Grammy-Winning Blues Legend Bobby Rush at the Kate January 25

News release

OLD SAYBROOK, CT - The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, “the Kate”, welcomes blues legend Bobby Rush on Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 7:30 pm.

During his renowned stage show Bobby Rush frequently jumps high into the air, arms spread and legs tucked, only to land gracefully and return without a hitch to his dazzling routine. It’s a move you might expect at a contemporary R&B show, but it’s downright shocking when you realize that Rush is in his late 80s.

“I never thought I would be here this long,” says Rush. “I was 83 years old before I won a Grammy, but it’s better late than never. I laugh about it, but I’m so blessed and I surely never thought I’d be making a living doing what I’m doing. I’m not just an old guy on my way out.”

Hardly. Rush’s busy schedule includes headlining European festivals with his band and solo programs at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, and he just released an album of brand new material, “All My Love For You.” Over the last several years he’s won a second Grammy, re-recorded his 1971 hit “Chicken Heads” together with his old friend Buddy Guy and young blues star Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and written a critically acclaimed autobiography, “I Ain’t Studdin’ You: My American Blues Story.”

Based in Jackson, Mississippi since the early ‘80s, Rush began “crossing over” to new audiences several decades ago. He was featured in the Martin Scorsese-produced documentary “The Road to Memphis,” appeared alongside Terrence Howard, Snoop Dogg and Mavis Staples in the documentary “Take Me to the River,” and performed on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with Dan Aykroyd. The eternally youthful Rush was even able to play himself in the Netflix 2019 hit biopic “Dolemite is My Name” in a scene with Eddie Murphy.

In addition to his two Grammy wins (and six nominations), he’s in the Blues Hall of Fame, has won 16 Blues Music Awards (among 56 nominations), and has a musical in development called “Slippin’ Through The Cracks” with sights on Broadway, co-written with playwright Stephen Lloyd Helper who co-wrote “Smokey Joe’s Café.”

Rush, meanwhile, still remains steadfastly committed to the African American audiences who sustained him for decades, and on his new album he looks back from his current vantage point as a seasoned artist celebrated by an ever-growing fan base.

“I put together all these songs when I was down with the COVID, thinking about where I was going to go from here. You’ll find everything about me inside these songs—folk funk, traditional blues, ballads, love, and comedy. I don’t know if it hurts me, but my head just won’t let me be still.”

Rush has become one of the most prominent advocates for the blues tradition, and says “it’s the root of all music, it’s the mother of all music. If you don’t like the blues, you probably don’t like your mama.”
And he has no plans to slow down. “I’m still in decent health and my mind is pretty keen, and the most blessed thing is that I still have people around me who love what I do. And even if you don’t like me, you’re still going to say, “I don’t like Bobby Rush, but, damn, he’s good.’

For information and tickets, visit www.thekate.org or call 860-510-0453.