On Interview with Cutter Brandenburg

aka Mr. Cee , writer of the book, You Can't Stop a Comet

Interview with Cutter Brandenburg by Szibilla MB. for RockinforM Magazin. A shorter version published nationwide in Hungary in the 2011 May issue. (No.183)

„This thing about Stevie it just continues on. He's been gone twenty years and he is still so important in the music industry. I just heard a kid the other day. 8 years old played Voodoo Chile, and you know, he was totally infected by Stevie. He could be playing rap, or anything else, but once he hear Stevie, that was all he wanted to play. Stevie is still influencing people so much, you know. Even though he's been gone since twenty years, but he is still around on and on. He's kinda like Jimi Hendrix, as much as Jimi Hendrix influenced people on & on, so has Stevie. And Stevie being in the blues, a white boy being in the blues, influencing people is really an amazing story.”Photo by Watt Casey.

I've read your book, You Can't Stop a Comet”, and what captured me was that Stevie respected the elders. Stevie respected everyone, and loved the people. – He kept his music...he was very humble. And I think that was that made him so respectful in his music. No matter who he played for, or with he never tried to battle anybody, he never tried to steal. You know everybody learns from everybody, so that's the way it is. I mean people say, 'Oh he stole my licks', and 'He did that”, but you know, everybody steals from everybody. Everybody learn from the same guitar guy. Everybody listen to Hubert Sumlin, everybody listen to Muddy Waters, and everybody listen to Buddy Guy, everybody listen to Albert Collins – Stevie was able to listen to all these and have a „riftopedia” of guitar riffs in his head, and licks that he learned, and he was just so capable of just... You know when it was his turn to play, or whatever, he could just kick the switch, and go. He didn't even have to think about what he was gonna do. Stevie was so special. I would say the biggest thing that I would say about Stevie is that, he was very humble, he was very sincere, he loved his music, and he loved the people that loved his music. If you were a fan of Stevie, he was a fan of yours. And he really was that way. He appreciated the people that loved his music. Money was never a thing to Stevie – that was not what he was doing this for. He was doing it because he loved it every day, Szibilla, he loved it. I think you got my book... He had to be playing in the truck, he had to be playing in the hotel room, he had to be playing in the show, he had to be playing it in backstage, and in the dressing room, he had to be playing... you know He was constantly playing his music, and that's what made him the happiest. I don't think anything made Stevie happier than music. I know that he loved his family, and I know that he loved his friends, and all that. I've only saw Stevie unhappy twice in my life. He was always happy, and music was always there, ready to take him to on another journey of happiness somewhere. I've told a story in the book when we were walking down in New Orleans. We were walking down on the the streets , and Stevie heard this guitar tone, and way off in the distance, and he started running. And Chris and Tommy, and I said, 'Where the fuck is he going?'.(laughs). We knew that he heard something that we didn't. And we followed him as much as we could, and by the time we got there, Stevie was already sitting in front of this guitar player. It was Mason Ruffner. And Mason was playing all his guitar licks, in this bluesy style in this sticky alcohol bar, smoky, you know, very New Orleasisque, .. You have to see it, to feel it, to believe it, to know that it's real. But Stevie heard that music long before we heard it. He was a hunter. He was so tuned into music, that, you know, that he could hear something, and he would know immediately that it was something he wanted more of. By the time we got there he was sitting in front. He was so impressed. And of course Mason, the guitarplayer, and we became great friends. And you know Mason – a well-respected blues guitarist in himself –, at that time he did not know who the hell Stevie, and we were. He just saw that this kid is just crazy, he just jumped up in the front, you know. Stevie just loved music so much. And he just was so happy..Like I said , I've never seen him unhappy twice in my life.

You were born in Greenville Mississippi in 1950. How you got into music? Was it in your family?– My brother and my sisters were all older then I, and so I was always listening to their music. The oldest , My brother Garry was listening to early rock and roll, and black music, and I remember listening to Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and all these guys, and all the music of the 50s, and I got intot the music my brother was listening to, and I was singing and dancing. We had fun, and I learned a lot from my sisters and brothers. My family

always enjoyed music, and it was something that was passed to me through my sisters and brother really.

Later you went to California and bought a van, and saw Jimi Hendrix many times. – I saw him eighteen times. The minute I graduated from high school, I knew becuse I had polio on my left leg when I was young that I was not going to Vietnam. I started chasing Jimi Hendrix, and I chased him all over the United States. But once I started chasing Jimi, I started chasing everybody else also in the music industry, and I started meeting people , and I've found out what a roadie does, you know and I was the head of the band, I knew where they will be playing before they did, and I'd be at the next stop before they would be at the next show.

You knew Stevie since age fifteen. I've read this quote by you, that „Stevie didn't get better, he just got better equipment.”– Right! (laughs) When I've meet him he was that good. He was that fluid of his guitar. He was already a great guitar plyer when I've met him. He just was a, just fifteen year old kid. And I don't think that he got any better over his life. Well Stevie had a big brother, who was playing, and influenced him at a very young age. So he was going through all that rock and roll, blues, jazz, all these great guitarplayers that Jimmie Vaughan was listening to, Stevie was listening to. And normally a kid of 12, 13 or 14 years old wouldn't even know of these other people, and their names, but because of Jimmie, this kid was listening to all these people. So he got all these other different genres, and styles of music, and he was able to appreciate, and take all the passion, and put it all into

his style, and his feelings. And so when Stevie played – even today –, it comes off the records. People feel it, they have such a connection with Stevie.. You know, you listen to an artist and he just touches your soul. When you listen to him, and you go, 'God, I think I really, feel that guy deeply. Then wow, you know ya do. , I can't wait for some albums that an artist has done. People would listen to Stevie, and they couldn't wait to hear more Stevie. Maybe Stevie was playing old blues songs, that they could have heard by somebody else, but they didn't catch it. But once they heard Stevie – then they got it, you know. Stevie was special. He had a way of connecting to the everyday person. I mean I've met so many people, so many young girls, so many people, and they didn't even hear Stevie until after he died, and the fall in love with him, because his music still lives in his recordings. It's timeless, you know. And it will remain timeless for quite some time., because you don't hear that type of attack. The way he attacked his guitar. The way that

Photo from Cutter's personal achivesmore at www.mrceecutter.com

every note, and everything. He sounded like if he was talking, or saying something to you.. 'Are you listening?'... 'Do you get it?'.... 'Do you feel it yet', you know. And that was that type of attack that he did with his guitar playing. And I think the great guitar players validated that. As the years went on, and Stevie got to be a little bit better known, a little bit better known, and all of a sudden, you know he looked up, and Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, and Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins and Albert King, and B.B. King, and all the guitar players that everybody would ever want to be recoginized by – they were standing there listening to this kid, saying 'God, Stevie is a monster, man!'.

There was a gig in San Marcus back then and you forgot your hat on a table and Stevie started using it. – It helped him to find that look that he was looking for. I don't wanna take too much credit for it, I mean it was really Chris Layton's idea to buy a hat for Stevie at Texas Hatters, but he picked out that hat. That hat became a thing that helped him find himself, and I think he felt comfortable with that hat.

Am I right making the statement that you're the only one who knew Stevie as a friend and wrote a book about him. – Right! I think that's true. You know Keri Leigh was a frustrated musician in Austin, and she wrote the book Soul o Soul, and Stevie actually gave her a written autobiography, and he gave her rights to write his autobiography. She didn't really make it when Stevie was alive, but when Stevie died she went around and interviewed a lot of people and then she got this book out pretty quickly and she got so many dates wrong, and you know most people didn't even give her much credit. Because she was given a great opportunity by Stevie, but she never took adventage of it, but when he died then she jumped on the projekt to make money. She made up stuff while trying to make it done. She had plenty of time while Stevie was alive,

If Stevie would know of your book, he would have gave a his amen to it i think.– Well I hope so. I wrote it because I wanted to share my memories of him with those who loved him as much as I did. I wanted to share the memories that I had, and for years I tried to figure out how to write a book, because I didn't know how to write. But when I opened my club, I would stand there and people would say, 'Tell me a story Cee!', and I would tell a story, and I got so easy talking about this or that that I thought, well, once I close my club, I said, then if I can write this book, and make enough money to reopen the club down in Austin, then it's worth doing it. You know once I did the book, I think I had Stevie helping me through it, because I think he wanted me to say some things.

And you know Stevie's gear very much. How long you worked for Stevie?– I worked for him over fifteen years. And then I exit, and I would work for somebody else, and then come back. I think it was about twenty years I worked with him on and off with him. I left him right when they were being successful. In 1984. We already had Texas Flood out, and I thought that they don't need me anymore, and so I thought they're gonna be fine. But I never knew that there will be only four albums before we lost him ..

You were roadie for ZZ Top, Johnny Winter, The Bee Gees, and Tom Petty too. What would you say about them?– They are all greats. But you know the music I enjoyed the most was Stevie's style. Just three piece, very simple. Johnny Winter-type thing, you know just very simple, straight,

'white boy playing the blues'. That was amazing for me.

Let me ask a last question Cutter. What is a good roadie like?– I'd say the good thing about a quality for a roadie is somebody, who really really cares., because you not gonna make a lot fo money, and you not gonna have a lot credit for a lot. You really gotta care, and that's gotta be a major part of your paycheck right there. I wasn't a musician, but if I can help them, then it make them play better, because they didn't have to set the equipment up. I did all that preparation for them, and all they had to do was focus on their music, which made them a better artist. I felt a small part of it, even not being a musician, I can still be a part of it, and I helped them someway. And when I did it, the more and more bands that I've worked for, I felt the love of those artists. It was something that was feeding me. All of a sudden I was learning, and seeing a better show of the band, and it did feel good. And I think I was lucky to get to know a lot of musicians.

The book is being sold directly from Cutter to you. To order please go to Mr. Cee's official website

http://www.mrceecutter.com