Remembering Bo Diddley

Steve Howe (Yes, Asia): “It’s a little bit difficult because he’s not a virtuoso guitarist. But he moved some air, didn’t he, in the same generation as Chuck Berry and Bill Haley. He did have his own sort of sound—it was very simplistic, but very influential.”

Jack Ingram: “One way I look at it is when I listen to Tom Petty, we don’t have “American Girl” without Bo Diddley—and that could be said about thousands of other classic American rock’n’roll tunes. Without Bo Diddley, we’d be missing an entire segment of the soundtrack of our lives. My kid brought me a guitar he made in class the other day; he’s 3 years old, and in preschool they were making guitars that look like Bo Diddley’s. So his influence is bigger than I can fathom. It’s bigger than the money he made or the records he sold.”

Keith Urban: “In ’97 I was in a band called the Ranch. We were opening for Bo at a club in New York City. We finished our set, and I made sure to get out into the audience to see Bo play. I remember he was sick that day—he was apologizing to the audience because he could barely sing—but I didn’t mind, because to compensate he just played longer guitar solos. After his show, we were packing up backstage, and in walks Bo and he says, ‘Hey, boy, was that you just pickin’ on that there guitar?” I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Mmm, you’re a good guitar player, boy,’ and then he just nodded and walked away. I remembered this photo that was taken backstage that night; I’d had it on a table in my apartment for years, but when I moved it was packed up. I actually found it after I was asked by the organizers of the Grammy Awards to play with B.B. King, Buddy Guy and John Mayer as part of a tribute to Bo. It really was a full-circle moment for me.”