‘A Whole Range of Groups and Styles’

Paul Rodgers talks about working with some of the guitarists who can be heard on his new “Muddy Water Blues” album:

* Buddy Guy: “Working with him was probably the highlight of the album for me because I’d been listening to him since I was 13 and in school. He actually knew Muddy Waters and played with him in his band, and for me to sit in the studio with him and have him play one of my songs was a real highlight.”

* Slash: “Slash was a wild card. Jason (Bonham, drummer on ‘Muddy Water Blues’) met him in a club in L.A. and over a few bevies he decided that he should come over and play on one of the tracks. The upshot was that he came down on a Sunday and we got the engineer out of bed to put him on a track. It’s nice that we’ve got all these age groups on here, a whole range of age groups and styles.”

* Jeff Beck: “Jeff (compared the album to his own) ‘Truth’ album, which was very flattering to me because that’s one of my favorite albums of all time. He heard a track and immediately said he wanted to do the whole album, but we had a lot of calls into different people and we had to say, ‘Sorry Jeff--you can’t do the whole thing!’ But we gave him a lot of tracks and he did a fabulous job. I’d love to work with him again.”

* Brian Setzer: “Brian was very shy at first because he didn’t feel like he could step out of his particular (rockabilly) style. But the track he did (‘Can’t Be Satisfied’) was perfectly suited for his style of playing and he did a great job, I feel.”

* Brian May: “Queen used to do this song called ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ with a walking bass line and that sprang to mind for me. He’s not known as a blues player but I told him, ‘Just get your feel on it.’ That’s the only instruction that he--or anyone else--was given in the studio.”