Bo Diddley Interview: “I’m The Son-Of-A-Bitch That Did It!”

By: Arlene R. Weiss

In May 2001, I was deeply honored to interview the late, great, legendary Bo Diddley before he passed away. At the time, some 72 years young, he was still vibrant, regaling me with nostalgic creative stories and even scat singing to me. Bo was imbued with such a playful sense of humor, and a lifelong love for music and the guitar.

Those very sensibilities deeply informed Bo, who despite or rather in spite of his age, was still on the road, blazing the live performance stage, on an often grueling, yet personally fulfilling, tour schedule. Bo was proudly headlining a stellar host of international blues and jazz festivals and proving that he still was indeed “The Originator,” a true musical architect and original founding father of Rock ‘N’ Roll. His immense influence, impact, and beloved legacy to music and popular culture are carried on to this day by so many artists, and he is very much missed. Here’s a fond look back, with the one and only Bo Diddley.

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Icon, legend, musical pioneer… all apt terms when referring to Bo Diddley, whose name has become synonymous with putting the “rock” in rock ‘n’ roll. As one of the original founding fathers of the genre, over the course of half a century, his devotees include the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, George Thorogood, and Richie Sambora, just to name a few, all who look to him as one of the all time great influences who literally changed the landscape of modern music.

This elder statesman’s impact on these artists is immeasurable. Many of these artists not only have regularly collaborated with him, but also have covered his gargantuan repertoire of self penned, classic tunes, from “Who Do You Love” to “Before You Accuse Me”, often to chart topping success, helping to bring to what Diddley himself concedes is his long overdue and well deserved recognition.

Diddley was born Ellas Otha Bates, Sunday, December 30, 1928 in rural McComb, Mississippi. Upon being adopted by relative Gussie McDaniel, he took the name Ellas McDaniel. In the mid 1930’s, his family moved to Chicago’s south side and at just eight years old, he took up twelve years of classical music training, playing the violin. A natural musical talent, he began composing, writing two concertos for the violin. Intrigued by stringed instruments, he couldn’t resist his first guitar, an acoustic Harmony that his sister Lucille bought him for Christmas in 1940.

During his teens, he was nicknamed Bo Diddley by friends, accounted for by several stories, one being a reference to his sparring days as a boxer. Another made reference to a “diddley bow”, an American stringed instrument with indigenous West African origins.

The newly christened Bo Diddley then began what would be a lifelong fascination with rhythm. At one time he even considered being a drummer, but was enamored by the guitar’s limitless ways to continually explore, manipulate, and create rhythm and beat, ultimately leading to Diddley’s implementation of the guitar as a means to create his revolutionary, signature “Bo Diddley Beat.”

Forming his first band, The Hipsters, in the mid to late 1940’s, which were later known as The Langley Avenue Jive Cats, he became enthralled with the rhythmic bebop, jive sound of the Big Band era. Then in 1954, he recorded a two song demo of his own original material, “Uncle John” and “I’m A Man,” and brought it to the attention of the respected Chess Records’ founders, brothers Leonard and Phil Chess. The brothers asked Diddley to rewrite“Uncle John” to the reincarnated, catchier version known as “Bo Diddley” and released it with “I’m A Man” as Diddley’s first record on Chess’ subsidiary label, Checker Records.

Diddley’s record was a hit on the R&B charts but the business savvy musician knew that he needed something special to permanently define him and his music in the public eye. And so he developed “Bo Diddley” as a literal stage persona in itself, setting about creating his own trademark, a totally innovative musician and entertainer, unlike anyone else.

First, he decided to build himself a guitar that looked like no other. He designed and constructed a custom built square shaped guitar for himself, he then commissioned Gretsch Guitars and Kinman Guitar Electrix to build further custom built square shaped models for him, and recently has been seen sporting a custom built Fender Stratocaster with a built in drum machine, heralded as “The coolest looking machine on the planet.”

Bo has become renowned for developing his barnstorming stage act built on flamboyant, theatrical showmanship and breakneck musicianship, strutting the stage with fur covered, leather bound guitars, playing them in acrobatic positions, and performing with a tongue in cheek, cooler than cool bravado, proving that Bo knows he is the one and only master of his domain.

The years have brought Diddley nearly every award and honor in music and in 1987, at long last, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Outspoken, outrageous, and most definitely, out of sight, this quintessential showman is by his own boastful admission, “still rocking at 72 years old.” Not one to mince words, here the salty Diddley elaborates on his career, his music, and a new record in the works, just days before being set to play The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival held May 19-20, 2001 headlining the bill with artists including Jonny Lang, Sue Foley, and longtime musical friend and collaborator George Thorogood. Bo Diddley, in his own words, proudly looking forward, proudly looking back.

Arlene R. Weiss: Starting with your earliest musical experiences, wasn’t the violin the very first instrument that you played?

Bo Diddley: Oh yeah! I studied classical music and the violin for twelve years.

Arlene: How did you get started with the violin and what made you want to take up that particular instrument first?

Bo Diddley: That started when I took lessons from Professor O.W. Frederick who taught me. I was a kid, eight years old when I first started. I’d seen something that looked like it was a lot of fun so I wanted to do it, and the church bought me one.

Arlene: So did you play in church?

Bo Diddley: Yes I did! It was at my church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Arlene: I understand you actually were a classical composer, composing two violin concertos? Was that naturally self taught?

Bo Diddley: Yeah I did! I just wrote them and since we got the electronic thing now, I’ve learned how to do it on the guitar.

Arlene: What motivated you to write classical concertos?

Bo Diddley: That’s what I was taught. I learned how to put the notes and the movements in the places in the concertos. And you know, concertos are a whole lot different from rock ‘n’ roll, country, any other music. Strauss, Haydn….

Arlene: Stradivarius!

Bo Diddley: Yeah! I have a Stradivarius violin. It’s from way back. Someone gave it to me in Venice. I think his name was Hans.

Arlene: In Christmas 1940, your sister Lucille bought you your first guitar. Because you were playing classical music, what motivated her to buy you an instrument associated with rock, blues, and contemporary, popular music?

Bo Diddley: I saw a guitar and I wanted it because it had strings on it and I’d seen that if John Lee Hooker could play guitar, I knew I could learn how.

Arlene: What was your first guitar?

Bo Diddley: I think it was a Kay. It could have been a Harmony. It’s been so long….It looks more in my mind like a Harmony. I think the Kay came after. You know what? It was a Harmony because it was white with gold stripings on it and it cost twenty nine dollars!

Arlene: Didn’t you originally want to be a drummer? What drew you to percussion and wanting to be a drummer?

Bo Diddley: That’s something I love that I still do.

Arlene: What’s your lifelong fascination with rhythm and beat? That’s always been such an integral part of you as a musician. Even though you’re a guitarist, what you’re renowned for is the way you approach your guitar playing, the way you put that beat on there.

Bo Diddley: I play as if I had one hand playing the drum. That actually comes from the violin playing also with the strokes at the bow and bridge movement.

Arlene: What made you decide to professionally take up playing the guitar rather than the drums?

Bo Diddley: Well both hands were trying to do the same thing and I couldn’t separate them so I had to back off and just stay with the guitar. And I could do different things with the guitar, but I couldn’t do different things with the drums, rolls and stuff.

Arlene: What sparked you to translate and develop percussion beats and rhythms into your own unique sound on the guitar? How did you initially develop and discover….

Bo Diddley: One of the things to answer your question, was I didn’t want to be like anybody else, so I had to try to create a thing that would, if I did anything….I would be recognized for what I did, not copying somebody else.

Arlene: Can you explain your technique and do you use a pick or fingerpick?

Bo Diddley: I strum and I use a pick.

Arlene: When and how did you form your first group, The Hipsters and then you later changed the name to….

Bo Diddley: The Langley Avenue Jive Cats! Things were changing with slang names and nicknames in Chicago where I was raised at. I decided, everybody was using the word hip cat. That means a dude with a pair of baggy pants on, a Zoot suit!

Arlene: Like Cab Calloway and Eubie Blake!

Bo Diddley: A hip cat, now they were hip dudes. See every generation’s got their own slang words. We decided to change the name from The Hipsters to The Langley Avenue Jive Cats. That came from a song that a group had out in Chicago . Those guys went, (singing) “Hit that jive jack, put it in your pocket right in the back. We’re going downtown to see my girl. Da Dee Da Dee Dee Dee.” These guys were what we call hip cats. I said we will name our group The Hipsters and then came The Langley Avenue Jive Cats. We wanted to be seen, heard, and remembered so we figured that word, Hipsters, would catch onto people and it did. All in Chicago we had it going on.

Arlene: What time period did you form the group?

Bo Diddley: Oh my goodness….I was about sixteen years old.

Arlene: Big Band era?

Bo Diddley: About 1943, somewhere around there. [singing] “Hey bobba bebop!” [Both laugh]

Arlene: What styles of music did your group perform?

Bo Diddley: Oh basically we didn’t do the blues because I couldn’t play it so we did rhythm, the same as I do today. I’m a rhythm fanatic!

Arlene: I wonder why people categorize you as blues or rock because you’re really more about different styles of rhythm.

Bo Diddley: I classify myself as a showman. And I do things with that guitar.

Arlene: What’s the real story, the true story about how you acquired the name Bo Diddley?

Bo Diddley: Well I was in grammar school in Chicago and the kids started calling me Bo Diddley. I used it when I used to box in the neighborhood. We called ourselves The Little Neighborhood Golden Gloves Bunch. We used to spar with each other, stuff like that, so it was like a nickname.

Arlene: Why did you choose for your first demo the two songs, “Uncle John” and “I’m A Man”?

Bo Diddley: That’s what I had at the time. I went to Chess records and sang it for them and they told me to go back home and rewrite the words to “Uncle John” because it was a little bit rough and I went and came back with “Bo Diddley.” Actually I want to record the original version of “Uncle John” and I’m thinking about doing that.

Arlene: Right. The material they considered then to be too risque or a little tongue in cheek, by nowadays standards is very tame. Actually it was more innuendo.

Bo Diddley: Yeah. It never had any curse words. It had “two-meaning” words.

Arlene: Getting to your showmanship, you’re renowned for your trademark square shaped guitars. What made you decide to build yourself your first square shaped guitar?

Bo Diddley: I wanted to be different. I designed it in 1958 and it was built by Gretsch. Fred Gretsch’s grandfather built the first one I think. Now, Fred Gretsch and the Gretsch Company is building my guitars. But I built the very first one myself. I made the pickups out of a Victrola needle and put it on the body. [<emLaughing</em>] I found out that Victrola needles would make sound. I just put some wires to the body and it made sound and became electric. But it wasn’t that great. The idea behind it actually was that I didn’t have any money, so I tried to make my own electric guitar. Then in 1958, I went and had Gretsch in Brooklyn to build my first custom made guitar. I went to this music store in New York and they ordered and got Gretsch to build it for me.

Arlene: How did you come up with the idea for the fur covering and the leather binding on your guitars?

Bo Diddley: I just wanted something different.

Arlene: With the fur covering and the leather binding, how are you able to maintain the proper tone, acoustics, and the sound of the instrument?

Bo Diddley: It doesn’t have anything to do with affecting the tone. It’s all about the guy that’s playing it!

Arlene: Does the fur or leather interfere with the essential components in the guitar’s construction, the bridge, the pickups, the wiring, or wood?

Bo Diddley: No, it doesn’t bother anything at all.

Arlene: Can you detail your immense use of reverb, tremolo, distortion and a multitude of effects?

Bo Diddley: I never used those things until the later years. The distortion and effects came from raggedy speakers! [Laughing] Speakers that have busted cones!

Arlene: Don’t you have a preference for Gibson Humbuckers?

Bo Diddley: I probably do. But you know, I never paid any attention. I just got pickups. If it looks good, if I like the way they look and when they put it together it sounds ok, it’s alright with me.

Arlene: How did you develop your signature infamous beat on the guitar, making musicians realize that a guitar could be used for rhythm?

Bo Diddley: I didn’t know that I did that! Somebody decided to sit down and describe what I’m doing and I’m the son-of-a-bitch that did it!

Arlene: You play the guitar in various acrobatic positions.

Bo Diddley: I only hang it low. I used to straddle it when I was on the stage at The Apollo Theater and stuff like that, but at my age today, I don’t do that anymore.

Arlene: What made you decide to incorporate theatrical elements into your live shows?

Bo Diddley: That’s the reason why I say I’m a showman. I opened at The Apollo in 1955 playing rock ‘n’ roll.

Arlene: Tell me about your infamous “Mean Machine” square guitar and its creator Chris Kinman of Kinman Guitar Electrix in Brisbane, Australia. How did you learn of Chris and become involved with him?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. That was when I was in Australia. I think it was about fifteen years ago or so. Some friends of mine, a group called Rat Salad, they were a group that I knew in Australia. They told me of this guy that made guitars and I had Chris Kinman build me one.

Arlene: How did he come up with all the unique choices of different woods, New Guinea Walnut, Honduras Mahogany, Silver Ash, and New Guinea Rosewood?

Bo Diddley: He liked it and it sounded good. Well over there, you got different woods over there, different kinds of trees. But Rat Salad turned me on to him.

Arlene: What are your main guitars for the studio and for performing live?

Bo Diddley: The Gretsch and my other custom built square ones. I still got “The Mean Machine.” I got another one too.

Arlene: Using such uniquely constructed and designed guitars, being made of specially constructed materials, all these different woods, the leather, the fur, does that create any special requirements or challenges in what types of strings, pickups, effect pedals, and amps that you need to use to achieve your tone and sound?

Bo Diddley: No. That doesn’t come under the Bo Diddley heading.

Arlene: It’s just your own natural playing?

Bo Diddley: It’s the person that’s playing the instrument. But I will tell you that I use Dean Markley strings. I been using them for years. They’re the greatest.

Arlene: What about your custom built Fender Stratocaster with the built in drum machine? Was that your idea as well?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. I just decided to build it. Oh, it was a couple of years ago.

Arlene: You’re also renowned for your writing some of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and the Blues’ all time classic songs, including “I’m A Man” and “Who Do You Love.” Can you describe your writing process for both lyrics and music and what inspires you?

Bo Diddley: I do my rhythm, my beat, whatever, and timing and keys that I’m gonna do. I do the scratch tracks first. Then I put lyrics to it. I just write lyrics and I construct my rhythm pattern and put them down, make a demo track, and then sing to the track. I do all my own stuff unless I need somebody else to play something that I don’t play.

Arlene: Do you hear the beat that you want to create in your head?

Bo Diddley: No, not really. It’s created as I go.

Arlene: Countless artists from the Rolling Stones to George Thorogood to The Animals have all cited you as an incredible influence. They’ve covered your songs and you’ve also collaborated with a great deal of these artists. How does that feel to be an influence on so many musicians?

Bo Diddley: Oh yeah. It’s a great feeling. I know them all and they’re all good friends of mine.

Read GI’s recent interview with George Thorogood on his new album, which includes a cover of Bo Diddley’s tune “Bo Diddley”!

Arlene: What about your collaboration in 1988 with The Rolling Stone’s Ron Wood when the two of you toured the U.S. and Europe as The Gunslingers? How did that come about?

Bo Diddley: That’s my buddy! All of them are, from Mick on up. I’ve been friends with everybody in the Rolling Stones for years since around 1962. Ron and I decided to put that together, and it was really great.

Arlene: You were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. What were your emotions when you were inducted?

Bo Diddley: It felt pretty good. Better late than never.

Arlene: It should have been earlier.

Bo Diddley: Well yes. But that’s the political aspect of the music business.

Arlene: Your induction was done by award presenters ZZ Top, who have professed to being one of your most devout admirers. They have credited you with inspiring them to put fur on their guitars. How does that feel? Is that flattering? It had to tickle you.

Bo Diddley: Yeah! They tickled me when they did it! [Laughs]

Arlene: Have you worked with them?

Bo Diddley: Oh yeah! I’ve worked with ZZ Top and just about everybody.

Arlene: Are you currently working on a new album? How far along is that?

Bo Diddley: Well I’ve just got a lot of stuff I’m working on, a lot of stuff that I want to put together.

Arlene: Are you writing the material yourself?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. I’m doing a lot of stuff that I won’t be able to do in public because I’m not doing what everybody else is doing. I’m doing my old stuff with my guitar and then I’m doing a lot of button pushing, electronically just for dancing, listening music for people,

that was created by Bo Diddley. I won’t be able to perform some of this stuff cause I can’t carry all of these damn machines with me. [Laughing] But the material is all stuff I’m writing off the top of my head.

Arlene: Have you cut some basic tracks for it yet?

Bo Diddley: Oh yeah.

Arlene: Do you have a tentative name for the album yet?

Bo Diddley: Some of the names are probably “A New Movement,” or “Bo Diddley’s Movement” or “The Best Of Jump.” Then there’s the stuff from the 60’s that I’m also putting together. A lot of old stuff on old tapes, but I’m trying to get what I can off of them, put it all on CD, cause I’m thinking that a lot of people that wasn’t even born then would like to hear what I sounded like in the 60’s.

Arlene: Will you be using vintage equipment, the square shaped Gretsch?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. I got old machines here, old two-track tape recorders.

Arlene: So you’re not using any digital equipment, just analog?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. I love that stuff! I like the taped stuff. That’s my thing.

Arlene: How did you get involved with the 1989 “Bo Knows” Nike commercials with athlete Bo Jackson. Didn’t that commercial really help propel your career as an artist, and your music into the popular mainstream?

Bo Diddley: Yeah. My manager put that together for me.

Arlene: Who are your musical influences?

Bo Diddley: You asked the wrong question baby. [Laughs]

Arlene: Why’s that? [Laughs]

Bo Diddley: Because nobody influenced me. I don’t sound like anybody!

Arlene: Who are some of the artists that you admire?

Bo Diddley: I admire Ray Charles, George Thorogood, The Rolling Stones, The Drifters, The Shirelles, Bill Haley and The Comets. It just goes on and on. Fats Domino, many people, many artists. I can’t name them all.

Arlene: Your last album, released in 1997, “A Man Amongst Men” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. This new album that you’re working on, what new creative territory do you hope to explore in keeping with your nickname, “The Originator”?

Bo Diddley: First of all the guy that won the Grammy Award for the best blues album back then, I had never heard of him, when I had the nomination, and he ain’t never been heard from no more. I feel like I said, that it was political. But this album is something that I’m planning on doing myself. I don’t have a company looking to sign Bo Diddley and to be honest with you, I’m not really looking for anybody that wants to do something unless they’re gonna kick out a lot of money for me to put my name on a piece of paper, cause I been robbed as it is of most of my royalties.

Arlene: There are so many artists who haven’t seen their royalties.

Bo Diddley: That’s the dent in America’s justice system. They allow people to rip you off and when you catch them, they got something called the statute of limitations. Ain’t no statute of limitations on murder and in some ways, they murdered me.

Arlene: You’ve written a lot of material.

Bo Diddley: I got about 240 to 250 songs out of it. MCA already has a box set out on me. I just want to say that I’m still rocking at seventy two years old. I would like to say something to kids. You can be a Rock and Roller, stay away from the drugs, obey your parents, and do what your teacher tells you to do. No vacation, until you get a good education!

Arlene: For real. Education, and the arts are everything.

Bo Diddley: Baby, I’m gone!

Copyright August 15, 2011 By Arlene R. Weiss-All Rights Reserved
Copyright May 14, 2001 By Arlene R. Weiss-All Rights Reserved