via Garden & Gun Magazine
Bobby Rush is one of the last men standing from a defining era of the blues. A Louisiana native who grew up picking cotton, he left for Chicago in the early ’50s to pay his dues alongside Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. He returned to the South in 1986, living in Jackson, Mississippi, and at age eighty-nine, he still regularly tours worldwide. With his 1971 hit “Chicken Heads,” Rush put his stamp on modern music, incorporating funk into the blues (as he’s fond of noting). In his nearly seventy years of playing music—he has been dubbed the King of the Chitlin’ Circuit—the Blues Hall of Famer has been a rarity, drawing audiences both Black and white. “You could take me to Memphis and put me on Beale Street, and I would pack it with white people,” he says. “You could take me to Mississippi Street the next night in the same town, and it’s all Black people.”
No matter the crowd, it’s the music that matters most to Rush. In August, he’ll release a new album of fresh material, All My Love for You, and today, G&G is proud to premiere the album’s opening song, the anthemic “I’m Free.” Listen to the track below, and read on to hear from Rush about playing in juke joints, his connection to Al Capone, and his secrets to staying young.
All My Love for You will be released August 18 and is available for pre-order here.