EXCLUSIVE: Grammy-winning blues musician Bobby Rush, fresh off Oscar winner Sinners, is the subject of new documentary King of the Chitlin’ Circuit.
The 92-year-old blues vet performed the harmonica parts for the character of Delta Slim in Sinners and recently took part in the on-stage Oscar night performance for the movie.
The doc, which is due to air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in August, will chart Rush’s seven-decades career and personal journey. Directed by Al Warren and produced by Taiwo Gaynor, the doc shot over two years “captures the highs and lows of a bluesman’s life on the road, from performances to late-night reflections and the quiet moments in between”.
A Blues Hall of Famer with three Grammy wins, Rush has been singing, playing, composing, and producing since the early 1950s. He grew up in 1930s Louisiana on a farm picking cotton and living in a rural home without electricity or indoor plumbing. His style incorporates Mississippi Delta blues, funk, and southern soul, and he has performed with artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, James Brown, Little Richard and BB King.
Rush has previously featured in the The Blues docuseries directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Clint Eastwood, the 2014 documentary Take Me to the River, and Netflix’s 2019 biopic Dolemite is My Name, before collaborating with Ryan Coogler and Delroy Lindo on Sinners, most notably in the song Juke, a duet with Miles Caton’s character Sammie.
“I wish I’d had the chance to do something like this when I was a young man, but it’s never too late to tell your story and express how you feel,” said Rush. “This film captures things about me that I might never have shared. My hope is that this becomes one of the greatest things that’s ever happened not just to me, but to any Black man in my position— and really, to anyone, Black or white, from Mississippi to Maine, who wants to tell their story.”
“I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi where Bobby Rush moved through the air like weather,” said director/editor Al Warren. “I didn’t know his history yet, but I knew his face from the newspaper, his name from billboards, and the sense that a man with confidence like that could tilt a whole town a few degrees. Later I decided I wanted to follow Bobby and portray him as he is: an otherworldly talent, a world traveler, an artist forever in motion. The film is a snapshot of his life and the spirit that keeps Bobby Rush in motion and refuses to dim.”
Producer Taiwo Gaynor added: “One of the most impactful things Bobby shared with me during his first interview for the film was when asked, ‘what is the most important thing in life,’ Bobby took a few moments and said, ‘the most important thing in my life is to still have my memory. Not money or status, but memories’, because he knew, who you are is tied to your memories and the stories that live there.”
Rush is repped by 72 Music Mgmt and the Kurland Agency.
