How Do You Say Thank You   by: Jeff Hightower

How do you say thank you to your heroes? I recently had a candid interview with famed blue/rock/jazz musician Dr. Jeff Healey. From the very beginning of this interview, I was overwhelmed by his knowledge, honesty, and conviction. We talked about everything from his blindness as a musician, to the music industry and what drives him as a musician. He pulled no punches and answered with the truth. In a world of selling the artist, he didnt care. Simply put, it was Jeff pure and simple. Back in 1989 I watched a movie called Roadhouse. There was this band featured in the movie as the local bar band. During one scene, the band played a ferocious rendition of Willie Dixon’s Hoochie-Coochie Man. This sound locked itself in my brain. It began to spread through my whole body. At that point I found meaning and purpose. This was without a doubt (and still today) the strongest sound I have ever heard. It relied on the basics of blues with the power of rock. It grabbed you and made you listen. Like the old Delta and Chicago style blues, it was sung with reason and purpose (at least to me). It gave me the desire and want to take up a guitar and start searching for a sound. Skip forwards over a decade and a half and I have a column for a growing local music website. My job is to punch through all the politics and get to the heart of music. I considered myself the voice of the people. I had a thought to try and interview a few big names for the site. One of the first, I set out to attain was Jeff Healey. I knew it was a long shot, but being mule-headed & stubborn, I made a few calls. Months later, I was actually given permission to talk with Jeff. We initially had a short conversation setting up the interview. I started gathering information and studying his current area of music. I was determined to find out what made him who he was. How many times do you actually get to sit down and talk with your heroes? 28 minutes of interview later and I had found my answer. After all these years of playing music, I finally understood. He didn’t want fame from music. To borrow a phrase from John Cafferty, it was about pride and passion, and the thrill of it all. He spoke to me about hardships of the road, family, and what it was he was after. He overcame everything not to become famous, but to play the music. I feel that a lot of musicians today are looking at goals of world domination. And I see one person who has conquered the world by himself. Not by staying in the spotlight, but by standing in the shadows and doing it his way. I constantly think of what I could do if I ever sold a song. But I have come to that chapter of my musical career where I realize what its all about. If I sell a song and make a few bucks, I will be happy and proud of the achievement. But If I write what I know and never compromise that, I will have become the man and musician that I have been searching for over the past 16 years. So how do you say thank you to your heroes? Quite simply put, thank you for helping me to see. Ain’t it funny how a man with no sight has seen more than most in the music industry ever will. If I never do anything else in music, I have come full circle and achieved the very thing I was after to start with. Finding myself. From the nest…

"Click Here To Hear The Entire Audio Interview."

Click here to visit jeffhealey.com

Back to the nest...