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(Above: Buchanan circa 1978)

Roy Buchanan (1939-1988) was a great and unique guitarist, despite never becoming a household name. He once saw Jimi Hendrix play live and he thought it was amusing that Hendrix needed a wah-wah pedal to make his guitar “cry” when he (Buchanan) didn’t need one. Merely by manipulating various parts of his guitar, Buchanan could get any sound he wanted without fancy pedals. Hendrix apparently refused to jam with Buchanan because Hendrix felt that the older man would cream him in a guitar duel — and he was probably right [1].

Buchanan, a quiet and very religious man, apparently tried to kill himself several times previously (once in 1980 via hanging and once again circa 1986) before finally succeeding in a jail cell — via hanging — in August 1988. Buchanan’s brain was clouded not only by alcohol but by “sinner’s remorse” and Jesus and Hell and “God’s gonna get you for rejecting Him” and so on and so forth. Had he not been infected by the Jeebus voodoo, he might still be jamming today.

“(Roy) came from a deeply religious and very poor family — they were sharecroppers. Roy believed in heaven and hell — and in sin. I think he perceived himself to be a sinner and somebody who had turned away from God and, to a certain extent, was therefore doomed.”

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[1] “Buchanan settled down in the Washington, D.C., area, playing for Danny Denver’s band for many years while acquiring a reputation as “…one of the very finest rock guitarists around. Jimi Hendrix would not take up the challenge of a ‘pick-off’ with Roy.” — Wikipedia, April 2022.