. . . understated. He got a ton of guitar, outside of his solos – into three or four minute tracks. He knew the right time to get in and get out without it being too much, and it was always so funky and groovy. So I think that was one of the things that made it cross over. If you listen carefully, none of his music is very slick to a metronome – it’s all over the place. But it has a human quality to it and an excitement about how anything can happen at any moment. He basically lit the world on fire. . . . There are so many people chasing his sound, and you can get some of it. But the fact of the matter is, at the time that he did that stuff – there was nothing around like that. There was nobody who looked like him. There wasn’t anyone who sounded like him. You can see it in some early footage, how his audiences didn’t know what to make of it all. And ultimately, he blew their minds.

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