Buddy Guy, the guitar heroes’ guitar hero, still shows up and shows out at 90 years young. He carries a torch passed to him by Muddy Waters, keeping traditional blues alive after all of these decades. He has inspired countless storytellers to pick up a guitar and sing their hearts out, including the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton. He has also taken a few modern blues players under his wing, including Kingfish and Quinn Sullivan.
As far as accolades go, he has them! Buddy was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has received the Kennedy Center Honors and National Medal of Arts, and has been awarded the Billboard Century Award, nine Grammys, and 37 Blues Music Awards. His latest Grammy win came in 2026 for his album “Ain’t Done With The Blues,” and the man backs up what he says!
I have so many amazing memories of seeing him live since I was able to drive. One of them started in my old Fox-body Mustang on February 6, 2010, on my way to the Fox Theatre. I remember driving through Atlanta with the windows down, blasting “Mustang Sally” and “Damn Right I Got the Blues.” Buddy Guy was on tour with B.B. King, and I treated myself to a front-row seat for that one. They each had a tone you could feel. They both grabbed notes with intensity and emotion that resonated deep within my soul.
At some point during that show, Buddy walked straight up to me and put a guitar pick in my hand embossed with “Nuthin but the Blues” on one side. I still have it, and it’s a reminder to me of how important the blues is to our culture and to humanity. It’s also a reminder of how crucial it was to modern music. But it wasn’t just a stepping stone that led into rock ’n’ roll. It’s a lifestyle of its own, and it is still alive and well today. It’s not about being perfect, but about being human. Living life with your heart in it. Feeling the ups and the downs and everything in between.
Just as I wrote about Tab Benoit’s live show, blues is meant to be felt. Buddy Guy had a large impact on Tab’s path toward blues music and how he runs his live show without a setlist, with that very goal of feeling the room and the moment. Buddy Guy has a way of leading the room and making everybody feel like they are a part of it.
On the subject of guitars, he has some of the coolest ones. I personally love the polka-dot ones. Black with white dots and white with black dots. Before he left his birthplace of Louisiana, he made a promise to his mother to make it big and drive back in a polka-dot Cadillac. She passed away before she was able to see him achieve that success, and that weighed on him, so he had Fender make a custom polka-dot guitar to pay respect to his mother every time he hit the stage. It became a big part of his aesthetic as well as a signature series with Fender.
The show was incredible. Buddy Guy is still a master of performance, keeping the very full house engaged the entire time. He went wireless and played his guitar from within the crowd, getting everybody on their feet. He came back to the stage and put his guitar on a speaker, toweled off his forehead a little, then cut the feedback off with that towel. Each move connected him more and more with the audience.
Then he started the next song, “Sunshine of Your Love,” by tapping a drumstick on the strings! Building the dynamics, at one point he played the hook with that towel! It’s these things that have so many people claiming him as their inspiration as a performer. It genuinely looked like he was having a great time too, laughing, joking, and playing the guitar with the same heart and passion that makes him an inspiration to generations of musicians. He has a way of getting everybody in the room locked in, waiting to see what’s going to happen next.
He mentioned getting recognized at the grocery store for the award-winning movie he had a cameo in, “Sinners.” He joked that the excitement of the person who recognized him made him wonder if he had stolen something. The supernatural movie had a way of bridging traditional blues into modern music while featuring legends as well as some new faces on the scene.
Buddy Guy cited Bobby Rush, 92, Willie Nelson, 93, and himself as three of the only ones left still carrying on the tradition. It is wild to think about how many musicians each of these men have inspired, and it would be amazing to sit with any of them and hear their stories.
The opener, Taj Farrant, proved himself someone who could keep up with a living legend. Taj is just 17 years old from Australia and has already gained worldwide attention, appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Australia’s Got Talent” at 9 years old. Taj and his band brought an incredible energy to the show, starting the night out right at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
My favorite cover of his was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Cold Shot.” We got to hear some blistering leads on that one. That is not to say any of the other songs were any less impressive. I have just always liked that song and don’t hear a lot of musicians cover it. He brought his own style to it with intense leads and lots of emotion.
Special mention to his other guitar player, Jesse Bennett, who also offered some beautiful phrasing and perfect rhythm playing throughout the set. All in all, a very impressive and well-received opening act for a living legend.
Taj, Cody Matlock, two of Buddy’s sons, Greg Guy and Michael Guy, joined Buddy for one last amazing song, trading licks and giving us a strong promise that they will, in fact, keep the blues alive.
