Robben Ford has recalled how he began to focus on becoming a pop musician because he thought the blues genre was finished.
He steeled himself to abandon the music he really wanted to play – until three other artists turned things around.
Ford tells MusicRadar: “I was beginning my solo career, when it really looked to me like the blues was dead.
“I had even been trying to school myself in pop music, because I really thought that was where I was going to have to go to make a living.
“Suddenly Stevie Ray Vaughan arrived, Robert Cray started getting attention and then John Lee Hooker was a star.”
The turnaround served him well when he launched 1988 solo album Talk To Your Daughter, and it was nominated for a Grammy award.
Ford continues: “Not so long ago the Black Keys came out with just a guitar player and a drummer playing blues music, and it became the biggest thing in America.
“Blues music means the same thing it always has. It will never go away.”
Ford released Into The Sun in March, featuring guest appearances from Warren Haynes, Keb’ Mo and others.
