blog

Wednesday June 4, 2008

Rest in peace, Bo Diddley:

We continue to lose our pioneers, the people who blazed the trail so we could rock and roll. Bo Diddley left us earlier this week. My one and only meeting with Bo Diddley was the result of collecting interviews for Johnnie's documentary. Johnnie was sitting in with Bo at a performance at the Alton Belle Casino near St. Louis; two music masters and friends doing what they did best. Before the performance I had about twenty minutes with Bo, who covered a lot of ground. He heaped praise on Johnnie and railed about not getting more recognition.

"Johnnie, when they give him his part on the piano, the man is scary, you understand, he’s scary, but nobody ever figured this out in the earlier years. He should have been in there for the works that he did but nobody never knew it. It’s just like me, I don’t get the recognition that’s due me. I’m the son of a gun that started all this mess, me and Chuck Berry."

Check out these two photos featuring Johnnie and Bo from the photo gallery on this website.

http://www.johnniebegood.net/gallerypage.asp?id=16

http://www.johnniebegood.net/gallerypage.asp?id=15

Only a handful of musicians were there at the beginning of rock and roll. Bo Diddley and Johnnie Johnson are on the short list.

Well done, gentlemen. Well done. Thanks for starting "all this mess".

Art Holliday
Director, JOHNNIE BE GOOD