\n<\/p>\n
Buddy Guy would do just about anything for the blues. So when the guitarist and singer got the call for a role in Ryan Coogler\u2019s musical horror period-drama \u201cSinners,\u201d<\/a> the answer was an easy yes.<\/p>\n Then the nerves kicked in.<\/p>\n \u201cMan, I had goose pimples everywhere. I couldn\u2019t hardly sleep that night after shooting and the night before,\u201d Guy, who turns 89 in July, said in a phone interview from his home in Chicago. In his main scene opposite Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, in a bar after the film jumps from the 1930s to the \u201990s, he said he almost needed a stiff drink.<\/p>\n \u201cI never did drink alcohol until I met Muddy Waters and them, and they said, \u2018If you drink a little schoolboy Scotch, Buddy, your nerves would be a little better off.\u2019 And that wasn\u2019t schoolboy Scotch during filming, that was just water, but I hoped they would bring me a shot because I didn\u2019t want them to see me shaking,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n In the film, which has become a box office and critical smash<\/a>, and a cultural phenomenon, Guy portrays the older version of Sammie Moore, a blues musician played by Miles Caton in his earlier years. (The plot revolves around the Smokestack twins, both played by Jordan, and their efforts to ward off vampires, who offer Sammie eternal life.) Guy said he hadn\u2019t watched the entire film yet \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m afraid to see it because I don\u2019t want to say if I\u2019m bad or good\u201d \u2014 but he\u2019s hoping \u201cSinners\u201d bridges the gap between younger audiences and the blues, and shines a light on the genre\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI saw a little clip of the movie and said, \u2018Wow, this may help the blues stay alive.\u2019 Some kid who never heard of the blues might wake up and say, \u2018I better check that out,\u2019\u201d Guy said. \u201cBlues has been treated like a stepchild ever since the big FM stations came out,\u201d he added. He said he made a promise to Waters and B.B. King \u201cthat I would try to keep the blues alive because the blues is the history of all music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The frequent Coogler collaborator Ludwig Goransson<\/a>, the composer and an executive producer of \u201cSinners,\u201d geeked out when he went to Chicago to record a new song<\/a> with Guy, a spare 12-bar blues called \u201cTravelin\u2019.\u201d Goransson, who grew up in Sweden, learned to play the guitar as a child and shares his love for the instrument with his father, who is a blues guitarist and guitar teacher.<\/p>\n \u201cHalf of the day was just me asking questions and getting a bunch of useful information because, I mean, he\u2019s obviously a living legend,\u201d the 40-year-old musician said. \u201cTelling my dad that I\u2019m going to the studio with Buddy Guy was surreal.\u201d (Coogler\u2019s film is personal for the director too; it\u2019s in part a tribute to his uncle James, who was from Mississippi and loved blues music.)<\/p>\n Goransson said the influential bluesman Son House was one of Coogler\u2019s models for \u201cSinners,\u201d and before meeting Guy, Goransson watched a YouTube clip of the two playing guitar and discussing the evolution of music. \u201cThat\u2019s part of what the movie is,\u201d the composer said, adding that he sees its final minutes, when Guy picks up the guitar, as the most powerful part of the film. \u201cIt\u2019s just how he plays it. You can hear all the music in that one-and-a-half minute of him playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The blues sound is at the center of \u201cSinners\u201d and its main inspiration is the blues legend Robert Johnson\u2019s mythical encounter with the devil, in which he exchanged his soul for musical prowess. \u201cThat story has been out for a while,\u201d Guy said, \u201cbut I\u2019m from Louisiana and I don\u2019t believe in all of it.\u201d He waved off the idea of voodoo: \u201cIn my mind, I say, \u2018Oh Buddy, you don\u2019t believe in that whole stuff.\u2019 Because a fortuneteller can tell you how to make money, but he can\u2019t tell himself how to make money \u2014 so I never did fall for that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSinners\u201d has a 22-song soundtrack that features a mix of originals and older tracks, including the gospel classic \u201cThis Little Light of Mine\u201d and the folk tune \u201cWill Ye Go, Lassie, Go?,\u201d along with Guy\u2019s \u201cTravelin\u2019\u201d and contributions from Bobby Rush, Brittany Howard, James Blake, Rod Wave, Rhiannon Giddens and Don Toliver.<\/p>\n Goransson said he was obviously impressed with Guy\u2019s musicianship onscreen, but his acting chops were noteworthy, too: \u201cWhen we tested this film, as soon as he showed up in the movie, people immediately knew this is someone very special.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSinners\u201d isn\u2019t Guy\u2019s first film: He technically made his acting debut in the 2009 thriller \u201cIn the Electric Mist,\u201d a film set in Louisiana starring Tommy Lee Jones that had a limited release in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was just because I was from Louisiana, but they got me to do that,\u201d said Guy, who was born and raised in Lettsworth, a small town about 60 miles from Baton Rouge. \u201cBut I was surprised then. I wasn\u2019t as surprised as I am by this one because every time I turn around somebody calls at me and says, \u2018Man, Buddy, did you see the movie?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He compared the success of \u201cSinners\u201d to meeting his blues idols for the first time: \u201cWhen I first saw B.B. King, I was afraid to say anything, him and Muddy Waters and all those great people, Son House, Fred McDowell. And you can\u2019t dream of that where I come from. This is a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n Guy will hit the road next month \u2014 \u201cwhen you get my age you can\u2019t jump off the stage like I did when I was 23, but I\u2019m going to still give 100 percent\u201d \u2014 and remains dedicated to getting himself, and his fellow blues greats, their proper due.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you got any flowers for me, give them to me so I can smell them because I ain\u2019t going to smell them on the casket,\u201d he recalled telling Louisiana state officials before the naming of Buddy Guy Way in 2018. (The highway runs in front of the plantation where his parents were sharecroppers, and where he picked cotton as a child.) He also led the charge to get a street in Marksville, about 30 miles from where he grew up, named after the harmonica pioneer Little Walter. It happened last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t cry that much, but I cried that day because a lot of musicians should be more recognized than we are,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be fighting for that as long as I\u2019m alive because that music has led to the music you got today. And they should be remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why he was so excited to be part of \u201cSinners\u201d: \u201cI kept pinching myself, saying, \u2018Are you really Buddy? Is this you Buddy?\u2019 Because I didn\u2019t have a high school education and I always felt like, \u2018Be quiet Buddy. Just listen.\u2019\u201d But he\u2019s learned to speak out \u2014 especially when it comes to the blues. That could even mean more acting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever it takes to keep the blues alive,\u201d he said, \u201cjust ask me and I\u2019ll be there before the sunrise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n