Q: You’ve been playing the Hopefest for 10 years now. This must be a pretty important gig for you.
A: Yeah, I do this every year … and I hope that we can get everybody involved in it, ’cause so many people don’t understand what it is to be homeless. A lot of people don’t understand that they could be in this same predicament.
Q: You grew up on the South Side?
A: Yeah, 4746 Langley. That’s where I was raised.
Q: So how you did get the name Bo Diddley?
A: Well, the kids at grammar school (Francis E. Willis, at 49th and Vincennes) gave me that nickname, and it’s been with me. I used it when I wrote the record.
Q: Was it the name of anything before you? Was it something kids would have naturally drawn upon?
A: I have no idea, man. Kids just started calling me Bo Diddley and it stuck.
Q: How did you get that “Bo Diddley sound”? Did you sit down and plan to write a song with that beat?
A: No. I was trying to play (sings) “I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle” and hit that beat, that strum on the guitar and I did it again and I thought “Oh, wow! What is this?” And I did it again and it sounded good.
Q: In “Who Do You Love?” you sang, “I’m 22 years old and I don’t mind dying.” How do you feel about it at 71?
A: When I was that age, I was stupid (laughs). … Man, I didn’t want nobody doing nothin’ to me. And 71 ain’t
nothin’ but a number. Remember that. All the people who think they’re over the hill, they just got started.
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