(Continued from Chicago Blues: A Trio of Epilogues (Pt. 2))
(Source: facebook.com)
| Featured Photo: “Buddy Guy – Still Touring at 90” On the Road, Somewhere—2026? |
Epilogue 3: Buddy Hits the Road…Again
In October 2022 when he was 86 years young, Buddy Guy announced an ambitious concert tour. Kicking off in Rockford, Illinois on February 17, 2023, there were more than 20 additional stops over the following six weeks.
The tour was dubbed the “Damn Right” Farewell Tour—recalling the title of his 1991 breakout album, “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues”—and it was intended to mark his retirement from extensive touring. Dozens more dates and cities were added as the tour expanded into the summer and fall of 2023. Then citing a “standard medical issue” and following the advice of his doctors, Buddy postponed his appearances originally scheduled for October through November 2023. These were rescheduled, pushing the Farewell Tour into the following year, and included his headlining the Chicago Blues Festival in June 2024. Buddy’s final performance was on September 16, 2024, after 19 months on the road and more than 130 shows in all.
I didn’t know any of this before; I only learned that Buddy Guy was no longer touring when my friend and I were in Chicago in January 2025, as we sat in his Legends club waiting to hear Buddy play live. This had me puzzled. No more touring? Yet he was performing that night? Then I realized the obvious: playing at Legends was not considered touring since he lives on 14 acres in Orland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, just 25 miles south of his club. That made me all the more convinced that we’d made the right choice to see him play that night, since his appearances were becoming more and more rare.
I later visited another friend in Mobile, Alabama and told him of the amazing show we’d seen in Chicago at Legends in 2025. He said he’d also gotten to see Buddy play live, during his “Damn Right” Tour in 2024. He disappeared for a moment and returned to give me an extra t-shirt he’d bought at the show.
As it turned out, when Buddy’s Farewell Tour was over in 2024, he still wasn’t done touring. In an April 2025 interview with Variety magazine, three months after we saw him, Buddy was asked, “You perform a lot at your club in Chicago, but you wrapped up your farewell tour last year, right?” Buddy replied, by way of explanation, “No, no, no. They put that in: ‘Farewell Tour.’ I’m having kind of a delayed farewell tour…I want to at least go another year.”
Just two months earlier, he had announced another tour, this time titled—perhaps more aptly—the “Damn Right” Encore Tour. Not as extensive as his Farewell Tour, Buddy still played more than two dozen cities between June and August 2025. I heard about Buddy’s 2025 tour at the time: one of the shows was scheduled for Glenside, Pennsylvania, not more than three miles from where I live! But having just seen him in Chicago, I hadn’t bought a ticket.
As for Buddy Guy, having toured and played the Blues for more than 70 years, he was still not finished. In a July 2025 interview with Guitar Player magazine, Buddy explained: “I thought about retiring twice. But I thought about all those great Blues players who are no longer with us—B.B. King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, all those guys—and they used to tell me, ‘You need to keep playing and keep representing the Blues, ‘cause they don’t play it on the radio or anything anymore.’ So, I said to myself, ‘Well, Buddy, you better hang on a little longer.’ My health ain’t doing too bad, so I’m still doing what I’ve always done…every time I get on stage, just try to play the best I can.”
Going back to his role in the movie “Sinners”, given the chance, it seems Buddy might indeed choose the immortality of vampires, and “keep tourin’, keep livin’.” In February 2026, he was ready to hit the road again and announced the Buddy Guy 90 Tour, to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 30, 2026. This tour would travel to 30 cities between July and September 2026.
I heard about the 2026 BG 90 Tour from the same friend I’d traveled to Chicago with in 2025 to hear Buddy play live at Legends. As we often did, we were sitting at our favorite watering hole, Well Crafted Brewery in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, eating lunch with a flight of excellent beers.
At one point in our conversation, he said, “Oh yeah, I just remembered: Buddy Guy is coming to the Keswick Theatre in Glenside in August. Wanna go?” Now a year later, after seeing him in Chicago, I excitedly replied, “Damn right, I do!” He asked me to check into the tickets and get back to him, which I did when I got home later.
My mind was filled with the great memories from that trip to see Buddy in Chicago as I checked the seating chart. The best available seats were not very close to the stage. They weren’t cheap either. And then my mind turned in an unexpected direction. Seeing him play in Glenside might be a letdown. We would be so far away from Buddy, whereas in Chicago, we’d been just 20 feet from the legend himself. He’d strolled close enough that we could’ve almost touched him. How could we possibly top that?
I called my friend and told him what I’d found out: the seating options and prices. Then I said, “I’ve reconsidered. I don’t think we should go.” He replied, “I’m glad you said that. I was having the same thought. How could the show be any better than what we saw?” So, on August 2, 2026, we will not be among the fans in Glenside listening to Buddy belt the Blues.
Instead, we’ve planned another adventure. That same week, we’ll travel to Clarksdale to enjoy the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival. They haven’t announced the lineup yet, but live Blues? Oh yeah. And maybe we’ll have time to visit the Delta Blues Museum—the first museum in the world dedicated to the Blues. Feels like that would be most appropriate!
Postlude: A Return to Chicago?
While I was writing this Trio of Epilogues, detailing Buddy Guy’s amazing life and legacy, I found my own perception of his almost-mythic accomplishments had grown exponentially. Recently, after we’d already decided not to see Buddy in 2026 at the Keswick Theatre, I mentioned this newly-enhanced admiration to my friend. I mused, “It really would be great to see him play live again, but only if the experience could approach the epic time we had back in 2025.”
And then it occurred to me. Excitedly, I asked, “Want to do it again?” He looked a bit puzzled, so I went on. “If Buddy Guy is still playing at Legends in January 2027, let’s go back.” He started nodding. “But here’s the thing,” I added. “This time, let me see if I can interest one or both of my sons to come along!” “Yes!” he exclaimed. We were already looking forward to the possibility. “Just imagine,” I said, “This time, we’ll get to share Buddy Guy, who can help launch the next generation of Blues lovers! How fitting for the legend!”
So now, I’ve started tracking the website for Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago, waiting to see if he will be playing again next year. I want to snap up tickets when they go on sale. Maybe this time we can reserve a table near the stage. Maybe Melvin Taylor will perform again. But for sure, I’ll recommend we all use ear plugs, so we can live to hear again another day.
Here’s to Buddy Guy! Here’s to Legends! And here’s to the Blues!