NAMES IN THE NEWS : Bo Jackson Don’t Know Diddly

Rock legend Bo Diddley said his counterpart in two television commercials, sports star Bo Jackson, really doesn’t know diddly about playing the guitar.

“It’s just like you see in the movies. The guitar player who was with us was almost like a stunt man,” Diddley said. “It just looks like he’s playing that guitar, just like it looks like I’m shooting pool. They had me shooting pool, but I can’t shoot pool.”

The first Nike ad, initially aired during the 1989 baseball All-Star Game, showed Jackson playing several sports and a superstar in each sport saying things such as, “Bo knows basketball.”

Then, on a stage with Diddley and his famous box-shaped guitar, Jackson tried to play a guitar, but Diddley told him, “Bo, you don’t know diddly.”

A few months later, Nike came back with a second ad with shots of Jackson and Diddley in a variety of leisure pursuits. It ends with Jackson supposedly playing guitar and Diddley saying the athlete does know diddly after all.

Diddley said the second ad gives the impression that time has passed since the first ad, but both were shot at the same time.

“It’s all just show business,” he told the Birmingham Post-Herald.