Blues legend Buddy Guy shines in Oscar-nominated film 'Sinners' and wins new fans

Record ID: 2361050

  • Title: Blues legend Buddy Guy shines in Oscar-nominated film 'Sinners' and wins new fans
  • Date: 5th March 2026
  • Summary: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES (MARCH 2, 2026) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SINGER BUDDY GUY, SAYING:     “When I heard B.B. King bend his strings, and they amplified, electrified the guitar, I said, 'Oh my God, I want to learn how to do that.' And I went and had blood coming out of the end of my fingers because I couldn't buy the guitar strings. I used to have to use
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  • Keywords: b.b. king blues buddy guy guiter miles canton movie music oscars ryan coogler sinners
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA00A100104032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Blues musician Buddy Guy's appearance in the Oscar-nominated film "Sinners" has introduced him to people who already knew him in a new way.
        "After the movie came out, I'd been going to this grocery store for 35 years, and they know me… the girl who had been waiting on me at the store for that many years just jumped up and started screaming. And I thought I had done something wrong, you know, I said, what's wrong with you? You in the movie. I said you didn't do all that screaming. You've been seeing me for 35 years, and now you scream," said Guy with a smile.
        Set in Mississippi in 1932, "Sinners" sees identical twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their rural hometown after a seven-year stint in Chicago. Equipped with cash, guns, and liquor, the entrepreneurial duo sets out to open a juke joint in an old saw mill. But when unexpected visitors turn up at the club's doors, the hedonistic opening night party turns into a bloodbath.
        Director Ryan Coogler went to the singer's blues club in Chicago, Buddy Guy's Legends, to personally ask him to be in the film. "Buddy Guy was the last touring musician that my late uncle James, who inspired me to write this movie, would regularly go see… So, it was an honor to get him to play this character," said Coogler, who labels music as his first introduction to art.
        Coogler said Guy accepted the role without hesitation, seeing it as a chance to keep blues music alive. "I'm glad he did because I think I sold another album after that," Guy said.
        For Guy, it all started when he first heard the late musician B.B. King on the radio.
        "I said, oh my God, I want to learn how to do that. And I went and had blood coming out of the end of my fingers because I couldn't buy the guitar strings. I used to have to use the screen wire to make a string, and that was kind of hard on your fingers," said Guy, who called King the greatest guitar player ever and gave all his credit to him.
        Born in 1936 in Louisiana, Guy grew up the child of sharecroppers and recalls not seeing running water until his late teens. His music career began to soar once he moved to Chicago in the late 1950s, playing for two dollars every night after driving a tow truck during the day. The love he has for the blues ended his first marriage: "She told me it's gonna be her or the guitar. I said, give me my guitar."
        However, after winning nine Grammy awards, including one this year for Best Traditional Blues Album for his album "Ain't Done With The Blues," he maintains his humility.
        "I still don't think I'm good enough to be in front of so many people coming to see me play sometimes. I'm saying, Buddy, what did you do? And they kind of answer you, I hope I'm not going on. Do you know there are guitar players who can play five times better than me? And they come to me and say, Buddy, what do I need to do? I say, damn if I know, man."
        But he remembers what his mother always told him: "Don't ever be the best in town, just be the best till the best come around."
        Guy describes blues as lyrical capsules of real, everyday life and sometimes love affairs.
        Though he learned from legends like King, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf, he refuses to take credit for his contributions to the genre.
        "You got to give that credit to the Black people who played blues just for a drink of wine, and if you played and sang well enough, you got you a good-looking woman and a hangover the next day. So I learned all I know from them. I didn't learn anything from the book."
        Recently, Guy petitioned the Chicago city council to ask for a monument or a street to be named after some of these greats, after feeling jealous when seeing B.B. King's statue in his hometown in Mississippi.
        The soon-to-be 90-year-old has no plans to stop touring and will launch his birthday tour in Toronto, following several performances in Australia in April. The goal for each performance is always to make someone smile.
    When asked what he'd like his legacy to be, it surprisingly had nothing to do with music.
        "That I loved everybody. And if everybody was like me, you wouldn't have a mad person in the world. Because I got good reason to be angry, but I'm not."
        "Sinners" is nominated for the most Oscars this year at 16, including best directing and best actor for Jordan. "Sinners" will also compete for best picture.
    (Production: Eric Cox, Alicia Powell)
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