“I saw the harmonica player, and he asked me, ‘Do you have any reefer?’ He also said, ‘Oh, Muddy just fired somebody last night...’” Bob Margolin had long admired Muddy Waters – then came a chance backstage encounter, and the gig of a lifetime

Blues veteran Bob Margolin – better known as Steady Rollin’ – has looked back on the time a chance encounter backstage ended up with him playing guitar alongside his long-time hero, Muddy Waters.

Margolin was a key collaborator of blues legend Muddy Waters in the 1970s, appearing on a total of six of the icon's latter-day records. It was a very special era for multiple reasons. For Margolin, it gave him the chance to play alongside his ultimate music idol.

“Well, I really loved his music more than anybody else’s,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview.

“I was in bands that had opened up for Muddy when he was playing in the Massachusetts area. He saw our band earlier in 1973, probably in March, and we were trying to play blues, and he could see what I was trying to play on guitar.

“We were smart enough not to do Muddy Waters songs on a gig opening for Muddy Waters, but he could see that I was trying to play Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmy Reid, and Elmore James. He was very encouraging to me, which was a thrill because he was the most important musician in my life; it really meant a lot to me.”

Eventually, Margolin would get the opportunity to play alongside his guitar hero. Not only that – he also developed a friendship which lasted until Waters passed away in 1983.

“In August of 1973, Muddy came to Boston to start 55 days in a club there,” Margolin recalls. “I was the first one in the place, and on the first night, I think it was a Tuesday, I came in, saw the harmonica player, and he asked me the fateful question: ‘Do you have any reefer?’”

As luck would have it, Margolin did. But the conversation didn't end there.

“He also said, ‘Oh, Muddy just fired somebody last night…’ and before I could do or say anything, or even think about it, he went into the dressing room and got Muddy. Muddy came out and said, ‘Oh, good. Come to my hotel room tomorrow and bring a guitar.'

“He knew that I would be interested in doing it, and he just presumed that I would wanna do it if he wanted me… and it worked out that way.

“He gave me a chance to be in the band, and that lasted for almost seven years!” Margolin concludes.

Guitar World’s full interview with Bob Margolin will be published in the coming weeks.

In more recent Muddy Waters news, the Grammy-nominated bluesman Eric Bibb has just released a single that pays tribute to the blues pioneer.