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Fact #168552

When:

Short story:

Taj Mahal and Tim Buckley play the first of six nights at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, Los Angeles, California, USA

Full article:

Taj Mahal : We were playing at The Whisky A GoGo on Sunset Boulevard, and The Stones, Eric Burdon And The Animals, Cream were in town, so was Graham Bond. They would go around to the blues clubs and hear who was playing. (N.B. The Stones were in Los Angeles from 5 to 26 July, 1968; Taj Mahal and Tim Buckley played at The Whisky from 8-13 July, 1968; The Animals played at The Whisky on 5 to 8,July 1968) )

I was in the middle of playing my harmonica in one song, and I opened my eyes and looked out on the dance floor and there's Mick Jagger dancing, and Keith Richards, not Charlie Watts. I looked over to the right and there's Eric Burdon and Chas Chandler and Hilton Valentine and they're all dancing. I said to myself, 'Now, wait a minute, these guys are happening, and they're all here at my gig.

When I get offa this stage, I'm gonna go and sit down at their table' because by then I'd heard some feedback from Canned Heat who had been to England and they said The Stones were really open to doing stuff. John Hammond, another friend of mine, had also said that The Stones liked to do some jamming. And I knew that Ry Cooder had done some things on their records.

What I was getting, though the magazines and communication with people who were able to travel over there was that Britain had a really good musical scene going, and that blues was being played all over the place. I mean, we had a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding with the blues in America.


So, I was invited over to their table, got introduced, had some drinks, we were enjoying ourselves, and I said to Mick, 'If there's any chance that we could collaborate with you on anything, we'd love to do it.'

Well I'll be damned if four months later eight BOAC return tickets came in the mail, first class from Los Angeles to London, England, UK, Europe. We were invited to be a part of The Rolling Stones' Rock'n'roll Circus. I could not believe it.

So when the time came we took the four musicians in the band, and two roadies and two management guys, and I have to tell you, and I want this to be said to everybody, in all the years of me being out here in this music business, the best treatment that I ever had in my life, that was based totally on friendship, humanity, brotherly love and love for the same kind of music, came from the Rolling Stones and how we were treated during the couple of weeks we were over there for the Rock'n'Roll Circus.

A lot of people say they love what I do, but The Stones have always backed it up with real love, real care, real connection.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, September 2011)