Bobby Rush: An Intimate Night of Stories & Songs Tickets

During his renownedstage show Bobby Rush frequently jumps high into the air, arms spread and legstucked, only to land gracefully and return without a hitch to his dazzlingroutine. It's a move you might expect at a contemporary R&B show, but it'sdownright shocking when you realize that Rush is in his late 80s.

"I never thought Iwould be here this long," says Rush. "I was 83 years old before I won a Grammy,but it's better late than never. I laugh about it, but I'm so blessed and Isurely never thought I'd be making a living doing what I'm doing. I'm not just anold guy on my way out."

Hardly. Rush's busyschedule includes headlining European festivals with his band and solo programsat venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, and he just recorded an album ofbrand new material, All My Love For You,coming out via his own label Deep Rush Records in collaboration withNashville-based Thirty Tigers. Over the last several years he's won a secondGrammy, re-recorded his 1971 hit Chicken Heads together with his old friendBuddy Guy and young blues star Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, and written acritically acclaimed autobiography, IAin't Studdin' You: My American Blues Story.

That story began inrural Homer/Haynesville, Louisiana, where Rush-born Emmett Ellis, Jr.-grew upon his family's farm picking cotton, tending to mules and chickens, and livingin a home without electricity nor indoor plumbing. He built his first guitar onthe side of the family's house out of broom wire, nails, bottles and bricks.

The blues, Rushrecalls, provided "an escape from the cotton fields. You'd go out on Saturdaynight to the juke joints, but then on Monday morning you'd go back into thecotton fields to work for your bossman."

He left behind farmwork to perform on the road with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and as "BobbyRush"-a name he took on out of respect to his father, a minister-he toured thejukes and clubs of Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi before settling inChicago in the 1950s. Through singles on labels including Chess, ABC andPhiladelphia International and relentless touring Rush established anunparalleled reputation as an entertainer, which later led to him being crownedby Rolling Stone magazine as King of the Chitlin' Circuit, the network ofAfrican American clubs that arose during the segregation era.

Based in Jackson,Mississippi since the early '80s, Rush began "crossing over" to new audiencesseveral decades ago, featured in the Martin Scorsese-produced documentary The Road to Memphis, appearing alongsideTerrence Howard, Snoop Dogg and Mavis Staples in the documentary Take Me to the River, and performing onthe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonalong with Dan Aykroyd. And the eternally youthful Rush was even able to playhimself in the 1970s in Netflix's 2019 hit biopic Dolemite is My Name in a scene with Eddie Murphy. And therecognition keeps coming. In addition to his two Grammy wins (and sixnominations), he's in the Blues Hall of Fame, has won 16 Blues Music Awards (among 56 nominations), and there's currently amusical in development called Slippin' Through The Cracks with sights onBroadway, recently co-written by Rush and playwright Stephen Lloyd Helper, whoco-wrote the 7x Tony-nominated musical SmokeyJoe's CafÚ celebrating the songs ofLieber and Stoller.

Rush, meanwhile,still remains steadfastly committed to the African American audiences whosustained him for decades, and on his new album he looks back from his currentvantage point as a seasoned artist celebrated by an ever-growing fan base.

"I put together allthese songs when I was down with the COVID, thinking about where I was going togo from here. You'll find everything about me inside these songs-folk funk,traditional blues, ballads, love, a comedy and a shit-talking. I don't know ifit hurts me, but my head just won't let me be still."

"The first song is,'I'm free, look at me. I've got the shackles off my feet and the chains off mymind.' As a blues singer, as a Black man, there were a lot of places I couldnot go, a lot of things I could not do. But now I'm a free man, I can do some thingsI never did before and talk about some things I couldn't talk about."

In the rompingautobiographical 'I'm the One' Rush celebrates his long history, includinglearned from B.B. King and Muddy Waters after arriving in Chicago in 1952. Buthe was always one to carve is own path, and relays here the challenges in hisultimately successful efforts to "bring the funk into the blues."

"Back in the day itwas hard for me to convince people about recording 'Chicken Heads' with thatkind of beat-there was none of my peers cutting that kind of record. It was toofunky."

Most of the albumfinds Rush with new takes on the foibles of romance, addressing the sort ofmorality tales that he often acts out on stage with the help of his voluptuousdancers. Many of his songs over the years, such as "What's Good For the Goose(Is Good For the Gander Too)," have drawn from the well of African Americanfolklore, as does the first single off his new album, which revisits a classicthat was recently covered by a young star of Southern Soul.

"King George had arecord out called "Keep On Rollin," and that really comes from a record I did28 years ago called "One Monkey Don'tStop No Show," which was about womanwho said she was going to leave me. So I now have a single, "One Monkey CanStop a Show"-I'm going to treat her better so she sticks around."

Rush advocates bodypositivity in celebrating his "TV Mama" 'with the big wide screen,' and in"I'll Do Anything For You" proclaims that he'll serve as his lover's chaufferand masseuse, sleep out in the rain, and even rescue her from the jungle.

"I joke and talk about sex in a way thatpeople can understand. I'm all for lifting it up, because if it wasn't for sex,none of us would be here. That's what the world is built around, making loveand making money. I'm in the position now that I can tell the story better thanmost people, and plus I've got nothing to lose now."

Rush has become oneof the most prominent advocates for the blues tradition, and says "it's theroot of all music, it's the mother of all music. If you don't like the blues,you probably don't like your mama."

And he has no plansto slow down.

"I'm still indecent health and my mind is pretty keen, and the most blessed thing is that Istill have people around me who love what I do. And even if you don't like me,you're still going to say, "I don't like Bobby Rush, but, damn, he's good.'