Remembering Bill Blue (1946-2022)

This obituary for Bill Blue was written by Ralph DePalma. It was published on July 20, 2022, by the Key West Citizen. 

* 

Once in a while, a special person comes along and has an impact on your life, music and everything special. Bill Blue impacted everything and everyone he touched.

On July 14, Key West lost this extraordinarily talented and well-loved blues musician to cancer. William Andrews Blue was born in Aberdeen, North Carolina, on July 23, 1946. The family moved to Yorktown, Virginia, when Bill was very young. His life was changed forever on Sept. 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The following Monday morning, Gibson guitars had their best-ever sales day.

 

Like millions of young men, Bill was amazed by Elvis and started playing the guitar. One night in Richmond, a very scared young Bill Blue got on stage for the first time at the Crossroads Coffee House and played a few of his own songs. He was very young and very good. He went on to make a living playing guitar all of his adult life — he even later got to meet Elvis.

 

Bill’s life changed again when he met Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup who wrote, “That’s All Right, Mama”, the first song Elvis recorded. Crudup was living in a shack in a migrant worker camp (aka “truck farm”). Bill and Big Boy put together a band and started performing locally. Around the same time, Bonnie Raitt’s new manager, Dick Waterman, was gathering old blues musicians to tour. Crudup got a call and was asked if he could put together a band and join their tour. The following week, Bill Blue was playing with Crudup while touring with Raitt — pure serendipity.

 

Crudup, who passed away in 1974, never received any royalties for his work. Blue wrote a song about Big Boy called “On the Road for Big Boy,” and played it at almost every gig. Bill began touring on his own, sharing the stage with B.B. King, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers and countless others.

 

His first musical gig in Key West was at Sloppy Joe’s on July 4, 1979. Bill was going through some tough personal times, and touring had taken its toll. Key West became a safe harbor, a port in a storm that lasted for more than 35 years.

 

When Bill arrived in town, he hooked up with a group of musicians and formed a band called “Bill Blue & the Nervous Guys.” Regular gigs at Sloppy Joe’s put the group on the music map in Key West. In the mid-1980s, Bill had a houseguest for six weeks — St. Petey Twig, known today as Barry Cuda. The two had met while touring Northern Europe. On his way to New Orleans, Cuda stopped in Key West to see Bill and play a few gigs. He began rolling a 350-pound upright piano to and from gigs around Key West and never made it to New Orleans.

 

One night, in 1994, while performing at Sloppy Joe’s, Bill’s high school sweetheart walked through the front door. Bill and Beverly immediately made eye contact. On a break, they spoke, reconnected and began to fall back in love. Coffee Butler performed at their wedding — Bill’s fourth. They lived in a small houseboat. Beverly sang backup at Bill’s gigs. She dove for lobsters behind Garrison Bight. It was an amazing 25-year love story.

 

The Green Parrot was hallowed ground for Bill. He was the first to play music, in 1983, at this most famous venue. He probably performed on the Green Parrot stage hundreds of times, to tens of thousands of adoring fans. It’s a cathedral of Bill Blue music.

 

Early one morning in 2013, Bill and I walked into an eerily still and empty Green Parrot to shoot photos for his “Mojolation” album cover. As Bill casually strolled passed the stage, you could feel a ghostly chill from his thousands of fans in this special place. We had searched all over Key West for a cover shot. As we walked past the stage, full of instruments ready for the next gig, we both instantly knew we would get the photograph we needed.

 

Bill loved the Green Parrot stage and especially his sound check fans. Caffeine Carl would often perform with him, and they would both rip up the stage. Carl performed Bill’s song, “Hunker Down,” at the recent Key West Blues Festival, and someone posted a video of the performance on Facebook. Bill saw it and sent Carl a message, “Thanks for doing my song … made me feel better … love you buddy.” Nothing could have made Carl feel better.

 

Bill’s life was an extended blues music set at an amazing gig. He could equally entertain a small group in a club or a huge crowd of thousands. Bill could master a solo acoustic ballad or rip up the stage with slide guitar magic. Over the years, Bill Blue was always ready to help a friend in need. I’ve joked that he’s raised enough money to buy Miami — probably not too far off. Bill had a sense of self that was confident but not overbearing. Bill Blue’s life is a series of legendary and sometimes outlandish stories, that will be told and retold forever.

Note: Bill Blue was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bahama Village Music Program. He helped raise thousands for the music program. His family has suggested in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to BVMP, https://bvmpkw.org/donations.

*   *   *