I'm on an international conference line, waiting for Bobby Whitlock to come to the phone. The connection crackles or was that the clearing of a throat, or the wildly flapping butterflies in my tummy, “Hello Bobby, can we start?” I ask, not without trepidation and in his Southern drawl he says he is.
“As a child I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the real rhythm and blues. I heard people sing in the fields when they were working and I used to sneak into Black churches and listen to them play real music,” explains Bobby who was born in Memphis and raised in the heartland of the blues.
“I am a singer, song writer and musician and I sing the same as I play and vice versa. My songs come naturally, they come from life and experiences,” says Bobby who is most known for his association with his band Derek And The Dominoes and his friendship and music collaborations with Eric Clapton. About his relationship with Clapton he says, “He and I never had a cross word, he is easy and pleasurable to work with and I haven't worked as well with anybody else, except for Coco Carmel, who lifts me up. Musicians like them bring the best out of you and it is an amazing feeling because at the end of the day you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with and this makes for a stronger bond.”
His friendship with Eric Clapton shines through in the foreword that Clapton has penned for Bobby's autobiography, “Bobby Whitlock: A Rock ‘n' Roll Autobiography” which he wrote with the help of rock historian Marc Roberty. “It was a personal exercise on emptying out. I didn't even mean to write it, not in a million years. It was only meant to be a cathartic outpouring and then I started capturing it in story form and it was Marc who approached me and convinced me to get serious about it.”
Bobby and his partner Coco Carmel will be in the city for the Puravankara Indigo International Jazz And Blues Festival, where he will play with some home-grown blues bands. “This is my first performance in India, hopefully the first of many times. This tour of India is extra special for me, as Coco and I will be renewing our vows in Kovalam, Kerala.”
The Purvankara Indigo Jazz And Blues Festival will be held on May 18 and 19 at the Eden Garden, Palace Grounds. For more information, log on to http://www.radioindigo.fm/indigoandblues or call 9900134919.
