ALBERT "THE KID" CASTIGLIA:
I was Junior's last guitar player--last lead guitar player. There's a lotta stories I have, but the one that sticks out in my mind was:
One time we had played on a cruise ship, on the S.S. Norway. It was a big, big blues cruise and Bo Diddley was on it, Ronnie Earl, a bunch o' other people. We played this big ballroom and we had two sets to do. When we did the first set, we get off the stage and Junior's road manager had asked me to keep an eye on Junior while he...took care of some business. So...me'n him, we went to this bar and we hung out, had a couple o' drinks, talked and everything...you know, plans for the future 'n' everything. I was lookin' at my watch 'n' I saw we were gittin' a little late for the gig. We had to go back on stage..."Well we gotta head back to the stage, Junior, let's go." He was like, "All right," so we start walkin' an' the casino was between us and the theater. And Junior would stop at every woman...and he would talk to them...He was a very accessible artist, and he would talk to everybody. He's accessible to a fault sometimes. It was like, y'know, "We gotta get back to the show, man, it's gettin' late." "Okay, okay, okay." He's still talkin', still talkin'...His manager walked up and said, "Hey, we gotta get Junior backstage." I said, "Well, y'know, he's talkin', y'know, I can't--" Finally we get near the entrance of the theater and I hear clapping, and I peep through the door of the theater and everybody's onstage except me. So I run up onstage. I said, "Junior, I gotta go. You made me late!" I run up onstage, and the band's lookin' at me and I'm like, "Don't even say anything!"...It was kind of embarrassing, the place was packed and they saw me run up the aisle. So I played...'n' the show ends and I didn't think anything of it, nobody said anything...A few months go by and I'm sittin' with my bass player...we were talkin' about what happened that day. He was like, "Well, you know you got fined." I said, "Really." He said, "Yeah, they fined you for being late." I said, "But it wasn't my fault...but I didn't notice any change in my pay...I didn't know I got fined. The pay was the same. What happened?" He said, "Well, Junior paid the fine for you." He never told me. Junior never told me and nobody ever said a word about it. He paid the fine. So...that story just sums up Junior in a nutshell.
I'm from Miami originally and Junior was playin' at a club in Delray Beach, Florida, and I went up to see him...it was New Years Eve of '96...We set it up where I would jam with 'im. His manager said, "Well, you better be good because if he doesn't like you he's gonna tell you onstage." And I said, "Well, listen"--previously I'd worked at the welfare office in Miami for four and a half years--and I'm like, "Ah, I worked in the welfare office for five years...Getting cussed out by Junior onstage is better than a good day at the office." I did about three or four songs with 'im, and it was great... At the time it was, like, the greatest experience of my life. And then a couple o' months later I got a call from his tour mananger saying that he needed me. And my whole life changed. And it was great.
I went to Europe with 'im. We did the Caribbean...we also did...France, Italy and Switzerland. And Italy was pretty cool because I'm of Italian descent 'n' that was quite an experience. So he showed me Europe 'n' that was a great experience too. But around that time we knew he was sick then...We had opened up for B.B. King in the south of France...Right after that Junior went off to Canada to film the Blues Brothers movie. We stayed in France, waitin' for 'im. We were in Nice for a week. It was terrible. I mean that facetiously, 'cause, a week in the south of France--oh my goodness, how terrible! But, it was a lot on 'im...he flew to Canada, filmed the Blues Brothers movie, came back a week later--and he was kinda tired then. But we finished the rest of the tour and went back to the States and did a few more gigs in the States with 'im---and then the last gig we did with 'im was in Canada. We were in Toronto, and he did four songs and he excused himself. And we knew something was wrong then, because he---you know, he loved to play...He wanted to die on the stage, that was his wish. But he was so weak-- and ill then--that he couldn't go on. So we kinda knew it was over then. It was, like, a very bittersweet day. 'Cause he was on, he was really on, he was playin' really good that day. So we drove back, cancelled the rest of our gigs and we drove straight from Toronto back to Chicago...We dropped 'im off and Junior went upstairs. We were in front of his house, and he went upstairs. And Michael--his nephew and his tour manager--came down. He said, "Well, Junior wanted you to have this." So he gave me his white Dobbs hat. And I'm like, "Well, lemme go upstairs and thank 'im." And he's like..."You'll get a chance to thank 'im later, he's kinda tired, he went to bed."
...He was diagnosed with lymphoma, but they said that he could still get his chemo treatments and still tour. We were under the belief that, y'know, that was what was gonna happen. So I said, "OK, I'll thank 'im next week." And a week later he went into his coma. And I never really got to thank 'im for the hat--although I went up to the hospital and visited 'im and snuck in...I thanked 'im then, y'know. I don't know if he heard me, I hope he did.
He was a great guy. I miss 'im very much. I'd trade all this right now to play with 'im again. If it wasn't for him I'd still be in Miami workin' in the welfare office.
He totally changed my life. I went from being a nine-to-fiver and doing something that I hated to...seein' the world...If it wasn't for Junior I wouldn't be with Sandra [Hall] right now.
He touched a lotta lives that way. He was a very generous man and a very good man. Despite...what you might hear. He had his ornery side and a lotta people know 'im from his ornery side; but he was a sweet man and he was a very good, giving man.
When I started playin' with the band I was an outsider. Y'know, a lotta the guys were from Chicago and they didn't...care for me, 'cause I took a job away from somebody...from Chicago that might've been able to have it. But Junior couldn't rely on anybody in Chicago. A lot of musicians in Chicago are very unreliable and stuff, so that's part of the reason why he hired me. But he always looked out for me and he told me to stick with it. And he told me one day---I think it was the day we were sitting at the bar in that cruise ship---he told me, y'know, "I don't expect you to be with me forever...just learn from me and learn from this experience, and when it's time for you to move on...use the experiences that you went through with me to make yourself a better musician." He had plans for me...or he had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wasn't even thinkin' about movin' out on my own, but he saw something in me, and he...encouraged me to keep playin'. And to just never quit. He was a very nurturing fellow.
...I filled in many times---but the first time I played with him as a full time member, we played in Chicago. And I was gettin' the hang of things...I wasn't doin' too well. And he was lookin' back and he was, like, miming--- you know, you could see his lips move but you couldn't hear what was coming out, but you knew what he was saying...And they weren't good words...I was really messed up by the experience. I thought I was gonna lose my job that day. And he walked up to me, and he was like..."You had a rough night, but you'll pick it up, you know. And you'll be okay." And I never messed up again. I always did what he told me to do. I tried to.
When my parents met Junior--we played in Florida--that was one of the...greatest experiences of my life, 'cause I went home and played with Junior...Playing in Miami was...real tough for me. I wasn't in that clique, the musical clique that existed there. This was kind of my way of showing, you know, that I was somebody...So we played in Miami, that was great, 'n' my parents met Junior for the first time. And my mother's a good Catholic lady...she's kind of a prude...just a good, wholesome, Catholic, Spanish lady. And I introduced 'em, and my mother was talkin' to him...and she goes..."Is my son behaving on the road? How is he behaving?" And Junior looked at her, and he goes, "Esther---all I got to say is, your son is a motherfucker on that guitar!" And I was like, oh my goodness---I thought she was gonna slap 'im. But then...her face lightened up and she said, "Ohhh, thank you! Ohhh, thank..." And I looked at her, and I'm like, "Hey! Wait a minute. If I ever said somethin' like that, you'd--you'd--you'd slap me!...Why do you let Junior...get away with that?" And she goes, "Well---he meant it in a good way."
...You know, I don't know what it was about Junior with women and stuff, but he could say just about anything and not get slapped for it.
...Junior never referred t'me by my first or last name. He called me "the kid." I guess 'cause my name was kind of ethnic and a little difficult to pronounce and stuff. And...that name stuck with me. That gave me an identity...Everybody in Chicago knows me as "the kid." So that was kind of cool. Most people self-appoint themselves these nicknames...but I was never into self-appointing myself a name...Junior gave me a name and it stuck.
So---I don't know if I'll be able to use that name in ten or twenty years. Be kinda weird usin' "the kid" at forty or fifty, whatta you think?
...When we do 'Hoodoo Man,' that's when I kinda do my dedication to 'im...Every time we play, I always dedicate a song to 'im, and I always do one o' his songs for 'im...'Hoodoo Man Blues' was, like, his biggest, most popular album...Everybody used to want him to do songs from that album. And he never liked doin' it because---maybe I shouldn't say that, I dunno---I don't know whether it was a woman or...something personal, but he had a hard time doing songs from that album. But he'd get forced to do it every once in a while. Like everybody used to request 'Snatch It Back and Hold It'...he never did that one when I played with him. And, 'Hoodoo Man,' you could get him to do that one. That was the one song off the album that you could get him to do. So...that's, like, my special song to him.
...Near the end of his touring he had plans to do another album. And I was s'posed to play on it---he told me that...He had big plans for the band, and us. The band never played on any of his studio recordings...He always had, like, the best studio musicians playing. But on...that next album he was planning on doing he was gonna have the band on there. I think the band got to a point, after I came in it was like everything jelled and everybody was gittin' along and he was really comfortable with the band at that point. And he was gonna use the band on the next studio album, but it...never came into fruition...I regret that I never got to play with him, but...it couldn't be helped...I always wanted to be on an album with 'im...
They got a new live album coming out, but they couldn't find any recordings with me. Which kind of depressed me. 'Cause I heard the DAT tapes...and I'm not on it...it makes me sad...
They hired me primarily for lead playing. They had another guitar player that was a great rhythm player...When you got two guitars, it's important to play a different part than the other guy's playin'. So like, if I was playing a part on the neck which was really low, like a low bass part, the other guitar player would be playin' somethin' high up on the neck. In the same key, but a different pattern...So he just told me...whatever the other guitar player was playing, play something different. And it worked out...
He didn't like distortion. He didn't care for distortion or...any kind o' gadgets 'n' stuff. In fact, he himself went through the p.a. system. He never went through any type of amplifier. I asked 'im about that, 'n' he was like, "Whatever I play comes through the mic, goes out the p.a., and that's what comes out. And that's me...I don't like any effects." And he frowned on effects as far as I was concerned...When I joined the band I had a distortion pedal...He didn't tell me I couldn't play it, but he wa' kinda like, "Well...you might wanna try...playin' without a distortion pedal this gig." That was my tip that I...needed to get away from the effects....Distortion, or wah-wahs, any kind o' stuff like that, he really didn't care for that stuff much.
...He let his nephew take care of the hiring and the firing. Junior...just wanted to play, he wasn't a political person...He was responsible for hiring a lot of people, but not for firing. He was at that age where...he didn't wanna deal with that crap...
There's a lot o' politics involved in being in a band. And I really---now that I look back on it---I don't blame 'im for not getting involved in that aspect of the business. And he kept a lot o' guys in the band for a long time that mighta shoulda mighta been fired. But he never did...he didn't like doin' it. That was the road manager's job, to do that...He just liked to play...
He was one of the most approachable bluesmen I've ever seen. A lotta guys that I met when I was a kid and I used to meet after they'd play, they'd either wanna get high or they just didn't wanna have anything t'do with me. But Junior...took the time to talk to everybody. I think the second time I ever played with Junior we did a gig at the Magic Bag in Ferndale...and it was sold out...I don't remember what time we were done, but we didn't leave for about two hours, because everybody in the place wanted to meet Junior, and they all got t'meet 'im...he wanted to talk to everybody. He talked to every last person.
...Junior's daughter used to go to a lot o' the shows. His oldest daughter...Regina. She's a lovely person, and I got to know her through a lot of the gigs. The first time I met Junior's sister was at the 43rd Street Blues Festival, on the south side. A good woman...and I got to know a lot of his nephews...I didn't know a lot of his sons. He had a lot o' kids, and...I didn't really know them very well...His sister and his oldest daughter I knew real well. And a lot of his nephews and stuff, I knew real well---Kelvin(?)...I haven't seen them in a while, though...
I don't think there's anybody that reminds me of Junior. Junior was very unique.(AE 6/8/01)
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I was Junior's last guitar player--last lead guitar player. There's a lotta stories I have, but the one that sticks out in my mind was:
One time we had played on a cruise ship, on the S.S. Norway. It was a big, big blues cruise and Bo Diddley was on it, Ronnie Earl, a bunch o' other people. We played this big ballroom and we had two sets to do. When we did the first set, we get off the stage and Junior's road manager had asked me to keep an eye on Junior while he...took care of some business. So...me'n him, we went to this bar and we hung out, had a couple o' drinks, talked and everything...you know, plans for the future 'n' everything. I was lookin' at my watch 'n' I saw we were gittin' a little late for the gig. We had to go back on stage..."Well we gotta head back to the stage, Junior, let's go." He was like, "All right," so we start walkin' an' the casino was between us and the theater. And Junior would stop at every woman...and he would talk to them...He was a very accessible artist, and he would talk to everybody. He's accessible to a fault sometimes. It was like, y'know, "We gotta get back to the show, man, it's gettin' late." "Okay, okay, okay." He's still talkin', still talkin'...His manager walked up and said, "Hey, we gotta get Junior backstage." I said, "Well, y'know, he's talkin', y'know, I can't--" Finally we get near the entrance of the theater and I hear clapping, and I peep through the door of the theater and everybody's onstage except me. So I run up onstage. I said, "Junior, I gotta go. You made me late!" I run up onstage, and the band's lookin' at me and I'm like, "Don't even say anything!"...It was kind of embarrassing, the place was packed and they saw me run up the aisle. So I played...'n' the show ends and I didn't think anything of it, nobody said anything...A few months go by and I'm sittin' with my bass player...we were talkin' about what happened that day. He was like, "Well, you know you got fined." I said, "Really." He said, "Yeah, they fined you for being late." I said, "But it wasn't my fault...but I didn't notice any change in my pay...I didn't know I got fined. The pay was the same. What happened?" He said, "Well, Junior paid the fine for you." He never told me. Junior never told me and nobody ever said a word about it. He paid the fine. So...that story just sums up Junior in a nutshell.
I'm from Miami originally and Junior was playin' at a club in Delray Beach, Florida, and I went up to see him...it was New Years Eve of '96...We set it up where I would jam with 'im. His manager said, "Well, you better be good because if he doesn't like you he's gonna tell you onstage." And I said, "Well, listen"--previously I'd worked at the welfare office in Miami for four and a half years--and I'm like, "Ah, I worked in the welfare office for five years...Getting cussed out by Junior onstage is better than a good day at the office." I did about three or four songs with 'im, and it was great... At the time it was, like, the greatest experience of my life. And then a couple o' months later I got a call from his tour mananger saying that he needed me. And my whole life changed. And it was great.
I went to Europe with 'im. We did the Caribbean...we also did...France, Italy and Switzerland. And Italy was pretty cool because I'm of Italian descent 'n' that was quite an experience. So he showed me Europe 'n' that was a great experience too. But around that time we knew he was sick then...We had opened up for B.B. King in the south of France...Right after that Junior went off to Canada to film the Blues Brothers movie. We stayed in France, waitin' for 'im. We were in Nice for a week. It was terrible. I mean that facetiously, 'cause, a week in the south of France--oh my goodness, how terrible! But, it was a lot on 'im...he flew to Canada, filmed the Blues Brothers movie, came back a week later--and he was kinda tired then. But we finished the rest of the tour and went back to the States and did a few more gigs in the States with 'im---and then the last gig we did with 'im was in Canada. We were in Toronto, and he did four songs and he excused himself. And we knew something was wrong then, because he---you know, he loved to play...He wanted to die on the stage, that was his wish. But he was so weak-- and ill then--that he couldn't go on. So we kinda knew it was over then. It was, like, a very bittersweet day. 'Cause he was on, he was really on, he was playin' really good that day. So we drove back, cancelled the rest of our gigs and we drove straight from Toronto back to Chicago...We dropped 'im off and Junior went upstairs. We were in front of his house, and he went upstairs. And Michael--his nephew and his tour manager--came down. He said, "Well, Junior wanted you to have this." So he gave me his white Dobbs hat. And I'm like, "Well, lemme go upstairs and thank 'im." And he's like..."You'll get a chance to thank 'im later, he's kinda tired, he went to bed."
...He was diagnosed with lymphoma, but they said that he could still get his chemo treatments and still tour. We were under the belief that, y'know, that was what was gonna happen. So I said, "OK, I'll thank 'im next week." And a week later he went into his coma. And I never really got to thank 'im for the hat--although I went up to the hospital and visited 'im and snuck in...I thanked 'im then, y'know. I don't know if he heard me, I hope he did.
He was a great guy. I miss 'im very much. I'd trade all this right now to play with 'im again. If it wasn't for him I'd still be in Miami workin' in the welfare office.
He totally changed my life. I went from being a nine-to-fiver and doing something that I hated to...seein' the world...If it wasn't for Junior I wouldn't be with Sandra [Hall] right now.
He touched a lotta lives that way. He was a very generous man and a very good man. Despite...what you might hear. He had his ornery side and a lotta people know 'im from his ornery side; but he was a sweet man and he was a very good, giving man.
When I started playin' with the band I was an outsider. Y'know, a lotta the guys were from Chicago and they didn't...care for me, 'cause I took a job away from somebody...from Chicago that might've been able to have it. But Junior couldn't rely on anybody in Chicago. A lot of musicians in Chicago are very unreliable and stuff, so that's part of the reason why he hired me. But he always looked out for me and he told me to stick with it. And he told me one day---I think it was the day we were sitting at the bar in that cruise ship---he told me, y'know, "I don't expect you to be with me forever...just learn from me and learn from this experience, and when it's time for you to move on...use the experiences that you went through with me to make yourself a better musician." He had plans for me...or he had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wasn't even thinkin' about movin' out on my own, but he saw something in me, and he...encouraged me to keep playin'. And to just never quit. He was a very nurturing fellow.
...I filled in many times---but the first time I played with him as a full time member, we played in Chicago. And I was gettin' the hang of things...I wasn't doin' too well. And he was lookin' back and he was, like, miming--- you know, you could see his lips move but you couldn't hear what was coming out, but you knew what he was saying...And they weren't good words...I was really messed up by the experience. I thought I was gonna lose my job that day. And he walked up to me, and he was like..."You had a rough night, but you'll pick it up, you know. And you'll be okay." And I never messed up again. I always did what he told me to do. I tried to.
When my parents met Junior--we played in Florida--that was one of the...greatest experiences of my life, 'cause I went home and played with Junior...Playing in Miami was...real tough for me. I wasn't in that clique, the musical clique that existed there. This was kind of my way of showing, you know, that I was somebody...So we played in Miami, that was great, 'n' my parents met Junior for the first time. And my mother's a good Catholic lady...she's kind of a prude...just a good, wholesome, Catholic, Spanish lady. And I introduced 'em, and my mother was talkin' to him...and she goes..."Is my son behaving on the road? How is he behaving?" And Junior looked at her, and he goes, "Esther---all I got to say is, your son is a motherfucker on that guitar!" And I was like, oh my goodness---I thought she was gonna slap 'im. But then...her face lightened up and she said, "Ohhh, thank you! Ohhh, thank..." And I looked at her, and I'm like, "Hey! Wait a minute. If I ever said somethin' like that, you'd--you'd--you'd slap me!...Why do you let Junior...get away with that?" And she goes, "Well---he meant it in a good way."
...You know, I don't know what it was about Junior with women and stuff, but he could say just about anything and not get slapped for it.
...Junior never referred t'me by my first or last name. He called me "the kid." I guess 'cause my name was kind of ethnic and a little difficult to pronounce and stuff. And...that name stuck with me. That gave me an identity...Everybody in Chicago knows me as "the kid." So that was kind of cool. Most people self-appoint themselves these nicknames...but I was never into self-appointing myself a name...Junior gave me a name and it stuck.
So---I don't know if I'll be able to use that name in ten or twenty years. Be kinda weird usin' "the kid" at forty or fifty, whatta you think?
...When we do 'Hoodoo Man,' that's when I kinda do my dedication to 'im...Every time we play, I always dedicate a song to 'im, and I always do one o' his songs for 'im...'Hoodoo Man Blues' was, like, his biggest, most popular album...Everybody used to want him to do songs from that album. And he never liked doin' it because---maybe I shouldn't say that, I dunno---I don't know whether it was a woman or...something personal, but he had a hard time doing songs from that album. But he'd get forced to do it every once in a while. Like everybody used to request 'Snatch It Back and Hold It'...he never did that one when I played with him. And, 'Hoodoo Man,' you could get him to do that one. That was the one song off the album that you could get him to do. So...that's, like, my special song to him.
...Near the end of his touring he had plans to do another album. And I was s'posed to play on it---he told me that...He had big plans for the band, and us. The band never played on any of his studio recordings...He always had, like, the best studio musicians playing. But on...that next album he was planning on doing he was gonna have the band on there. I think the band got to a point, after I came in it was like everything jelled and everybody was gittin' along and he was really comfortable with the band at that point. And he was gonna use the band on the next studio album, but it...never came into fruition...I regret that I never got to play with him, but...it couldn't be helped...I always wanted to be on an album with 'im...
They got a new live album coming out, but they couldn't find any recordings with me. Which kind of depressed me. 'Cause I heard the DAT tapes...and I'm not on it...it makes me sad...
They hired me primarily for lead playing. They had another guitar player that was a great rhythm player...When you got two guitars, it's important to play a different part than the other guy's playin'. So like, if I was playing a part on the neck which was really low, like a low bass part, the other guitar player would be playin' somethin' high up on the neck. In the same key, but a different pattern...So he just told me...whatever the other guitar player was playing, play something different. And it worked out...
He didn't like distortion. He didn't care for distortion or...any kind o' gadgets 'n' stuff. In fact, he himself went through the p.a. system. He never went through any type of amplifier. I asked 'im about that, 'n' he was like, "Whatever I play comes through the mic, goes out the p.a., and that's what comes out. And that's me...I don't like any effects." And he frowned on effects as far as I was concerned...When I joined the band I had a distortion pedal...He didn't tell me I couldn't play it, but he wa' kinda like, "Well...you might wanna try...playin' without a distortion pedal this gig." That was my tip that I...needed to get away from the effects....Distortion, or wah-wahs, any kind o' stuff like that, he really didn't care for that stuff much.
...He let his nephew take care of the hiring and the firing. Junior...just wanted to play, he wasn't a political person...He was responsible for hiring a lot of people, but not for firing. He was at that age where...he didn't wanna deal with that crap...
There's a lot o' politics involved in being in a band. And I really---now that I look back on it---I don't blame 'im for not getting involved in that aspect of the business. And he kept a lot o' guys in the band for a long time that mighta shoulda mighta been fired. But he never did...he didn't like doin' it. That was the road manager's job, to do that...He just liked to play...
He was one of the most approachable bluesmen I've ever seen. A lotta guys that I met when I was a kid and I used to meet after they'd play, they'd either wanna get high or they just didn't wanna have anything t'do with me. But Junior...took the time to talk to everybody. I think the second time I ever played with Junior we did a gig at the Magic Bag in Ferndale...and it was sold out...I don't remember what time we were done, but we didn't leave for about two hours, because everybody in the place wanted to meet Junior, and they all got t'meet 'im...he wanted to talk to everybody. He talked to every last person.
...Junior's daughter used to go to a lot o' the shows. His oldest daughter...Regina. She's a lovely person, and I got to know her through a lot of the gigs. The first time I met Junior's sister was at the 43rd Street Blues Festival, on the south side. A good woman...and I got to know a lot of his nephews...I didn't know a lot of his sons. He had a lot o' kids, and...I didn't really know them very well...His sister and his oldest daughter I knew real well. And a lot of his nephews and stuff, I knew real well---Kelvin(?)...I haven't seen them in a while, though...
I don't think there's anybody that reminds me of Junior. Junior was very unique.(AE 6/8/01)
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