“I’ve tried to stay close to Memphis literally or spiritually out of desperation. It’s the only place I’ve ever fit in. It’s the only place I’ve ever been accepted, not to sound too pathetic about it, in the music community, so I treasure my role here — whatever it is.
“There’s something here I drastically need. If I stay away too long, I start to play funny. It creeps into my left hand and from there into my brain. I had to develop a way of playing in Los Angeles that was different, for sure, ’cause there’s a special thing here. That’s why Memphis has been a recording center so many times. It’s kind of a self-devouring organism that occasionally pukes itself back up, and when that happens, there’s something musically interesting going on. Right now, whatever that thing that happens that makes it special is going on in North Mississippi, but I think it’s starting to slip back into Memphis again.”
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