There is only one Bobby Rush.







There can only be one Bobby Rush.







The man who first cracked the R&B/Blues charts back in the early 1970s with “Chicken Heads” is back with a new album aptly titled “Porcupine Meat.”







At 82 years old, Rush plays over 200 dates a year. He has done that for over 60 years. The man has seen and done things few others have.







Rush recently signed with Rounder Records which released “Porcupine Meat” to a large audience providing a resurgence of the legendary bluesman.







I could use more superlatives to describe the incredible career of Rush, but why not just let the man speak for himself.









The Swerve Magazine: You play Moondogs (in Pittsburgh) on Oct. 15.





Bobby Rush: When you are working as many days as I am a year, 200 a year, you forget about where you were yesterday.







SM: 200 shows a year?







BR: I, probably, haven’t worked under 200 shows a year for the last 60 years.







SM: I’ve interviewed bands that think 100 dates a year is working it hard.







BR: Back in the 60s and 70s, there were times when I went as high as 280 shows a year.







SM: You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if you had extended time off the road.







BR: If I get down to 50 days (laughs). This record might put me into a position where I can work less days and still make a decent living.







SM: That is good. Although as long as you are not climbing the walls when you are at home.







BR: That is what I’m talking about. Everything is good. Everything is good.







SM: That leads nicely into talking about “Porcupine Meat.”







BR: Let me start off by saying this is my 300th-or-some-odd record through my career. I believe, I can’t say this is the best one because all of them have been good, but I believe this is the most popular record I have had for 20 years. It came out of the gate swinging and getting the attention that we are getting. I think it is because of this good record and most of it is because I have this army around me to get it out faster, to get it out across the country and put it in places I’ve never been before that I couldn’t do myself. When you don’t have the army around you working it, it takes you longer to get it out and you certainly can’t get it in certain places because you can only be in one place at a time. Had been pretty much doing my own thing. And you can only do so much.







SM: So signing with Rounder Records, what made you sign with them for this album?







BR: I think I kind of outgrew myself and they convinced me. They are a good label and they asked me about a deal like this for some 40 years. I wasn’t interested in going then because I had some other agendas on my list to do with my own label and other things.







One thing that convinced me was the producer Scott Billington came to me, was leery about this because I thought he wanted me to bring him something that he would be satisfied with, that he had some idea. He told me, “No, I just want Bobby Rush. Bring you to the table. And the old Bobby Rush or whatever you bring, I’m cool with it.” When he said that to me, I was really knocked off my feet.



(I thought) he would have some ideas of who he wanted me to be or sound like. He just wanted what he knew about me and record that.







We got to talking and found out that we think alike about the same kind of things. He just wanted old Bobby Rush. He didn’t want anything else. I thought he wanted me to be like a Prince or somebody. You’re thinking with companies, “What do they want from me?”







I just brought my songs with me. I brought my own thing and he did my thing. He was a big help. He knew what he wanted and how he wanted it to go. It just happened. We were blessed with it.







SM: You deserve it for all the years that you worked, it sounds like you finally got the right guy to work with at the right time.







BR: I have thought about it. When you think about it nothing is too late. It is all in time. There is nothing that you can rush in time. I just hope that I can take advantage of the time that is left for me to do what I’m doing. I feel good. I’m still enthused. I’m still learning. I still have hopes. I still love what I am doing and I love the people that I’m doing it for.







SM: I love that you said you are still learning. There are people out there today that feel they have seen it all and they don’t want to learn anything new.







BR: Yeah, they think they know everything. These young people and older people can always tell you something. You live and you learn. And you take what you already know, what people have taught you, and you put it in your craw and you better yourself in life.







SM: That is the way to do it.







BR: That is the only way to do it. I think because of my background as I was raised with my father who taught biblical studies, it has helped me stay in the middle of the road. I’m not a religious nut, but I do study the bible. It is a road map to what I should and should not do. I’m not talking about religion now. I’m talking about treating people how you would like to be treated. Treating people right and doing for yourself. When you can’t do for yourself, you listen to other people, but you don’t let them put a guideline on what you are doing because God helped give me the vision and I’m trying to live it out.







SM: Yes, very well said. Speaking of very well said and well thought out visions, “Porcupine Meat.” What did you do with it that makes you think of it as one of your best?







BR: Well, I’ll tell you what makes it one of the best, (Billington) listened to my songs. I was afraid to bring him a song like “Porcupine Meat,” because I didn’t know what he would think. I thought about when I was bringing a record company “Chicken Heads,” 40-some-odd years ago, they thought I was crazy. “Chicken Heads?” I thought (Billington) was going to say, “Porcupine Meat?”







I told him I had the song “Porcupine Meat, it is too fat to eat and too lean to throw away.” He laughed and told his partner, “Man this is the guy.” Oh man, I was enthused then that he thought something good about what I was saying.







Now, I’m not afraid to bring him all the little silly things that other people might think are silly with their silly titles. It sounds silly, but it makes sense. You following me?







SM: Yes, yes.







BR: I felt at home, then, bringing him somethings that I didn’t bring to other people. I felt at home. I was talking to him about this song called “Dress Too Short.” I’m talking about a lady who wears her dress too short. It is too short as long as she is my lady, but when it is your lady, the dress fits just right (laughs).







And when I brought “Porcupine Meat” to him, I was talking about being in love with someone that liked you, not loved you. It was good to you, but it wasn’t good for you. You want to leave, but you don’t want to leave. You’re afraid to leave that you’ll find somebody just as bad or worse. I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. That is “Porcupine Meat, too fat to eat, too lean to throw away.”







SM: That is a great line. I can see why the producer took to the song.







BR: I wasn’t talking about something you could eat, I was comparing the situation.







SM: Yes and it is a great comparison.







BR: He understood, just like I’m talking to you. You understood it. I was talking to a young promoter, about 22 or 23 years old, he got the message, but I had to talk to him for about 20 minutes before he caught on. He thought I was talking about porcupine meat. “Well, where do you find porcupine meat? What kind of woods are you hunting in?” I said, “Man, I’m not really talking about porcupine meat. It is just a comparison to a love affair.” He finally got it.



Cat, like you been around, you catch it when you first hear it. You know where I’m coming from.







SM: Oh yeah, and I, and other people, I’m sure, appreciate the creativity. There is not a lot of it out there these days.







BR: There is not. I try to write with two or three meanings for a song. Some people say that I write sexual (songs). I do that because people live for money, health, wealth, good times and sex. I talk about the things that people live for. They may not want to talk about it, but that is what they live for. You and I would not have to work if it weren’t for a love affair. We could eat peanut butter and jelly and go to bed. If it weren’t for anybody, but you and I.







SM: Not a lot of people write like that. Or better yet get that they can.







BR: Exactly. It makes me smile when I’m talking with someone who understands what the songs are about, even before we start talking. (“Porcupine Meat) is a great song, but there have been several people I’ve had to explain what I’m talking about.







I have a song that opens the album (“I Don’t Want Nobody Hanging Around”) that says, “I don’t want nobody hanging around my house when I’m not at home.” I’m not just talking about anybody. I don’t want the garbage man. Let me garbage stink until I get home. I don’t want the yard man cutting my yard. I don’t even want the preacher coming by when you are by yourself. If he wants some chicken, let him get it some other way. That line (about the preacher) came when I came up because my father was a preacher. And most of the time, the preacher got this eating feeling for good food for chicken and steaks out there. The chicken thing is a cliched thing that we came up with as kids, especially from the countryside. I was raised an old country boy.







SM: Speaking of growing up, the song “Got Me Accused” deals with you and your life.



BR: Let me tell you, and I know you are already there, that is about me personally. I’m accused. When people see me, even when they see me on stage, they analyze what I’m about already and they really don’t know me. I’m accused of things. “Bobby Rush, you got to be clean tonight, we got an all-ages show tonight and you got to be clean.” What is clean? I’m talking about making love, being in love and it is clean. But when I’m saying it… I don’t know where they are coming from with it. There ain’t nothing wrong about talking about love, making love, being in love. There ain’t nothing wrong about talking about having money to buy things. There ain’t nothing wrong with talking about where you have been if you have plans to go some place. There ain’t nothing wrong with me talking about being a slave because my fore-parents were slaves. It is just you do better for now. What happened to me or someone else in my life, they shouldn’t dwell on it forever. You take it up and you walk with it.







I remember working behind a curtain because they didn’t want to see my face, but wanted to hear my music, but that don’t bother me. Look at what it is today. I’m not talking about the way it should be, but it is so much better than it used to be. I’m so thankful for what it is.







We’ve all been false accused. There are so many things going on with the world today. We are accused of something before found guilty of it. It is what it is. I’m not blaming anyone or myself. I’m talking about what it really is.









SM: It is true. Everyone prejudges before they get to know anyone. Then they run with that prejudgement.





BR: Right. They run with it.







When I get on the stage and come off after singing these kind of songs. First thing as I walk off the stage, a guy will ask “Hey, man, you wanna get high? You wanna have a drink?”



I’ve had three beers in my lifetime. I don’t drink, smoke or get high in no form or fashion. I’ve had wine for dinner. But because of my songs, they think that. They’ve already prejudged me. I’ve already been accused of whatever.







SM: Then, if they are wrong in their prejudgement, they hold it against you.







BR: Exactly.







If I tell people that I don’t drink. Then they don’t want to talk to me. They are thinking I’m something else, that I’m something better than them. So I have a couple of pops. A guy asks if I want a drink, I’ll say I had enough for the night. That is the way I turn them off. I don’t want it to make them think I’m above their drinking. I don’t have anything against their drinking. I just don’t do it. It’s ok. It’s ok.







SM: That is the way the world is.







BR: That is the way it be.







I have a song that I didn’t know how Scott was going to take it. I walked up to him and said I have this song. I had a piece of paper in my hand. There wasn’t anything on the paper. I pretended I was reading from the paper and it was from a lady from a house. It said, “Bobby Rush, I don’t want to be your woman no more. She said I hope you are not mad. I hope you understand. I got a big decision to make and I got business with another man.”







Then I went on (pretending I was still reading from the piece of paper), “Now I’m sleeping all by myself, nobody here, but me, myself and I. As I got up this morning, and I looked at the pillow where my baby used to lay. I went to the window, peeked through the blind and that is when I started to cry. And thought about nobody here, but me, myself and I.”







I think he thought I was reading off some letter that really happened to me, but I was just imagining it in my mind. He just laughed and said, “Look at this guy, he got this letter from the lady.” It wasn’t like that at all. I said that because how many people in life have gotten (that letter) and they don’t want to talk about it. Never said it, so I’ll say it for them.







SM: And that is the power of music.







BR: It is the power of music and the power of words. That is why I have to be so careful because music and words are so powerful. So, I got to be careful with what I say.







SM: With great power, comes great responsibility.







BR: It is like knowledge. The more you know, the more responsibility you have to pass it down to someone else.







SM: Exactly. It is about giving back.







BR: You have to. There is no other way.