Kiwi blues and R&B musician Midge Marsden plans to retire and will play his last New Plymouth show on August 31.

Kiwi rhythm and blues star Midge Marsden is retiring after more than 50 years in the industry so he can get out with a little dignity left.

"Rather than 'oh here comes Midge Marsden again dragging his sad old arse back' and just getting ten people in sticky carpet pubs," the 72-year-old laughed.

"It's time."

For a man with more than half a century in the game there's bound to be many highlights, but one in particular tops the list - his friendship with American blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan.

READ MORE:

*Kiwi bluesman Midge Marsden keeps travelling on

*How the Daily News gave Midge Marsden the blues

*Marsden brings back memories of 60s Tiger Town

"We went to Poor Richard's Pub in Lower Greenville, Texas, there was a guy called Anson Funderburgh playing guitar and Sam Myers singing and when we got in they said 'Stevie's in town, shall we get him up to do a few songs?' and everyone goes 'yeah' and this young guy got up with a cowboy hat on and looking Texas cool and when he started to play I just went 'wow, who is this dude?' It was Stevie Ray Vaughan. He'd never met anyone from New Zealand before."

The pair developed a friendship over their shared love of the blues, with Vaughan visiting Marsden in New Zealand and starring in the 1988 Europa Oil commercial.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Marsden says he no longer needs 15 guitars, his 10 amplifiers or 5000 LPs.

Another highlight for Marsden was his 1991 hit Burning Rain going platinum with the sale of one million copies.

"That was a big moment."

Marsden grew up in Tiger Town, now known as Moturoa in New Plymouth, and talks about it fondly.

The suburb was close to Port Taranaki, where Marsden would wait for sailors to bring in records from abroad for him to devour. It also had a milkbar with the best jukebox in town, he says.

He put Tiger Town on the map with his 2014 song named after it referencing his time and the people there.

"Daisy and her beehive will get what you need/ Frank's banana boat bringing in the crays."

He's come a long way since then when he was the Tiger Town kid with the bright red Fender Stratocaster, he says.

"Bari Gordon from Stratford phoned me up and said 'I hear you've got a Fender Stratocaster' and I had. I'd just spent all my paper round and milk round money on it.

"It was 120 pounds, my parents were horrified, 'you spent that on what?'. This was 1963 and that's a deposit on a house back then."

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Marsden's friendship with American blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of the highlights of his career.

Gordon had heard about this "flash Fender guitar", now worth $18,000 to $20,000, that no one else had in Taranaki.

"Of course I could hardly play it," Marsden laughed. "But he taught me quick."

Marsden would travel down regularly to Stratford to practise in the barn at the Gordon's Croydon Rd farm.

"I knew two chords when I went down there and learnt a third one. I was away."

Those barn yard practices eventually led to being the backing band for Johnny Cooper's, also known as The Māori Cowboy, talent quest.

After years of playing in bands, touring New Zealand, Australia, and America, some time in broadcasting, and a stint in the army, Marsden came back to New Plymouth in 1980 and started playing under his own name.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Marsden said performing in New Plymouth feels like the coming full circle.

Even though he's a performing pro, he still has to shake his nerves before taking the stage.

"I get nervous before every gig without fail. Bit of stress and here it comes. I've never lost that nervous thing.

"Once I'm there and we're away, it's okay generally."

Music hasn't been Marsden's entire life though, he's always had other things on the side like gardening at a rest home close to his Auckland home and teaching English and music history at Waikato Polytech.

"I had Neill Finn stop by my class to talk to the kids and he showed them the royalty check for one year of radio plays for Don't Dream It's Over in America and it was close to $1 million. They're all sitting there thinking 'wow, we could do this'."

Marsden could talk about music forever, his passion for it is obvious, that's why he stayed in the game seven years past retirement age.

But now it's time to slow down, enjoy life, and de-clutter.

"I've got so much stuff. I don't need 12 or 15 guitars, I don't need 10 amplifiers, I've got 5000 LPs, I've got cassettes, I've got CDs. You stare at them but you don't really play them."

He wouldn't mind teaching again either, purely for the love of it.

"If young people are interested in any of this music stuff, I'm not after any money."

Marsden officially finishes up in April, although he is hesitant to say it will definitely be the end. He will play his last hometown gig at the New Plymouth Club on August 31.

"It's always nice to come back. The circle is complete, back where I started."

Tickets to Midge Marsden's New Plymouth show are available through Eventfinda.