This is Part One of the final interview with legendary blues and rock guitarist Michael Bloomfield. It was conducted by Tom Yates and Kate Hayes on February 13th, 1981. Two days later, on February 15th, Mike passed away in San Francisco from a drug overdose. Tom and Kate had planned to come back four days later to continue the interview but unfortunately it was not to be.
Tom and Kate were doing a syndicated radio program on rock guitarists and interviewed Mike to learn about his musical influences as well as his thoughts on the groups and people he had played with over the years. We want to thank Tom and Kate very much for making this interview available to us. We have added musical selections to the interview to enlighten our viewers and listeners about the specific musical selections Mike was referring to.
In this Part One, Mike talks about many of his musical influences, including Scotty Moore (who played with Elvis Presley), Cliff Gallup (who played with Gene Vincent), James Burton (who played with Rick Nelson) , Duane Eddy, Chuck Berry, Billy Haley's guitar player, Mel Butler (who played guitar on Honky Tonk), Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, The Ventures, Mickey Baker (of Mickey and Sylvia), Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton with John Mayall, Elmore James, Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix, Lonnie Mack, Roy Buchanan, Jerry McGee, Wesley Reynolds, and of course all the great blues guitarists.
There is an extensive and fascinating discussion of Robert Johnson and his contributions to blues and rock, with a number of musical selections of his.
In Part Two, Mike discusses playing at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with the Butterfield Blues Band and then backing Bob Dylan, and also talks about the composition East West, the SuperSessions records, recording the Electric Flag record, his music in the later 70's, and his appreciation and respect for Eric Clapton.