Bobby Rush, who plays Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida on Sept. 14, 2024. Credit: Photo by Josh Bradley

After canceling his Clearwater Jazz Holiday headlining slot last minute last year, blues guitar legend Buddy Guy has recruited Bobby Rush (a fellow bluesman who’s been around just about as long as him) and singer-songwriter Tom Hambridge to open what could be the 88-year-old’s last-ever concert in Clearwater.

It’ll be hard to say goodbye, but as far as we know, 90-year-old Rush has no plans to leave the stage.

Ahead of this show, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay asked him about the best gig he ever saw, and was instead treated to tales about his own times onstage, many of which were spent sharing stages with legends from Ray Charles to James Brown (with whom Rush had a fairly rocky relationship with).

Read his comment about sharing a bill with Bob Marley and the Wailers below.

Tickets to see Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush and Tom Hambridge play Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on Saturday, Sept. 14 are still available and start at $62.75.

“I went to New York City in roughly 1975. I was pretty hot with “Chicken Heads” and things like that. I didn’t know that much about Bob Marley, but someone asked me to open a show up for Bob Marley. And cocky me said to myself, “Why should I open the show for Bob Marley? Black people know me, I’ve never heard of Bob Marley.” But I didn’t know he was big as he was. So, we went to New York City, he came on at 8:30, 9:00 at night, and I’m coming on after him, which would be like, 11 or 12:00 at night. There were maybe 10 or 15,000 people in the building coming to see Bob Marley, not Bobby Rush. I didn’t know that at the time. I thought I was some hot shit. And man, when he got ready to come off the stage, the people got up out of their seats, leaving the building.

So I said to myself “How in the hell am I going to outdo this man doing what he does? They love Bob Marley.” I had never really heard of him. It was out of my range, out of my vocabulary. So I told the band “We don’t hit until 11:30—or about 10 of 11 anyway—but I wanna hit now.” So the promoter said, “if you want to go now, that’s fine.” So as the people were walking out, I came out on the stage with a pair of shorts on, and nothing else. Just my shorts and bare feet, you know? And the people said, “Wow! Who is this naked fool on the stage?” And everybody in the building is turning around and coming back to see this naked man. As soon as they came back in the building, I ran back, changed clothes, and came back. But I got ‘em.” -Bobby Rush