Lil’ Ed : I Can’t turn Around Now, I’ve Come Too Far

By Dr. Barry Lee Pearson

“Lil” Ed Williams was born in Chicago in 1955 as the nephew of slide guitar legend J.B.Hutto. Ed was taught slide guitar by his uncle and today carries on the spirit of such slide masters as Hutto, Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor, touring and recording with his high-energy band, the Blues Imperials.

Interviewed October 9, 2010 – Richmond Virginia

Lil Ed Williams: “I remember hearing the Temptations and the Chi-Lites and stuff like that. That’s the first music because back then when I was coming up on the west side if you wasn’t doing the Temptations and Isley Brothers and stuff like that, you really wasn’t hittin’ then too much.

My uncle started to coming around, J.B. Hutto, and he started to coming around and he would break out his guitar and play. And then that took over all the Temptations and stuff because I liked it, what he was doing. It was a totally different world and to see my aunties and other uncles and all them react to my uncle’s music, it was really cool you know because back then when they was drinking they was drinking and they’d be drunk and they’d be crying half the time, and laugh, and holler and (whoop) hootin’ the next time so it was a whole different feel.

He was lookin’ at me one day and I was watching him he was sitting down playing, him and my oldest uncle was talking and he looked at me and he was playing a song and he looked at me and I was watching his hands because I liked the slide because of the way it shimmered in the light, and sparkled and Uncle J.B. was a true slider, a slide slinger I mean he could make the slide move so fast you could barely see it moving and he seen me looking at him and he said “You’re interested in this, aren’t you?” and I said “Yeah.”

He said, “Well, if you want to learn, I’ll teach you but if you don’t want to learn don’t waste my time.

And he started to teach me at that point. And then next time what really amazed him was that after he had shown me, as he was showing me I was showing my brother Pookie the bass player. I was showing him the bass runs so I could play the lead. And I think J.B. went out, he went overseas. He might have been gone maybe a month and when he came back in town me and Pookie was playing at a club and he came down to see us and it was really cool because we was playing. We was in some little scampy club. I don’t know how my auntie actually got the club, she got the people to actually let us play because we was still too young to play in a club. But she talked to these people and they let us play. And they were sittin’ up there talking; they wasn’t even paying any attention to us and we was up there. We thought we was jamming. We thought we was rocking and they were just talking. And every time we would stop playing, end a song, they clap a little bit and then they go back to talking and then Uncle J.B. came in there and when he come in there we was rocking and the people was up there talking and when we got through playing they clapped a little bit and before we could get in to another song, Uncle J.B. got on stage and he just reamed the people out, cussed them out and told them, “These boys in here, they’re working their hardest trying to make you guys enjoy yourself and you’re not even paying attention to them. Give these boys a hand.”

And everybody started clapping and then he looked at me and said, ”Go out to the car and get my guitar.” And I went out and got his guitar, and Uncle J.B. just reamed the place out. It was so awesome you know because we were backing him and he just smoked the place and the people were just insane when he left there. It was awesome. It was great because we didn’t expect nothing like that when we got his guitar and brung it in and he started playing. And Uncle J.B. could sing. I wish I had his voice. I mean I think I can sing a little bit. I don’t know how well, but my Uncle J.B. could hit these really high notes and he’d sing them and the ladies just jumped up and start hollering and screaming and me and Pookie, we standing up there with our eyes popping out and our mouths wide open. We had no idea what Uncle J.B. was putting on these people.

I started getting a real taste for it after that because to see these people react and then he started walking all around the bar and these people were just — he’s standing up on tables and these people are going crazy and I’m thinking, man, I want that. I want that so bad, you know. And then after that, he left again and he come back and he stayed with us a little while. He stayed with us for about a month and a half.

I don’t know what had happened between him and his band but he needed us to play with him for a gig and he took us to Indiana, South Bend, Indiana, at a place called Vegetable Buddies and man it was me, him, J.D. Butler and Pookie. And J.D. Butler was the coolest drummer you’d ever want to meet. He drum and his hands would be like they were sitting still and he’s doing all these crazy rolls and frills, you couldn’t see his hands move they were moving just that fast. And he talked like he talked real funny. “You know J.B. that boy we gone have some good times.” And me and Pookie we were cracking up we laughing at this guy because he’s got this little tiny voice and he was what maybe six one, six two maybe a hundred and eighty pounds maybe two hundred pounds and he had this little voice. “Hey boy you. Just like J.B.” and we were laughing at him and so this was my first introduction to herb because J.D. would smoke that herb so he gave me a puff of that stuff. And then Uncle J.B. he’s coming – get rid of that stuff. He going to get real mad if he finds out and me and J.D. were sitting in the room, we’re laughing until we’re crying because we stoned out of our minds and J.B. comes in “It’s time to go,” you know.

We get in the van and we go down to Vegetable Buddies. Me and J.D. were stoned, we’re just stoned. We get on the stage and the stage is just huge, you know, and J.B. looks at me and he goes, he knew I had to be stoned. He knew it and I don’t know how and he says, “I want you to play that damn thing like you never played before.

And scared me. Scared me so bad because I knew then he know something was going on. And he looked at J.D. and he said, “I’ll talk to you later.”

And then he just cut out with a tune, man, and me and Pookie was right on it because we knew what he was gonna play and we was right on it. And they had tree trunks for tables in this place. I’m talking about literally redwood tree trunks and they were slanted you know the tables was kind of slanted, and this stage had to be five feet high. I don’t know, and J.B. jumped off that stage. Going back to that before we got started J.B. had a two hundred foot cord and I thought what in the hell am I gonna do with all this cord he giving me? I can’t even wind all this stuff up. J.B. jumps off the stage, you know what I mean, and he’s walking these tables, man, these crooked tables. He walking them and he’s playing and me and Pookie, we playing and had our mouths wide open because we amazed at this shit. We had never seen that before and then he gets out in the middle of the people and he looks back at me and he does this, he just beckons for me. And I’m terrified, man, because I’m already scared to death because it’s twenty-five hundred people in this place and I’m playing and I’m shaking my head, No, no, no.

And J.B. had a look that he’d give me and Pookie and we knew he meant business at that point. And he gave me that look. And he beckoned one more time. And I jumped off that stage man. I jumped off that stage and I had on some tight jeans and I squatted when I hit the floor, and I heard something go rip and I immediately bounced backwards up on top of the stage. And the people went crazy. They asked me to do that all night long. It made me laugh.

He gave me his sweater, because it was winter time, to tie around me because I had to play the rest of the night. But the people would come up to me “Little J.B.,” they called me – “Little J.B., do that what you did a few minutes ago.” And there’s no way in heck that I could ever do that again.

But that was the thing about coming up with Uncle J.B. He’d take me to Wise Fools Pub, he’d take me to Blues, he’d put these big hats on me, paint a mustache on me and he’d get to the door and the guy would say, “J. B., now you know that boy’s too young to be up in here.” “Well, don’t give him no drinks.”

And J.B. would give me a shot of Irish coffee. It put me drunk as a skunk. Didn’t know he was drunk. We drinking this Irish Coffee drunk as fish. But I mean those were the days when I think music was at the top, especially blues was at the top of the peak. I mean people were – I seen Uncle J.B. jump off the stage and fall flat on his back and just lay in the middle of the floor. And me and Pookie reaching for him and he’s like, “No, no, leave me alone. I’m fine. And we know he’s hurtin’ man. We know he hurtin’ but he just laid there and played. He played and then he got up and walked back to the stage and the people just went nuts. But that was Uncle J.B. and he talked to me a lot when he soon saw I was actually trying to get a band. And he told me, said, “Well, there’s three things, when you get a band, treat your band. First of all you’ll know when you got the right band members. See, you gonna go through a lot of them. Second of all, he said, treat them right when you got the right ones, treat them with respect. Pay them good and they’ll stick with you.” He said, “And number three, you ain’t going to get rich, but you will pay the bills,” and he was right. He was right.

And sometimes I, when my wife comes to me, “You know we got to pay that light bill next week” – I think of Uncle J.B.. I say you put the whammy on me. But it does. It does pay the bills and I get a little few extras out of it I can buy me some colorful gym shoes, get me a new guitar every once in a while, and I’m satisfied. There’s another thing I inherited from him: energy comes from the audience, and he told me that too. He said when you get on that stage you gonna get a lot of energy, he said you know where it’s gonna come from? I said, “No.”

He said it’s gonna come from your fans and always treat your fans with respect. They pay your bills, they gonna pay your bills. And he wasn’t lying because when I get on that stage and I see everybody smiling and having a good time, man, my body is just energized. I feel the energy coming from my toes all the way up to my head and I say to myself, “Ed, it’s time to go to work.”

You know, my guys, they have – they don’t understand how I can do it. I mean I get on that stage and I just blast out. Because I know what it takes to get it done, to get the job done. It ain’t about how good you are and it ain’t about how good you think you look. It’s about my fans. They come to have a good time. They come to enjoy themselves. So I want to give them what they want and when I see them happy, when I see that foot going like that, the people bobbing and weaving like that, well then I know I’m good. I know I’m doing my job. And sometimes Michael, my rhythm player, he’ll look at me and say, “Ed, I’m glad you’re the leader and I’m not.” But that’s OK. You know what? –  I’ve had some good times. I’ve had bad times in this business. You know, when I first started out I had a lot of people walking up to me giving me shit but I didn’t never think I’d get in trouble. I’m talking about drugs now, and I ain’t ashamed to say it because we all went through it. Everybody had a little bit of it. If they didn’t have none, they had a little bit of it. You know I got in that shit and it kind of took me off balance for a while. But I got back in time to thank God and I know what I’m here for and I know what I need to do. You know, I can’t turn around now I’ve come too far.”

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Dr. Barry Lee Pearson, Professor in the English Department at the University of Maryland, stands as the most steadfast supporter of the local acoustic blues scene in the greater Washington, D.C., area and beyond. As a musician, author, college lecturer, folklorist, and personal friend to the musicians, he has been the voice of this regional and national blues scene.