[Slowhand] Buddy Guy is being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

[Loraine Taylor]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-rockhall14.html

Their kind of guy

December 14, 2004

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy is the dean of the new performers being 
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Joining Guy at next year's 
20th annual induction ceremony will be U2, the O'Jays, the Pretenders and 
Percy Sledge, whose 2004 comeback album "Shining Through the Rain" was 
underwritten by Jonathan, Lisette and Sophia Bross of Chicago.

Guy, 68, gained entry on his first nomination.

"I'm a bit hyped," Guy said Monday night from Buddy Guy's Legends, his South 
Loop club. "I have to wait for this to set in. This is a dream come true."

The five finalists beat out nominees that included the J. Geils Band, the 
late country singer Conway Twitty and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. 
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation will hold its inductions March 14 
at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

That's a million miles away from Guy's roots as the son of a Louisiana 
sharecropper. "My only sister still living called me from Baton Rouge," Guy 
said. "She couldn't believe it. She was the one who put up with me when I 
was running people out of the house by hitting one lick."

Guy's dramatic, muscular style had a profound effect on rock legends Jimi 
Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In recent years students such as Eric 
Clapton, Jimmy Page and Carlos Santana have championed Guy's inclusion into 
the rock hall. A new Guy-Santana collaboration should be released by 
induction time, according to the new hall of famer. On Jan. 5, Guy begins 
his annual monthlong residency at Legends.

Guy migrated north in the fall of 1957. "When I came to Chicago, you had to 
play the top 10, records on the jukebox," Guy explained. "Every blues bar 
had Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Muddy Waters. If you could play 
all them, you could make $2 a night. In the 1960s they started calling that 
rock 'n' roll."

Sledge will always be known for his smash 1966 hit "When a Man Loves a 
Woman" although his heartfelt 1969 ballad "True Love Travels on a Gravel 
Road" was popularized by Elvis Presley.

The 63-year-old was genuinely touched when wife Rosa told him about the 
induction. "I thought I might have imagined it in my sleep, so I told 
myself, 'If I'm sleeping, don't wake me up, let me dream on,' " he said 
Monday. "I'm happy to be going into the hall at the same time as Buddy. I've 
always thought he was one of the greatest blues players I've heard, and 
maybe someday I can play his club in Chicago."

About 800 industry professionals, previous inductees and journalists vote on 
the inductions into the Cleveland-based museum. Artists are eligible after 
at least 25 years have passed since their first record was released.