I read his book a few years ago, and was quite surprised to learn that he had been making ends meet by driving a tow truck. And this went on until fairly recently.
Yep. Long ago I had his first album on 8-track, and frankly it was a bit disappointing. Although that may have been because I was expecting something different - this is the guy who toured with Joplin, the Band, and the freakin' Dead after all. Much, much later I got hold of some bootleg (also 8-track lol) and was blown away. I was never a huge fan of Hendrix' style, but he certainly had energy coupled with technical excellence. Guy has that same energy and even greater technical excellence, but much cleaner licks. Looking into his career one sees a lot of classic rock's signature guitar sounds being played long before the bands that made them popular. He was a first rate studio musician in the fifties and sixties, but pretty much forced to stay there until his break-out in '67 - but then around '70 he was down again. Couple revivals along the way, but really no major success until Clapton started pushing him.
Found this guy while listening to Guy, Clapton and King. He was an invited guitarist at one of Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals. He's a young guy and I thought him full of himself when he spoke of "learning from each other" and being "in awe of each other" as he was in the company of several legends, but dude is phenomenal. He plays a 13 string pedal steel guitar and it sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. I've always had something of a fondness for steel guitars' sound, but this is the first true virtuoso I've heard play. He's on Rolling Stone's 100 all-time best guitar players.
Robert Randolph and The Family Band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxrDTFBHTnQ
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