Mick Hartley

Bluesman Albert Collins, Germany, 1988:

Collins was well-known for wandering round in the audience while still playing, trailing a long cord to his guitar. He'd even wander out onto the sidewalk. In Chicago, outside a club called Biddy Mulligan’s, he once boarded a city bus while playing. The driver stayed at the bus stop till Collins got off.

In Austin, Texas:

Collins got into a long solo one night at Antone's, then left the building, still plugged in and playing. Several minutes after Collins returned to the stage, a pizza delivery man came in and gave Collins the pizza he had just ordered…

He died in 1993 aged 61.

From Classic Blues Videos (via), where there's a biography of the man:

"I get most of my sound from the amp that I use and I always like to use my own amp- a 100 watt Quad Reverb I've been using since 1972. I always put the volume all the way up on 10, treble on 10, middle on 10 and I don't use bass, intensity or none of that. Reverb I set at 4."

"I was told when I started to play that simple music is the hardest music in the world to play. And blues is simple music."

"A lot of guys shy away from other guitar players who are better than them. I've never been that way. I listened to all the other guys, but I never wanted  to play like them. Like I tell a lot of people, I change a few notes, but I've been playing the same way because I always wanted to keep my own style and always be Albert Collins."