Was the initial idea for Honeydripper to tell the story of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll?
John Sayles: That was the beginning of the process for me. There really was a Guitar Slim and there’s this rock ‘n’ roll story, which isn’t even a legend, because it actually happened. Guitar Slim had a big hit in the early 50s with a song called The Things I Used To Do – that was actually arranged by Ray Charles when he was in his teens. Slim was known for two things: one was he had a very long extension chord and he would go out into the street and go to the doors of the other clubs and kind of play people back into his club. And he was known to not show up for gigs because he’d partied a little too hard and had some health problems. And he just couldn’t be in every place at the same time. So, Earl King was the best known of them but there were several other guys who later became very famous blues and R’n‘B artists who, when they were young men, had a club owner turn to them and say: “Learn the song, tonight you’re Guitar Slim.” And because that was before there were rock albums and
