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wanted. This was also true in California and in Texas, where he was now celebrated as a major figure in the history of the blues. In 1977, he was a headliner for the first Juneteenth Blues Festival, founded by local jazzman, educator, and promoter Lanny Steele.16 The Juneteenth Blues Festival provided Lightnin’ with the opportunity to not only play on the same stage as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and the other giants of postwar country blues, but to interact with them backstage, to swap stories and joke around. In fact, he got to talk to Muddy Waters about his upcoming travel to Canada the following day. “So we were sitting around drinking champagne,” Benson recalls, “and Lightnin’ told Muddy, ‘We’re going to Montreal tomorrow.’ And Muddy says, ‘Doudou [Boicel], that’s the man you need to go see.’ So, the next day, we get ready to go to Montreal. We’re going through customs at Toronto, which Lightnin’ called ‘Doronto,’ and the man at the desk asks for our work visa. And out of the clear blue, and loud in the airport, Lightnin’ says, ‘Doudou, motherfucker, Doudou.’ And the guy says, ‘What?’ He says, ‘Doudou, goddamit, don’t you know Doudou?’ He says, ‘Everybody knows Doudou.’ Out of context. Everybody in the airport was looking. Needless to say, we were in customs three hours.”17

Once they got to Montreal, they discovered that Doudou was in fact “a top-notch impresario in Canada,” and that he was more than generous. “He had a reputation for overpaying you,” Benson says. “If he made money that night, he’d give a $500 bonus or a $1,000 bonus. He always put us up in the best hotels. So all of the musicians really appreciated Doudou because the guy treated them so well.”18 In addition to presenting Lightnin’ at the Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club on June 23, 1977, Doudou recorded the performances, but they were not released until 1996.19

Lightnin’ liked Canada, Benson says, especially Montreal, because there was “a French and Acadian influence…. So every time that Lightnin’ played ‘Mojo Hand’ with that kind of zydeco beat that he would do sometimes, they were lined around the block in thirty-below-zero weather.”

When Benson and Lightnin’ traveled together, they generally shared the same room. “He didn’t want me to sleep any place else,” Benson says, “but he was an old man, and he’d wake my ass up, two or three times a night, man. He’d make noises and clear his throat. He’d ask, ‘You asleep, baby, you asleep?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I was sleepin’ until you woke me up.’ And then we’d pick up guitars and he would think of some old song he hadn’t sung in a long time and he’d say he was going to sing it that night or something, and we’d sit there and we’d play guitars. And he would tell me stories about all these things that went down when he was a younger man. Tricks they would play on people and all kinds of stuff like that.”20

Sometimes, however, Lightnin’ and Benson would get into arguments with each other. Lightnin’ didn’t approve of Benson running around with girls he’d meet in the clubs, but that was what Benson looked forward to when they were traveling. “Me, being a young man … part and parcel of being in that business is to hook with somebody that night, mostly white girls. And he didn’t like for me to leave him. So, we would get into little spats, I’d collect the money, take care of business, leave the money with him, and take off with some little girl, and then he would get upset, because I wouldn’t come back. I might spend the night out.”21

One time, in Montreal, Benson bought some yogurt and Lightnin’ said, “What in the fuck are you buying that shit for?” So, Benson put it in the refrigerator in the hotel room to save it for later, but then after the gig, he went out with “some little girl” and stayed too long. “I came back the next day, and he had eaten the yogurt…. And he’d started bitching, ‘You been gone and I had nothin’ to eat, and I had to eat that shit in the refrigerator.”22

Sometimes, Lightnin’ would push Benson too far, and Benson would get angry, and then back off. “He’d say something like, ‘You eat