Sinners is being praised as a critical and commercial triumph for director Ryan Coogler and the film’s star, Michael B. Jordan. But there’s another person basking in the movie’s success: blues legend Buddy Guy.
At the end of Sinners (spoiler alert), the character of Sammie is shown as an elderly blues musician, played by Guy. In a recent conversation with Variety, the 88 year-old guitarist revealed how he was recruited for the important cameo.
“They came into my club here in Chicago, and I was surprised,” Guy explained. “They say, ‘Look, we want you to play this little part that’s called Sammie.’ And I’m saying, ‘Well, let me see’… Because I don’t have a high school education to be reading long scripts. I did learn how to read and write. I’m like BB King: I’m not fast at it, but if you give it to me and give me time, I can memorize it. But the older you get, the less you can memorize. Whatever can help the blues stay alive, I’m all for it, and I will try anything. I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough to do that. But I’ll give it a try, and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, at least I’ll say I gave it a try.’”
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Guy, who previously had small parts in the film In the Electric Mist (2009) and an episode of The West Wing (2013), proved up for the challenge. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shot his scene in New Orleans, part of a grueling 12 hour workday that included both acting and playing music.
“Movies, man,” Guy reflected during the interview. “As a kid, I loved the Westerns, because I grew up riding horses in Louisiana on the plantation, and seeing those old cowboys like Gene Autry, playing the acoustic guitar while riding a horse… I can’t imagine that’s me now. It’s a dream come true, to be honest with you.”
Buddy Guy’s Commitment to ‘Keep the Blues Alive’
Throughout the interview, Guy made it clear that anything he undertakes – from acting to touring – is done to serve the blues.
“There’s very few radio stations other than satellite who play blues now. And the older people I learned from is no longer with us,” he explained. “But nowadays, man, if you don’t tell ’em, they don’t know it. They’re like, ‘Who is that? Who’s Muddy Waters’ My grandkids don’t know nothing about the blues until they hit 21 and come up in the club while I’m there, and they say, ‘Granddad, I didn’t know you could do that!’ So I’m 100% trying to support it so the next generation of white or Black kids can hear it and know more about the blues that was created way before the British type of (blues-rock) stuff come along and all the different types of music we have now.”
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Guy – who says he wants to tour for at least another year – sees blues as his life’s mission, not only for himself, but for the the legends who came before him.
“Muddy Waters and BB King, I knew ’em before they passed away,” Guy explained, “and they told me, ‘Man, if you outlive me, just try to keep the blues alive.’”
