That time Sonny Landreth told me about his favourite Crossroads Guitar Festival moment with Eric Clapton

By Steve Newton

I did my fourth interview with Louisiana slide-guitar wizard Sonny Landreth in January of 2013, when he was touring behind his all-instrumental album, Elemental Journey, which featured guest appearances by Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson.

Three months later Landreth was scheduled to take part in Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013, on a bill that included Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Vaughan, B.B. King, Albert Lee, and the Allman Brothers Band–plus Slowhand himself, of course.

Landreth has opened all three previous Crossroads events–in 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Texas and in 2007 and 2010 at Toyota Park in Chicago–so at one point in the conversation I asked him what his favourite moment from the festivals had been. He didn’t hesitate.

Have a listen:

The moment Landreth’s referring to happens at the 2:10 point in this clip from the 2007 festival:

To hear the full audio of my 2013 interview with Sonny Landreth–and my interviews with him from 1995, 2009, and 2016 as well–subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 700 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with stellar musicians since 1982.