Some guy from the Smithsonian went down and hunted down all the big blues players of the time and recorded them professionally in 1937.
One of the guys he recorded was Robert Johnson.
Those are the only recordings of Robert Johnson in existence.
I was playing down in Myrtle Beach South Carolina at a club that used to be there called Atlantis in 1990.
We were mostly hard rock/hair metal and our show started at 11 p.m.
The club was HUGE. And one night Bobby Blue Bland played a show there at 9p.m.
I HAD to see him, so I went in early and watched the show. To my surprise...he stayed and watched my show afterwards.
During the night we played "Bad To The Bone" by George Thoroughgood & The Destroyers.
And I used to play a long slide guitar solo where I would "quote" a bunch of cool slide licks from different songs: Zeps "Nobodies Fault But Mine", Claptons "Motherless Children", and Robert Johnson's "Stones In My Passway"
The next night...Bobby came in and gave me a gift I've never forgotten.
Robert Johnson's music had just been remastered and the "Complete" Robert Johnson had been released!
Back then, cassettes were the most popular.
And Bobby had went down to the mall that day and bought me the newly remasted box set of Robert Johnson! He gave it to me and shook my hand & told me that I played slide pretty good for a young white boy.
I've never forgotten that. It was one of the highlights of my life musically.
Now here's Robert Johnson with a hellhound on his trail: