it come to this family jewel,

671
00:38:18,170 --> 00:38:21,170
you know, I appreciate everybody out
there paving and push it, keep posting it.

672
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,940
I might not enjoy my kids will down the road. 
So that he said, well,

673
00:38:26,210 --> 00:38:29,180
let me ask you a question. 
Will you come to Texas? We get you down here.

674
00:38:29,210 --> 00:38:32,330
You know, give you $500 just to come
sit down with us. They want me to,

675
00:38:32,390 --> 00:38:37,090
you know, try to market themselves.
Well, and I lived and I said, well,

676
00:38:37,930 --> 00:38:40,420
yeah, if it's something dealing with my dad, 
Do you smoke?

677
00:38:40,420 --> 00:38:41,700
MJ: No, no I'm good.


678
00:38:41,700 --> 00:38:43,540
DKJr: Good, don't never smoke.

679
00:38:43,540 --> 00:38:46,880
And so I said, Oh yeah,
my daddy. Yeah. Yeah.

680
00:38:47,140 --> 00:38:50,650
You gonna pay me to get there to get you.
Okay. And I went for that.

681
00:38:51,100 --> 00:38:53,350
It wasn't even 24 hours.

682
00:38:53,620 --> 00:38:56,530
You didn't call me back and
said the place is sold out.

683
00:38:57,190 --> 00:38:58,600
Cause they know you coming and coming.

684
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:00,430
They want to see you in your brother's place.

685
00:39:00,430 --> 00:39:02,160
MJ: Yeah.

686
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:03,600
DKJr: I said, Okay.

687
00:39:03,660 --> 00:39:05,880
So what I was like, wait a minute now.

688
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,240
and now I thought we was going to a pub,
what y'all doing?

689
00:39:09,420 --> 00:39:13,610
We want you to headline the show.
That's okay. That answered my question right there.

690
00:39:13,620 --> 00:39:17,340
**I see God working in the stairs when** 
They'll folk.

691
00:39:17,370 --> 00:39:19,170
They never want me to be seen nowhere.

692
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:22,410
I don't know why they don't want me to
be seen how to everybody let the Duwayne and them

693
00:39:22,410 --> 00:39:24,890
Be seen. I don't know. You know,

694
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:28,800
if the Black Keys want to elevate themselves, 
if they was came and said,

695
00:39:29,970 --> 00:39:33,770
Oh look, I'm going to get the Kimbrough brothers.

696
00:39:34,500 --> 00:39:37,890
It coming up. 
They'll take them to the moon.

697
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:42,390
They still going to be who they are, 
but more because they reached out to be right.

698
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,680
Like the All-Stars did to the Burnside. 
They did it. They did it.

699
00:39:46,860 --> 00:39:50,640
They went to him and got him.  
But they didn't, they didn't one didn't,

700
00:39:50,730 --> 00:39:53,790
you know, go through whatever going on. 
I don't know that. Yeah.

701
00:39:54,330 --> 00:39:57,630
MJ: So, I mean, does it bother you 
then that, uh, you know,

702
00:39:58,500 --> 00:40:02,100
it seems like these guys are more interested 
in your dad than they are in you?

703
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:06,300
DKJr: No. Uh, if they, my thing is, 
If they interested in my dad,

704
00:40:06,300 --> 00:40:10,500
they should be interested in all of us.
We are there and they'll know about it.

705
00:40:10,500 --> 00:40:12,720
I'm going to tell you this, you know,
this is another trick you need to know.

706
00:40:14,250 --> 00:40:18,420
My daddy gets a whole lot of songs
and ain't never been recorded. Right.

707
00:40:18,540 --> 00:40:20,780
And guess who, the only person in the world 
Who know them?

708
00:40:20,780 --> 00:40:21,780
MJ: That's you, you guys.

709
00:40:21,780 --> 00:40:23,820
DKJr: Yeah, that's me.

710
00:40:23,820 --> 00:40:26,040
And I tell you what 
I'm going to put an EP out.

711
00:40:26,910 --> 00:40:30,270
going to be the songs that never been heard 
by Junior Kimbrough, that belonged to

712
00:40:30,270 --> 00:40:33,390
David Kimbrough Jr. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

713
00:40:34,230 --> 00:40:38,790
All this stuff he got.
Yes. [David singing]

714
00:40:40,050 --> 00:40:44,100
Yeah, yeah. I got it. 
All right there. He taught me when I was a child.

715
00:40:45,510 --> 00:40:49,590
MJ: Um, so we talked, talked about
why R.L. and Junior stayed,

716
00:40:49,620 --> 00:40:53,010
but for the most part, 
all of their sons stayed too. I mean,

717
00:40:53,010 --> 00:40:54,630
you you're in Arkansas now,

718
00:40:54,630 --> 00:40:56,940
DKJr: Yeah, I didn't stay.

719
00:40:57,240 --> 00:40:59,880
MJ: Why do you think that that many 
of them did stay and why did you leave?

720
00:41:00,180 --> 00:41:04,950
DKJr: Well, you know, I left because I, 
you know, I had that thing in me, like,

721
00:41:04,980 --> 00:41:07,260
uh, I left here to go to Hollywood.

722
00:41:07,770 --> 00:41:12,030
I was saying high pitched voices 
in them days, R&B,

723
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:16,380
screaming, just screaming, you know,
when I was young. Yeah. And uh,

724
00:41:16,470 --> 00:41:21,330
I left here man to go to Hollywood 
to become a big, you know, stage style. Yeah.

725
00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:26,160
But I got sideswiped, you know,
but at same time Duwayne left,

726
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,930
you know, but he didn't go that far.
He went to, um, then important Memphis.

727
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:36,740
But yeah, I don't know. 
It does a lot of kids with cows, you know,

728
00:41:36,740 --> 00:41:40,160
including my brother and his
brother and Burnside and them both.

729
00:41:40,190 --> 00:41:43,020
They didn't want to go nowhere,
mama's boys. Yeah. Yeah.

730
00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:47,620
MJ: Yeah. Um,

731
00:41:48,700 --> 00:41:53,230
why do you think that
North Mississippi blues was so accessible? Uh, for,

732
00:41:53,230 --> 00:41:57,250
especially for a white audience, uh,
in the nineties, when all this other,

733
00:41:57,610 --> 00:41:59,290
all these other forms of blues were dead?

734
00:42:00,190 --> 00:42:01,750
DKJr: You know what I said?
Like I said, then again,

735
00:42:01,750 --> 00:42:06,640
it was new and it had that rocking sound
to the sound man I'm talking about,

736
00:42:07,180 --> 00:42:11,260
you know, basically believe it or not.
I never paid this music, no attention.

737
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:16,780
Uh, when I was young coming up 
because I wanted to sing

738
00:42:16,780 --> 00:42:17,920
[David Singing]

739
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,610
All that stuff. 
Cause I was young, you know what I'm saying?

740
00:42:21,970 --> 00:42:24,640
That you know, I ain't want to be sitting around 
and singing blues and stuff, you know,

741
00:42:25,060 --> 00:42:29,320
but I knew it because I come up there. 
But now here's the thing.

742
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:32,860
When I finally took notice of what was going on.

743
00:42:32,860 --> 00:42:36,160
I was laying on my rack when "All Night Long", 
come on. And then,

744
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:40,390
and then appeared in Rolling Stone
and I started paying attention then.

745
00:42:44,710 --> 00:42:49,480
And so from now, and I look, I said, 
Oh shit, here you go. Yeah.

746
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,380
I said, them kids, them white kids
will eat this shit up. And boy,

747
00:42:53,410 --> 00:42:54,240
they went to rock,

748
00:42:54,340 --> 00:42:58,580
got them and they dropped all over and
I appreciate them kids, man. I don't,

749
00:42:58,580 --> 00:43:01,210
I ain't gonna get none of them. 
I love all of them. Yeah.

750
00:43:01,420 --> 00:43:06,160
Cause they didn't just made me, 
they made me. Okay.

751
00:43:06,170 --> 00:43:09,310
Let me tell you what they did. 
They helped me. Yeah.

752
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:13,030
Because I'm the one me and the one in
the ones for the got there and represent,

753
00:43:13,660 --> 00:43:18,040
you see what I'm saying?
And uh, by us being,

754
00:43:18,430 --> 00:43:23,020
not on the program, they took it 
to another level for us. Yeah. You know?

755
00:43:23,020 --> 00:43:27,070
So now, you know, at these days we are now, 
I don't think we have to do now.

756
00:43:27,130 --> 00:43:28,930
Just clean our act up
and do what we gotta do.

757
00:43:28,930 --> 00:43:31,840
Nothing to be just as potent now as well.

758
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,540
Were pop and RL because I got
a lot of shit to offer right now.

759
00:43:34,870 --> 00:43:39,130
MJ: Yeah. Do you play differently 
for a predominantly white audience then you do

760
00:43:39,130 --> 00:43:40,540
For a predominantly black audience?

761
00:43:40,930 --> 00:43:43,780
DKJr: You know what? I'm 50 50 now.

762
00:43:43,990 --> 00:43:47,830
I played just the same as I would play white.

763
00:43:47,890 --> 00:43:51,310
But the only thing it is
where I was saying like,

764
00:43:52,090 --> 00:43:53,320
I'm going to give you a demonstration.

765
00:43:53,650 --> 00:43:57,390
Like I was saying [making noises]
and then,

766
00:43:57,390 --> 00:44:00,670
then do this for the black.
[Slightly different noises]

767
00:44:01,780 --> 00:44:05,110
Yeah. [singing]

768
00:44:05,950 --> 00:44:08,920
Right?

769
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:09,220
MJ: Yeah.

770
00:44:09,220 --> 00:44:11,200
For the whites where I go jump up and go

771
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:15,610
[making noises}

772
00:44:15,910 --> 00:44:20,590
[♩ gathered around him.

773
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:25,570
Got me high, got me running, running,

774
00:44:25,570 --> 00:44:29,470
hiding, hiding, it anywhere you want. 
Let it roll♩]

775
00:44:29,740 --> 00:44:33,810
See, I know that that's they're going to want, 
so I do it like that.

776
00:44:34,130 --> 00:44:36,680
MJ: What is it that you think black audiences
don't want to hear as much blues?

777
00:44:37,430 --> 00:44:41,720
DKJr: They, they, you know, it was still,
you know, it's the age group now.

778
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:47,030
It's like, they still want to stick to
that, that **morning** type thing. Like,

779
00:44:47,060 --> 00:44:51,110
well, you know, through the
**mortaring** way of listening to music,

780
00:44:51,110 --> 00:44:51,910
MJ: What's that?

781
00:44:51,910 --> 00:44:54,860
DKJr: like hip hop, R&B, you know,

782
00:44:54,860 --> 00:44:59,150
if you're strong enough artists 
that going in and winning them over with six

783
00:44:59,150 --> 00:45:03,080
people, like R.L. and Junior Kimbrough, from this town.
Yeah. You can win them.

784
00:45:03,290 --> 00:45:05,450
Yeah. They'll go with it. Yeah.

785
00:45:05,720 --> 00:45:10,340
But if you just jump up in there 
and sing Jimmy Reed or some stuff they ain't

786
00:45:10,340 --> 00:45:12,740
going to be like yeah. You know? Yeah.

787
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:15,680
MJ: I mean, how do you get more
young blacks to listen to blues?

788
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,610
DKJr: Well, uh, firstly, you know, it was like, uh,

789
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:22,610
you have to have a kid, 
you got to get a kid in a restaurant.

790
00:45:22,610 --> 00:45:26,450
You got to have a hook land 
For these kids round here.

791
00:45:26,450 --> 00:45:28,040
Mine was, I got the dog with me. Yeah.

792
00:45:28,130 --> 00:45:31,770
They liked that because I'm saying something 
to them is what they want to hear

793
00:45:31,770 --> 00:45:33,650
was talking about sex.
That's all they want to get.

794
00:45:34,130 --> 00:45:36,380
He is the only to get nothing else, 
but talking about sex.

795
00:45:36,770 --> 00:45:41,000
And I try not to talk about 
that kind of stuff no more. I sing about, you know,

796
00:45:41,150 --> 00:45:46,100
what's going on today.  
It's basically, you know how you get the kids,

797
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:50,450
you got to have a hook line for the blues. 
Uh, when you say all night long,

798
00:45:50,810 --> 00:45:55,430
they liked it.
When you said going down South, they liked it. You know,

799
00:45:55,790 --> 00:45:58,880
cause going, you know?
Yeah. You know, they like,

800
00:45:58,940 --> 00:46:01,960
but if you come out there and
start saying "baby, you know, I love you",

801
00:46:02,030 --> 00:46:04,820
I know they ain't going to go for that.

802
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:08,480
MJ: Um, so I mean, you know,

803
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:12,980
in the past you've described your music
as pop-notic.

804
00:46:12,980 --> 00:46:13,100
DKJr: My music?

805
00:46:13,100 --> 00:46:16,190
MJ: Yeah, your music. 
As pop-nottic. Um, and you know,

806
00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:20,420
you do incorporate elements
of R&B and soul. Um,

807
00:46:21,350 --> 00:46:24,350
do you still consider your
work to be Hill Country blues?

808
00:46:26,510 --> 00:46:31,070
DKJr: You know what? 
Um, my music was never Hill Country blues,

809
00:46:31,070 --> 00:46:34,100
Not mine. It was never. Uh,

810
00:46:34,940 --> 00:46:37,760
but now what I did as I got older yeah.

811
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:42,010
Is I had to go back to my roots.
Know what I'm saying?

812
00:46:42,010 --> 00:46:44,360
And I had to tackle yeah.

813
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:50,090
Like Cowboys against North Minnesota
or whoever football team. Yeah.

814
00:46:50,270 --> 00:46:54,680
Pittsburgh and the Cowboys
Tackle that man, you know,

815
00:46:55,100 --> 00:46:57,020
so I had to come back and tackle.

816
00:46:57,020 --> 00:47:01,820
What I know for a fact that I knew
from my heart and presented here,

817
00:47:02,180 --> 00:47:07,010
because until I did that, yeah. I don't
think I was going to be considered,

818
00:47:08,030 --> 00:47:08,860
you know what I'm saying?

819
00:47:09,110 --> 00:47:12,410
And so I went back and put in an extra
five years to get that under my belt.

820
00:47:12,410 --> 00:47:13,490
Like it's supposed to be.

821
00:47:14,390 --> 00:47:16,850
MJ: So do you, do you consider 
your music today to be Hill Country?

822
00:47:17,180 --> 00:47:21,260
DKJr: Some of it, um, I, I play, 
I play country Western. I play pop.

823
00:47:21,710 --> 00:47:26,510
I play punk rock, 
play all kinds of music. Right.

824
00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:31,270
You know, I always have did it,
you know? So I'm doing more of a

825
00:47:32,890 --> 00:47:37,090
Hill Country stuff now than I ever did. 
Um, not because I'm done,

826
00:47:37,090 --> 00:47:38,170
I'm not doing it for money.

827
00:47:38,170 --> 00:47:42,340
I'm doing it to carry on
the legacy of my father.

828
00:47:42,660 --> 00:47:45,240
MJ: Well, are you doing it 
because you feel compelled to do it,

829
00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:48,210
to carry on that legacy 
or because you genuinely like it?

830
00:47:48,630 --> 00:47:49,890
DKJr: I love it, but I,

831
00:47:49,890 --> 00:47:53,520
and it's the same time I'm doing it
because if I don't take it on to the next

832
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:58,140
level, it won't go. 
I mean the Black Keys can't do it or the All-Stars.

833
00:47:58,140 --> 00:48:00,960
Nobody that came down 
because they don't know how to feel like that.

834
00:48:01,350 --> 00:48:03,360
I'm naturally like that.
You know what I'm saying?

835
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:07,890
I can just pick my guitar up and go right
in there and play just what my dad and

836
00:48:07,890 --> 00:48:12,600
them played way back in the way back.
That, that same identical stuff.

837
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:14,910
Do you feel like you got
your dad's sound down there?

838
00:48:15,270 --> 00:48:19,530
Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 
I've got it. Um, I've been doing it.

839
00:48:19,590 --> 00:48:20,430
I just want to play it.

840
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,000
MJ: We were talking a little bit before
about, uh, your brother, Robert,

841
00:48:24,090 --> 00:48:27,180
and about how I, I've found
that in most of his concerts,

842
00:48:27,180 --> 00:48:30,720
he covers basically your dad's
stuff almost exclusively.

843
00:48:30,720 --> 00:48:33,750
And doesn't do a lot of originals. Um,

844
00:48:34,650 --> 00:48:38,850
do you think that there's a place 
for that or do you think that that creates

845
00:48:39,090 --> 00:48:43,470
kind of stagnancy in the Hill Country blues 
and that it needs other elements of

846
00:48:43,470 --> 00:48:46,350
other genres and original songs to move it forward?

847
00:48:46,770 --> 00:48:47,940
DKJr: Yeah. It needs that need,

848
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,650
you need other songs and
stuff such as and stuff. Um,

849
00:48:53,100 --> 00:48:54,030
you know, uh,

850
00:48:54,150 --> 00:48:59,150
that you doing a house party or a juke joint party
where people want to hear this music.

851
00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:01,140
When you get the people what they want,

852
00:49:01,650 --> 00:49:05,460
but for the world to take it to the next level and stuff.

853
00:49:05,460 --> 00:49:10,290
I think that I'm doing right now 
and a couple of cats, I know doing this,

854
00:49:10,290 --> 00:49:13,740
what's going to lighten it up, man.
It's like, uh, it can,

855
00:49:13,770 --> 00:49:16,740
you can take it to another level,
but you can also keep it the same.

856
00:49:17,310 --> 00:49:18,720
You don't see, I don't, I don't play,

857
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:23,670
I don't go out there and just 
try to rock out, playing rock with this.

858
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:25,680
I played just like it goes, but I just put,

859
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:29,130
maybe if I do like a country song, yeah.

860
00:49:29,580 --> 00:49:33,390
I'm going to put up North Mississippi voice to it.

861
00:49:33,390 --> 00:49:35,730
I got some country stuff 
I played in up there, you know,

862
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,280
pack some out of it and
seal it there, you know,

863
00:49:38,370 --> 00:49:42,990
cause I do this stuff and
um, and it ain't so much,

864
00:49:43,140 --> 00:49:46,590
uh, how much town I got. 
It's just what I'm doing. I put it across.

865
00:49:47,310 --> 00:49:48,420
MJ: Do you think that, uh,

866
00:49:48,540 --> 00:49:51,270
what do you think is the current state 
of Hill Country blues today?

867
00:49:51,300 --> 00:49:54,540
Do you think it's, it's dying?
Is it thriving? Is it dead?

868
00:49:54,690 --> 00:49:57,540
DKJr: No. It's thriving. 
It's on fire.

869
00:49:57,540 --> 00:49:58,350
MJ: How is it?

870
00:49:58,350 --> 00:50:02,460
Like, because I don't know too many artists 
out there that you don't play in this rock

871
00:50:02,460 --> 00:50:07,230
and stuff. Ain't gonna do nothing.
Kimbrough, R.L., Burnsides, and T-ball or something.

872
00:50:07,650 --> 00:50:12,000
It's on fire. It's just the hottest music out right now. 
Yeah. Yeah. Nah,

873
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:13,560
I'm not gonna say it ain't gonna die later.

874
00:50:13,890 --> 00:50:16,200
Don't nobody come forward 
and put something else in there. Yeah.

875
00:50:16,910 --> 00:50:20,670
I'm scribing to put something new out there, 
you know, same stuff, but new.

876
00:50:20,670 --> 00:50:24,270
But then now I got it. 
I already know what I'm doing and how to do it now,

877
00:50:24,300 --> 00:50:26,970
Duwayne. he doing it too in his own way.

878
00:50:26,990 --> 00:50:30,170
Cause Duwayne been more of a
Chicago-Memphis type blues.

879
00:50:30,530 --> 00:50:33,740
But he still do it,
but Duwayne got a lot of stuff in him.

880
00:50:34,260 --> 00:50:37,100
Lot of stuff that a lot of them wish they had,
and he won't,

881
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:41,450
he won't utilize it. 
But down the road he will. And he, with his, you, uh,

882
00:50:41,660 --> 00:50:44,180
you haven't utilized and
then what I'm about to do.

883
00:50:44,210 --> 00:50:48,800
Cause I got some stuff that's going 
to keep the North Mississippi sound the same,

884
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:52,400
but going to add some hypnotic elements,
with some, some,

885
00:50:52,530 --> 00:50:57,110
some serious sounds in the future. 
I got stuff going on myself, you know?

886
00:50:57,560 --> 00:50:59,240
And once I give it the right group of people,

887
00:50:59,540 --> 00:51:03,740
I'll be able to expound that stuff.
You know, let them know, Hey man, look,

888
00:51:04,430 --> 00:51:08,730
I, look, I tell you what, let
me produce you on this. You,

889
00:51:08,730 --> 00:51:13,550
your band play this 
"blah, blah, blah, blah". You know,

890
00:51:13,550 --> 00:51:14,380
whatever. Yeah.

891
00:51:14,470 --> 00:51:16,540
MJ: But I mean, you know, it's interesting,

892
00:51:16,610 --> 00:51:20,380
you mentioned that you think 
that Duwayne plays more Delta or Chicago stuff

893
00:51:20,410 --> 00:51:23,710
because I mean, I can tell you that
at the Hill Country picnic, uh,

894
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:28,060
with a few exceptions, like, uh, Robert, uh,

895
00:51:28,660 --> 00:51:31,030
Cedric and Malcolm, um,

896
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:34,480
there wasn't a whole hell of a lot 
of Hill Country blues that was played.

897
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:37,990
A lot of it was Delta and Chicago blues.

898
00:51:38,060 --> 00:51:42,310
And maybe that's just for the white audience 
that wants, or for one thing.

899
00:51:42,310 --> 00:51:43,990
Why do you think that is?
And for another thing,

900
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:48,550
if all of these acts that are supposedly
Hill Country Blues are playing Chicago

901
00:51:48,550 --> 00:51:52,990
or Delta blues, how does that not mean
that the Hill country blues is dying?

902
00:51:53,590 --> 00:51:57,760
DKJr: Well, like I said, at the same time,
that's a good reason to say that.

903
00:51:57,790 --> 00:52:01,540
Even if you don't speak on it, 
because you know, that's something, you know,

904
00:52:01,540 --> 00:52:04,540
I don't understand. 
It's like, uh, because, uh,

905
00:52:04,810 --> 00:52:06,520
the cat's got this stuff natural,

906
00:52:07,870 --> 00:52:11,170
but I think they just doing what they want to do. 
You know what I'm saying? See,

907
00:52:11,180 --> 00:52:15,580
because it's like, everybody want 
to be different, but you know, like I say,

908
00:52:15,610 --> 00:52:18,010
you know, it's not going to die because

909
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:23,160
These young white kids is not going to let it die.
Because it's they foundation.

910
00:52:23,620 --> 00:52:24,250
MJ: Yeah.

911
00:52:24,250 --> 00:52:29,200
DKJr: They can step on the seat 
when they can take it to a theoretic level.

912
00:52:30,010 --> 00:52:34,120
When people such as myself and the others

913
00:52:35,620 --> 00:52:37,990
would look at it, like, man,
I'm tired of playing that. Yeah.

914
00:52:38,470 --> 00:52:41,580
Because we ain't never got nothing out of it. 
Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

915
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:44,080
Ain't nobody never gave us nothing. Nobody.

916
00:52:44,380 --> 00:52:47,260
So you just go out there and play 
what you want to play, you know,

917
00:52:47,260 --> 00:52:50,500
Blah, blah, blah type thing. 
But when the kids are up North,

918
00:52:50,500 --> 00:52:53,920
that way it's playing and getting millions out of it. Yeah.

919
00:52:54,100 --> 00:52:56,980
They can play that same song 
that we've been playing all our life and get millions.

920
00:52:56,990 --> 00:52:59,350
We can go out there and play and can't get $50.

921
00:52:59,980 --> 00:53:02,770
MJ: But I mean, would you consider 
the Black Keys who were from Akron, Ohio

922
00:53:02,770 --> 00:53:04,930
to be a Hill Country blues band?

923
00:53:04,930 --> 00:53:06,040
DKJr: No.

924
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:08,800
MJ: Okay. So I mean,

925
00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:09,790
DKJr: This or a ticket

926
00:53:09,940 --> 00:53:11,230
MJ: Again, isn't that,

927
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:15,310
isn't that part of the genre dying then,
if you're saying that those are the

928
00:53:15,310 --> 00:53:16,600
kinds of guys who will carry it on.

929
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:20,610
DKJr: No, they ain't carrying it on.
They just, they just be a guide for this.

930
00:53:20,620 --> 00:53:24,210
That's what they did it for.

931
00:53:24,210 --> 00:53:25,080
MJ: For the money?

932
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:28,260
DKJr: They did that for that, you know,
they did that. They wouldn't,

933
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:30,840
it wasn't so much, no love.
I don't think for that music,

934
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,990
I think they liked what they heard 
and saw a way to get some money out of it.

935
00:53:34,110 --> 00:53:37,530
And they got their money and went on.
And nothing wrong with that. I mean, you know,

936
00:53:37,530 --> 00:53:42,210
it's just like, if I was at, he said,
Dave, look, can you do this song here?

937
00:53:42,460 --> 00:53:43,220
That's it.

938
00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:45,320
♩ Uh, I was born by the river

939
00:53:50,390 --> 00:53:52,790
in a little town ♩

940
00:53:52,910 --> 00:53:55,760
If they had give me a million dollar.
I do it. You know what I'm saying?

941
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:59,870
So it's that Possum pulled them in to do this, you know?

942
00:54:00,260 --> 00:54:01,790
And they got paid for them and they went on.

943
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:07,010
So that's why I said the love is not there. You know,

944
00:54:07,020 --> 00:54:11,870
you got people here, they're still
playing North Mississippi blues, you know?

945
00:54:11,870 --> 00:54:14,390
But they ain't, nobody recognized,
they ain't going to recognize. See,

946
00:54:14,390 --> 00:54:17,060
nowadays in these days you don't get discovered. Yeah.

947
00:54:17,090 --> 00:54:19,970
Somebody had to put you out there. 
You know what I'm saying? It's just like,

948
00:54:19,970 --> 00:54:23,570
you can't put me in front of
[**inaudible**] in Texas. This is huge, man.

949
00:54:23,660 --> 00:54:26,840
You know what I'm saying? 
My whole committee is white. Yeah.

950
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:32,010
They come to me because, uh, uh,

951
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:36,650
Of no money. Cause my life was fucking shit, man. 
You know what I'm saying?

952
00:54:37,010 --> 00:54:42,010
They come to me because I had something real 
going on my last tour with Johnson Clare.

953
00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:46,640
Yeah. And, uh, he's back now.

954
00:54:46,670 --> 00:54:50,780
But I mean, it's like wherever I go up there,

955
00:54:50,780 --> 00:54:54,470
it's just packed out, you know?
But you know what I'm playing?

956
00:54:56,330 --> 00:54:57,620
North Mississippi blues. That's all I play.

957
00:54:58,130 --> 00:55:00,650
MJ: So, do you think that in the near future, 
North Mississippi blues

958
00:55:00,650 --> 00:55:04,820
will be basically an exclusively white field, 
both artists and audience?

959
00:55:05,630 --> 00:55:08,970
DKJr: They trying to ditch it, captivate. They trying to turn it.

960
00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:11,390
Ain't gonna be turning to that.

961
00:55:11,450 --> 00:55:14,030
It's going to be them
doing just what they doing,

962
00:55:14,870 --> 00:55:18,800
taking songs and covering them 
and making them hot ass for the youngsters to come.

963
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:21,850
But yeah, when it,
when it all boils down to it,

964
00:55:21,850 --> 00:55:24,590
they still got to come back to
the old man, David Kimbrough Jr.

965
00:55:24,590 --> 00:55:28,670
Before we die. 
And if they want to know something new, it ain't,

966
00:55:28,670 --> 00:55:32,390
they'll never be able to create it. 
Never, it's not their agenda.

967
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:34,790
MJ: I mean, sorry to keep pressing you on this,

968
00:55:34,790 --> 00:55:37,560
but isn't that the mark
of a genre that's dying?

969
00:55:37,970 --> 00:55:42,380
DKJr: It's the mark of a genre that will die 
if we don't pursue. Yeah, no. Cause if,

970
00:55:42,750 --> 00:55:47,120
if I said, if I just said, well man,
forget it, man. Duwayne, forget it man.

971
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:51,110
I'm through it. It was dead.
Long as we living, it's not dead.

972
00:55:51,410 --> 00:55:54,500
MJ: How hasn't Duwayne done that already though?
If he's playing country,

973
00:55:54,500 --> 00:55:56,960
if he's playing Delta and a Chicago blues?

974
00:55:57,380 --> 00:56:00,530
DKJr: Well, you know, like I said there again, 
like I was saying, you know,

975
00:56:00,610 --> 00:56:04,670
been playing it all our lives, you know,
and got tired. It ain't paid off yet,

976
00:56:04,820 --> 00:56:09,230
but it paid, it paid everybody else around us. 
But it ain't paid us a dime.

977
00:56:09,740 --> 00:56:14,330
Nothing. Nobody like it. I mean,
nobody asked for no hand out,

978
00:56:14,870 --> 00:56:18,380
but if I know you, Frank Sinatra's son,

979
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:22,820
you got the same talent and Frank Sinatra got,
and I ain't got half your talent.

980
00:56:23,090 --> 00:56:25,300
And I just went out there and made
A million dollars,

981
00:56:25,510 --> 00:56:29,470
You got all the Frank Sinatra talent.
I'll never be able to do Frank.

982
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:32,950
I got to come to you and say,
Hey man, look in, come on, man,

983
00:56:32,950 --> 00:56:36,370
come out here with us, man.
You Frank's son, man. Come on, beat with us, man.

984
00:56:36,370 --> 00:56:38,410
And go ahead and collaborate with us
and do some other things,

985
00:56:38,620 --> 00:56:40,740
but I'm going to put you before
this hundred thousand people, man.

986
00:56:40,740 --> 00:56:43,690
Let them know who man. 
You Frank's son, man. Come on, man.

987
00:56:43,720 --> 00:56:45,550
I know you've been on drugs. I know you need it.

988
00:56:45,700 --> 00:56:48,880
We're going to have to get right man.
Call, just come on up. Come on, come on.

989
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:53,110
Just grab him, "ladies and gentlemen"
And throw him out on the stage.

990
00:56:53,590 --> 00:56:56,290
So I don't know why that 
hadn't happened for me and kept there,

991
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:58,850
but I got a good idea. I don't know why,

992
00:56:58,850 --> 00:57:00,880
MJ: What's a good idea you got?

993
00:57:00,880 --> 00:57:05,800
DKJr: Intimidation, man. Intimidation. You know,

994
00:57:05,800 --> 00:57:08,170
it's like, people want to be the one who,

995
00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:14,040
you know them want nobody else to be
living that original from this shit.

996
00:57:15,220 --> 00:57:19,210
They want to be the one, but they dead.
So they ain't, nobody else is up.

997
00:57:19,520 --> 00:57:22,840
Hope they died next week type thing,
Blood sacrifice.

998
00:57:24,480 --> 00:57:27,240
MJ: Um, we were talking about this a little bit earlier.

999
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:31,020
I'll, what are your thoughts 
about Fat Possum Records? How they treated your dad?

1000
00:57:33,300 --> 00:57:38,280
DKJr: Well, like I say, you know,
as far as I'm concerned, man, they did,

1001
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:41,670
my dad a deal. 
You know, my dad died right

1002
00:57:41,670 --> 00:57:45,810
when he made Fat Possum, 
and he made Fat Possum. He did it himself.

1003
00:57:47,100 --> 00:57:50,550
He died and RL took it to the next level.

1004
00:57:50,610 --> 00:57:53,520
That's how it happened, you know? So, um,

1005
00:57:53,790 --> 00:57:55,680
he wouldn't have been here 
to enjoy nothing anyhow.

1006
00:57:56,280 --> 00:58:01,230
but I think what they did to his children, 
continuation of him, it's foul.

1007
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:02,640
That's all I can say.

1008
00:58:03,450 --> 00:58:05,640
And nothing else bad about them
because I appreciate what they did.

1009
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:08,430
And my dad wants to him, all of us
are still sitting and wondering.

1010
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:12,150
Then I remember that I will do that. Yeah.

1011
00:58:12,510 --> 00:58:16,260
He died right after all this stuff happened. 
Wasn't even four years later that he died.

1012
00:58:16,740 --> 00:58:18,540
MJ: Do you think they screwed your dad out of money?

1013
00:58:19,470 --> 00:58:23,310
DKJr: Boy they screwed everybody out of money. Everybody that did it.

1014
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:26,310
I did a CD on their label called "I Got a Dog", man.

1015
00:58:26,310 --> 00:58:28,470
I ain't never received a dime from it.

1016
00:58:28,860 --> 00:58:31,380
And the CD's selling all over the world. 
You can't even get them.

1017
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:33,230
MJ: Um,

1018
00:58:33,390 --> 00:58:38,390
do you think that they used stereotypes
to market your dad's image?

1019
00:58:38,390 --> 00:58:41,520
DKJr: Such as what?

1020
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:46,200
MJ: Well, I mean specifically for RL,
especially they, uh, made him out to be,

1021
00:58:46,200 --> 00:58:50,970
you know, this bad black man, you know,
they put them on the cover with really,

1022
00:58:50,970 --> 00:58:55,560
you know, barely dressed white women
and made him out to be this bad man.

1023
00:58:55,560 --> 00:58:57,510
You don't want to mess with him 
because he's dangerous.

1024
00:58:57,540 --> 00:58:59,100
Do you think they did the
same thing to your dad?

1025
00:58:59,940 --> 00:59:01,650
DKJr: They didn't get a chance
to do it with my dad.

1026
00:59:01,740 --> 00:59:04,980
They got him put on the good
mind with no shirt on type thing.

1027
00:59:05,010 --> 00:59:08,540
They didn't get a chance to do that. 
They would have, they had to got a chance.

1028
00:59:08,610 --> 00:59:12,030
Yeah. But they didn't, they didn't
get a chance to do that. Um,

1029
00:59:12,660 --> 00:59:16,170
MJ: Did you personally resent what they think, 
the kind of image they portrayed of RL?

1030
00:59:16,650 --> 00:59:18,090
DKJr: Yeah. R.L. and pop both.

1031
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:22,970
Ain't no way in the world I would put them 
in that age only on the cover of a CD with

1032
00:59:22,970 --> 00:59:27,920
no shirt on.  
They did a lot of bad things like that.

1033
00:59:30,140 --> 00:59:33,560
But then again, I can say, you know,
uh, they never treated me right.

1034
00:59:34,850 --> 00:59:38,120
The only someone who treated me right,
it was Robert Palmer and Peter Lee,

1035
00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:42,800
you know, uh, Matthew and Bruce. 
They never treated me right.

1036
00:59:45,080 --> 00:59:48,050
But I ain't got nothing bad to say about them.
They're just, you know, the deal.

1037
00:59:50,270 --> 00:59:51,070
Yeah.

1038
00:59:51,070 --> 00:59:52,060
MJ: So, um,

1039
00:59:56,230 --> 01:00:00,640
so obviously the Northern Mississippi blues 
is very much a family affair.

1040
01:00:00,940 --> 01:00:03,250
You've got the Kimbroughs
you got the Burnsides,

1041
01:00:03,550 --> 01:00:07,420
the Turners, the Hemphills,
later on the Dickinson's um,

1042
01:00:08,170 --> 01:00:10,990
how did you guys influence
each other growing up?

1043
01:00:11,020 --> 01:00:14,350
How much did you see the Burnsides?
How much did you learn from them?

1044
01:00:15,100 --> 01:00:20,080
DKJr: Well, like I said, you know, 
Duwayne came about when I was like 15 years old,

1045
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:20,980
he was like 12.

1046
01:00:21,760 --> 01:00:25,090
And I discovered him in a show 
for my dad and playing with his dad.

1047
01:00:25,090 --> 01:00:29,230
R.L. Burnside at the same place. 
It turned out to be Junior's juke joint.

1048
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:34,180
And we connected like that. And then later,
the North Mississippi All-Stars, uh,

1049
01:00:34,210 --> 01:00:36,160
they would come up there,
sneak up to the club.

1050
01:00:36,190 --> 01:00:38,560
They were too young and get in there to
come and sneak in there and sit down and

1051
01:00:38,560 --> 01:00:41,170
be listening and stuff. 
And I never could get Luther to play,

1052
01:00:41,170 --> 01:00:44,470
but I got Cody to play and
I heard  Cody. I said,

1053
01:00:44,470 --> 01:00:48,160
this kid is going to be a bad ass drummer, man. 
You know,

1054
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:52,930
he was young playing like that. 
You just had a foot. It was just may say,

1055
01:00:52,930 --> 01:00:55,690
but Luther would never play. 
He just sit there, you know, look. Yeah.

1056
01:00:56,020 --> 01:01:00,820
He was more of a study.
He analyzed, and looks at movies.

1057
01:01:00,820 --> 01:01:05,740
Luther is a genius, man. He's a super genius. 
Cody is too. Both of them, geniuses man.

1058
01:01:06,100 --> 01:01:11,020
And so, you know, they all less, more
or less like family, like the Turners.

1059
01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:13,660
Yeah. What else? Yeah.
They wasn't like, no,

1060
01:01:14,770 --> 01:01:17,650
the other folk, Black Keys,
now we don't know about them. You know?

1061
01:01:18,190 --> 01:01:20,350
I think they did a great job 
on what they did with the music,

1062
01:01:20,350 --> 01:01:22,330
but I don't know them,
you know what I'm saying?

1063
01:01:22,330 --> 01:01:25,310
And they ain't trying to get to know us
or we ain't trying to, you know, you know,

1064
01:01:25,810 --> 01:01:28,900
they didn't got the little money 
and stuff and went on, and we still broke

1065
01:01:28,900 --> 01:01:30,700
Like we always been, so yeah.

1066
01:01:32,050 --> 01:01:36,040
MJ: Um, how did you learn how to play?

1067
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:39,090
Did your dad teach you directly?

1068
01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:43,510
DKJr: He tried. He tried, 
he couldn't deal with it.

1069
01:01:43,510 --> 01:01:45,430
I just couldn't see 
how he was playing and stuff, man.

1070
01:01:46,090 --> 01:01:48,940
With two fingers like this, 
I can play, I had to play my hands.

1071
01:01:49,150 --> 01:01:53,380
I played in a theoretic way. 
You know, he played with two fingers like this,

1072
01:01:53,380 --> 01:01:57,130
you know, always crossed the neck of the guitar,
In a way I couldn't do it.

1073
01:01:57,340 --> 01:02:01,360
I couldn't understand. 
But as the years went on, I got older.

1074
01:02:01,690 --> 01:02:06,690
I got smart enough mentally, my mind matured enough, 
to go and then pick up our sound.

1075
01:02:07,140 --> 01:02:11,920
See, I still don't play like him. 
I sound like it.

1076
01:02:11,920 --> 01:02:15,250
See, people are getting it mixed up. 
I don't play like it. I sound like it,

1077
01:02:15,550 --> 01:02:16,380
but I don't play.

1078
01:02:16,380 --> 01:02:18,100
MJ: You mean you don't play the technique like him?

1079
01:02:18,100 --> 01:02:19,380
DKJr: Like the technique I got? No, no way.

1080
01:02:19,380 --> 01:02:22,830
I never, yeah. As long as I live in the world, 
I'll never be able to do that.

1081
01:02:23,130 --> 01:02:26,730
I don't think nobody else in the world do. 
Then they could play in it.

1082
01:02:27,840 --> 01:02:31,950
But I, I, I sound, I think I'll sound
closer to him than anybody in the world.

1083
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:35,820
I sound just like him. 
Cause I sound musically,

1084
01:02:35,850 --> 01:02:39,930
Cause it's this is, these are his hands. 
You know, I'm him,

1085
01:02:40,380 --> 01:02:43,770
it's in my soul to sound like him,
but I might not never play like him. So.

1086
01:02:43,770 --> 01:02:47,440
MJ: Yeah. Um, so I guess, uh,

1087
01:02:49,100 --> 01:02:52,670
The last question I have
for you, uh, is, um,

1088
01:02:54,380 --> 01:02:59,380
so obviously Mississippi has a very difficult 
and problematic racial history.

1089
01:03:00,550 --> 01:03:05,300
There's been a lot of terrible things
that happened to racially. And yet today,

1090
01:03:06,950 --> 01:03:09,650
most of Mississippi tourism
comes from blues tourism.

1091
01:03:11,510 --> 01:03:15,290
Do you think that that's
hypocritical or, I mean,

1092
01:03:15,380 --> 01:03:19,160
is there a silver lining in the fact that
people like me probably wouldn't have

1093
01:03:19,160 --> 01:03:22,280
come down here, having not
been for that set up tourism?

1094
01:03:22,900 --> 01:03:26,600
DKJr: You know what? I'm gonna be totally honest with you.

1095
01:03:27,110 --> 01:03:28,490
You and I,

1096
01:03:29,210 --> 01:03:33,060
and the other ones that live in here
really ain't got nothing to do with went on in the past.

1097
01:03:33,060 --> 01:03:34,070
MJ: Yeah.

1098
01:03:35,030 --> 01:03:38,450
DKJr: These people today has recognized--

1099
01:03:38,660 --> 01:03:40,320
MJ: --But the government did have something to do with it

1100
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:41,780
DKJr: The government did. Yeah they did.

1101
01:03:41,780 --> 01:03:43,520
MJ: And they're the ones
who set up the tourism.

1102
01:03:43,910 --> 01:03:47,990
DKJr: Yeah. They did. 
See the government then change too though.  I mean,

1103
01:03:47,990 --> 01:03:51,980
all them old factors is gone.
Oh, he is gone. But you know,

1104
01:03:51,980 --> 01:03:54,140
the government is going to be,
government is going to be, I mean,

1105
01:03:54,140 --> 01:03:56,270
they got standards and
that's the in command.

1106
01:03:56,270 --> 01:04:00,560
But what they have done is they've come 
to the senses to do this thing,

1107
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:03,200
this tourism thing.
Let the truth come out. You know?

1108
01:04:03,270 --> 01:04:06,890
Because now people don't hold the truth back no more. 
They don't, they don't.

1109
01:04:07,340 --> 01:04:09,440
They just tell him like, man, you know,

1110
01:04:09,980 --> 01:04:12,920
I ain't got nothing to do with what
my ancestors did to your ancestors.

1111
01:04:13,160 --> 01:04:16,220
And that's true, man. 
You know what I'm saying? So now these kids today,

1112
01:04:16,460 --> 01:04:21,260
they said, fuck, man. I mean, he did it. 
This shit is bad ass, man.

1113
01:04:21,500 --> 01:04:25,610
I'm being a part of this, man. 
I don't care what nobody say, type thing.

1114
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:29,750
And so that's what they doing today, you know? 
And if you look at talent,

1115
01:04:30,200 --> 01:04:35,200
all the talent is,
my son is in Atlanta out there, rather than singing,

1116
01:04:35,840 --> 01:04:39,830
**He's saying 20 times doesn't
mean you ain't got that.**

1117
01:04:39,890 --> 01:04:41,810
It's about the professional, you know,

1118
01:04:42,410 --> 01:04:44,720
MJ: Who do you think is going to see the money 
off of the blues tourism?

1119
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:46,580
Is it going to be blacks
or whites or both?

1120
01:04:48,270 --> 01:04:52,520
DKJr: It could possibly be both 
at some point, but basically the whites.

1121
01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:57,630
But could be basically both.

1122
01:04:59,180 --> 01:05:00,650
I don't know, man. I just, uh,

1123
01:05:01,340 --> 01:05:05,540
it's not, this whole thing that's
going on right now. It's not about

1124
01:05:07,490 --> 01:05:10,970
money to me. 
It's from the heart.

1125
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:12,680
You know what, I had

1126
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:17,680
in that set up in there, and wrote 
two CDs for the All_Stars and two Duwayne

1127
01:05:17,830 --> 01:05:21,400
**going back in 10.**

1128
01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:21,850
MJ: Yeah.

1129
01:05:21,850 --> 01:05:25,660
DKJr: They used none of them. 
It would have took them to the moon.

1130
01:05:25,660 --> 01:05:29,410
Now I'm using it myself now. 
But they called my brother, Kenny not long ago,

1131
01:05:29,410 --> 01:05:32,320
said, Hey man, David got them songs.
Too late for that.

1132
01:05:34,120 --> 01:05:39,030
Basically the songs now, 
you know what I'm saying? Let's do **[inaudible]**

1133
01:05:42,730 --> 01:05:44,840
I'm a compulsive writer.