Mojo magazine, the respected U.K. music monthly, didn`t hold back when it recently appraised Seasick Steve as ’’probably the greatest bluesman on the planet.’’
The 71-years-young blues troubadour has captured a huge international cult following since he exploded around the planet in the aftermath of an electrifying TV debut on Jools Holland`s Hootenanny on New Years Eve 2007.
He recently took a break from his hectic schedule of top line rock festival appearances to chill out with his partner in the lush locale of Byron Bay. It was a fitting prelude to Steve`s two spectacular shows at the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival over Easter weekend.
This writer had the pleasure of spending a couple of Byron days with Steve, his drummer Dan Magnusson, and my dear friend of some 45 years, John Paul Jones (widely known through his associations with Led Zeppelin, Them Crooked Vultures et al).
Seasick Steve unleashes a potent brew of essential influences – from Appalachian mountain riffs through basic 12-bar blues, from down home Kentucky bluegrass to Nashville country gospel with a touch down in Greenwich Village coffee house folk balladry.
His latest album, his 5th, is titled You Can`t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks (UK gold), and John Paul Jones was a studio contributor. But Steve has no tickets on himself, or his enviable relationships with rock royalty.
His feet remain firmly attached to mother earth, as befits the style of music he plays. As he recently noted about the decades through which he toiled and hustled the American South before reaching the big time: “Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don’t look for work, and bums are people who don’t move and don’t work. I’ve been all three.“

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Q. How did you come up with the name Seasick Steve?
S: “I just got it because I get seasick on boats. Pretty bad stuff actually. My partner is from Norway so we moved back there about ten years ago. But before I moved there, these guys who run blues cruises on these big ferry boats that travel between Denmark and Norway, invited me to travel on one of their shows which featured about ten other bands.
“I got so sick on the cruise that I almost died! The next day, one of the band guys said: `Ah, you were seasick Steve!`That was before I was playing commercially. So it was like some stupid guy saying something stupid. Then I took a break from playing in public for a while. When I started to come back into it, this name Seasick Steve came circling back around me. I figured that although I didn`t really like it, but at least it was true! The seasick part!“
Q. You`ve come out here to Australia to play at the East Coast Blues Festival – one of the premiere roots music events in the world – and you`ve brought along a special friend in John Paul Jones, bass player extraordinaire. When did you first link up with John Paul?
S: “I first saw Led Zeppelin play back in 1969. I was playing in a little pizza parlor in Seattle and someone asked me if I wanted to go see an English blues band? And I said `Sure man. Hell yeah!` I`d never seen anything like Led Zeppelin before that. I`d never seen no big old band like that!
“Later on when I met John Paul Jones, he actually remembered that particular show real well.“
Q. But how on earth were you able to get John Paul to play on your album, You Can`t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?
S: “I don`t really know just what happened there. Apparently John Paul had come to see me play at a little club in London some years ago (it was the 12 Bar Club) in front of about 20 people. A friend of his, the guy who makes his bass guitars, brought him along. I had no previous relationship with him.
“Then when I was making this last record, Dan the drummer and I kinda got drunk one night. And we were working on this track which sounded very rocky. We decided that it needed some bass, but I didn`t know any bass players to bring in. And Dan said: `Let`s get that guy from Led Zeppelin.` It sounded like a joke at first. John Paul can play the hell out of a bass.
“I asked this guy who does our sound, and usually goes out with Robert Plant on his tours. `Do you know anybody who might know John Paul Jones?`, I asked around. It turned out that our sound guy Roy knew John Paul`s guitar tech. So I called him up and asked if he would pass along my phone number to John Paul.
“The next day, John Paul called me and he was so nice. I asked him if he might play on my record and he said: `Sure, I`d love to.` (JPJ contributed bass guitar to the album`s title track and to Back in the Dog House. He also contributed some mandolin parts to It`s a Long Long Way).“
Q. But that wasn`t the end of an amazing story. JPJ has stepped up to play with you on several occasions, including the 2012 Easter event at the East Coast Blues Festival. How is that coming together?
S: “After the New Tricks album came out, and we`d been on the Jools Holland show (a breakthrough appearance on Jools` New Years Eve 2007 Hootenanny event), I called John Paul again and asked him to play with me on another Jools Holland show. He was happy to do it.
“Then pretty much every time I had a festival gig, I`d call and ask him and he`d be happy to come along and play with us.
“As for the Blues Festival here in Byron Bay, when I first mentioned it to him, he was kinda busy. But later on, he was saying that he and his wife Maureen were liking the idea of coming down here to have a bit of a break.
“Because of John Paul`s relationship with Them Crooked Vultures, whenever we were playing festivals, we would hear from Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters. So John Paul and I ended up playing on their shows at Milton Keynes in the UK. I met all kinds of special people who hang out with John.
“To me, it`s sort of surreal. I ain`t never been out there and meeting these sorts of people. Or anything like that.
“In the last five or six years, things have turned around pretty good for me. I`m playing all the big festivals around the world. But I`m still used to the way things used to be.“
Q. What plans do you have for your next album?
S: `We`ll start recording next September. I`ve got so many new songs. I reckon that I`ve written 90-per cent of my next album while I`ve been here having a break in Byron Bay. To tell the truth, I wrote most of the songs for the New Tricks album when I was here two years ago.“
Q. You`re obviously a devotee of the Byron Bay region?
S: “I love Byron Bay. I`ve never seen a nicer place on earth. If I could talk my wife into moving here, I`d be here in a split second.
“Now I`m living between Norway and the UK. I did some recording in London with Jack White and he`s put my last album out in the States (on his Third Man Records label). I`m already known to Americans but I don`t want to go over there (as a performer) and start all over again. I don`t feel like doing that – the grind of touring like that is a little bit too tiring for me these days.
“After Australia, I want to take it a bit easier. I haven`t been at home in Norway for more than two weeks in the past six years. I`d like to get back there and mow the lawn and fix my car and fix my tractor a little bit.“
Q. Back home, we gather you don`t have a CD player and you stay in the vinyl world. Heard anything that touched you lately?
S: “I don`t listen to a whole lot of new stuff. I went out and bought that record that John Paul did with Them Crooked Vultures. I really like that record. And I like Jack White`s record and the Black Keys record.“
Q. It must be a joy to have such an upbeat positive character as John Paul Jones, a friend of mine since 1968, supporting your cause.
S: “Oh yeah man. He plays some slide guitar, mandolin and of course, the bass. And he`s such a nice guy. He`s by far the best musician I`ve ever played with. I can`t understand why he`s playing with us. It`s kind of a no-brainer. I mean, some of my songs only have one chord.
`But finally I`m in a band with people my own age. I`m so happy not to be the oldest guy in the band.“
(Seasick Steve appeared at the East Coast Blues Festival and sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne. His most recent album is You Can`t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks – PIAS).
-ENDS-
(Ritchie Yoke is the author of Led Zeppelin: The Definitive Biography (Virgin Books UK), originally published in 1976.