How much is Buddy Guy worth?
| Net Worth: | $7 Million |
|---|---|
| Height: | 1.8 m |
| Profession: | Professional Singer |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Date of Birth: | July 30, 1936 |
About Buddy Guy
After moving to Baton Rouge in the mid-1950s, Guy quickly found work with local bands like Big Papa Tilley and Raful Neal. There, he held the position of custodian at Louisiana State University. He made two unreleased demos for a Baton Rouge radio DJ in 1957, for Ace Records. The music of Muddy Waters had a profound impact on Guy shortly after his arrival in Chicago in 1957. After competing against West Side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush in 1958, Guy won the contest and a recording deal. Not long later, he made a record for the label Cobra.
Guy is a native Louisianan, having been raised in the little town of Lettsworth. Growing up in a family of sharecroppers, Guy would earn $2.50 each 100 pounds of cotton he picked. In the beginning, he used a homemade two-string diddley bow to attempt to study guitar. As time went on, he was gifted an acoustic Harmony guitar, which, by the end of Guy’s long career, he gave to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is a case where a citation is required. He tied the knot with Joan Guy in 1959. Together, they’ve spawned six children: Charlotte, Carlise, Colleen, George Jr., Gregory, and Geoffrey. Greg Guy is very skilled on the blues guitar.
From 1959 until 1968, Guy was signed to the record label Chess Records, which hampered his early success by refusing to record Guy playing in the innovative style of his live shows. Chess Records’ namesake and founder Leonard Chess disapproved of Guy’s playing, calling it “just making noise”. As Friendly Chap, Guy recorded with Junior Wells for Delmark Records in 1965 and 1966, during Guy’s time with Chess. In 1965, he went on the American Folk Blues Festival’s European tour.
In the 1960s, Guy collaborated with blues harp prodigy Junior Wells and performed session guitar with Muddy Waters at Chess Records. Chess attempted to record Guy as a solo artist in the early ’60s, capturing him performing R&B ballads, jazz instrumentals, soul, and novelty dance tunes; however, none of these tracks were ever released as singles. I Left My Blues in San Francisco was Guy’s lone album for Chess and came out that year.
Clapton remembers being blown away by Guy’s talent, good looks, and compelling stage presence when he saw him perform in London’s Marquee Club in 1965. He recalled how Guy would pick the guitar with his teeth and play it above his head, techniques that would later inspire Jimi Hendrix.
Along with Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Jack Bruce, Stephen Stills, Buddy Miles, Glenn Campbell, Roland Kirk, Jon Hiseman, and the Misunderstood, he performed in the “Supershow” in Staines, England in March of 1969.
Together with L.C. Thurman, he opened The Checkerboard Lounge in 1972. From 1975 through 2002, he was married to Jennifer Guy. Rashawnna and Michael, their two children, are the result of their union. It turned out that getting a divorce was the best option. Rapper Shawnna (real name: Rashawnna Guy) is a female artist.
Blues music saw a renaissance in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which helped revitalize Guy’s career. It was Clapton’s insistence that Guy join the “24 Nights” all-star blues guitar lineup at London’s Royal Albert Hall that helped revive his career. Subsequently, in 1991, Guy signed with Silvertone Records and released his first commercially successful album, titled Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues. Guy was inducted into the Guitar Center Hollywood Rockwalk on September 20, 1996.
The President of the United States honoured him with the National Medal of Arts in 2003 for his outstanding contributions to the development of the arts in the country. In addition to being named the Greatest Living Electric Blues Guitarist and receiving 23 W.C. Handy Awards by 2004, Guy was also the second person to receive Billboard magazine’s Century Award for Distinguished Artistic Achievement. On March 14, 2005, Eric Clapton and B.B. King inducted Guy into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
While being honored for his induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008, Guy gave a concert in Baton Rouge’s Texas Club.
In the 2009 crime film “In the Electric Mist,” Guy played a minor role as Sam “Hogman” Patin. Guy gave a concert for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House on February 21, 2012. He talked President Obama into singing a snippet of “Sweet Home Chicago” at the concert’s climax.
At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concert in October 2009, he and Jeff Beck performed “Let Me Love You Baby” He gave a live performance for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV on November 15, 2010. Nic Harcourt, the show’s host, also spoke with Guy for this episode. The 2012 Kennedy Center Honors were presented to Guy on December 2.
Guy was admitted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum on January 28, 2014. As of 2014, Guy called the Chicago suburb of Orland Park his home. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Guy with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2015 Grammys.
There was a 2016 Grammy for Best Blues Album, and it went to Born to Play Guitar. In 2016, Guy supported Jeff Beck on a tour of the East Coast of the United States. Highway 418 in Lettsworth, Louisiana, and a portion of Highway 418 in Mississippi have been dedicated “Buddy Guy Way” in honor of December 8th, 2018.
In 2018, a marker was placed in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, along the Mississippi Blues Trail in honor of Guy. Jimmy Page, a member of the American Academy of Achievement’s Awards Council, awarded Guy with the organization’s Golden Plate Award in 2019.
As of the year 2019, Guy still puts in work equivalent to at least 130 performances per year, with a full month of events scheduled each January at his Buddy Guy’s Legends blues club in Chicago.
