The Beatles Sparked Robert Cray's Passion

03/01/2011
. (Gibson) One might assume that Robert Cray was originally inspired to pick up the guitar by someone like B.B. King or Muddy Waters, given his lengthy and successful career as a bluesman. But the five-time Grammy winner says that he was originally inspired to strap on an axe by a decidedly more rock-and-roll act.

"I got a guitar because The Beatles came out," Cray told Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania's Times Leader. "I wanted to be a Beatle, and my parents thought I was nuts."

A couple of years later, Cray says that he was lucky enough to catch a Jimi Hendrix concert, an event that changed his outlook on music and his instrument. "After that, I started listening to all these guys with cool names like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. I got really into blues and R&B right before getting out of high school." more on this story

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