The recent comments by Etta James slamming Beyonce bring to mind how James wowed fans at several Long Beach Blues Festivals and the Blues At the Nugget show, which she began with a very sensual take on Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want To Make Love To You.”

On Feb. 7, her significant other during the 1960s, singer-songwriter Billy Foster, who co-wrote I’d Rather Go Blind and other hits by James, came on the Steve Propes 45s Show on WPMD.org for an interview about these comments.  The opening question:  “Did these comments surprise you?” let loose a very revealing interview about James with selected songs from her and Foster’s career.

Click here to listen to a podcast recording of the interview.

Then there was the 1993 Long Beach Blues Festival booking which she missed in a most memorable way as recalled by a former KLON DJ who asked not to be identified.  

“It was the week before the festival.  Etta was scheduled to perform, and it was arranged that I would talk to her by phone.  I was going to go through her career, starting with some very early things, and on up to the present.  I played one early hit (‘At Last’), then introduced her and brought her up on the board.  She immediately said, ‘Why did you play that?  That’s so old I don’t even sound like that anymore.  And by the way, what’s going on down there?”  She then mentioned the absence of a blues DJ, who had just left the station.  “You’ve got this rock-and-roll blues festival – what’s going on?’”

“So I potted her down, and said, ‘Well you may not be excited about the festival lineup, but we’ve got (and I named a couple of big blues artists) performing, and we’re also going to hear from the great Etta James.’  Then I played another cut of her and the interview was over.  However, I did get on the line with her off the air, and said, ‘Etta, Etta, what are you DOING?  If you’ve got a problem with the station, we can talk about it, but you don’t do that when you’re talking live to all the folks!’  And she responded with something surly and hung up.”

“She cancelled on us, if you remember.  She also cancelled on San Diego a couple of weeks later.  I think it was weight-related; she was in one of her heavy periods and I think looking for excuses to cancel engagements.”