interview with the blues' legend by Michael Lohr [chief music reporter]

Since the beginning, Saxon "3 Feets" Jones has made his mark on the much-celebrated Fens/Norfolk blues explosion. Today he is considered to be one of Londinium's most heralded musicians. With 61 albums in the last 40 years to his name including 23 gold and 11 platinum discs, not to mention over 10,000 live performances, including 5 for the Royal family, he is probably the most prolific blues player ever to come from the Fens. It was said that he tutored Erik Claptun on slide guitar, showed Jimmy Hendrix how to use feedback as an essential element of song structure and even taught Robbie Plant how to do a caterwaul that would have the ladies mesmerised. Saxon was one of the 1st bluesmen to break it big during the Norfolk blues explosion of the early 1960s and he shows no sign of slowing down.

We agreed to meet for this interview at the Sixpence Café, a legendary Londinium watering hole. When I arrived Saxon was surrounded by several well-wishers and autograph seekers.

Greetings, Mr Jones, it is certainly a pleasure to meet you. I want to get the ball rolling so-to-speak, and address an age old rumour that you did indeed play bass guitar on the now legendary 1972 minimalist classic the "Chartreuse Album" by the Clipping Roaches, is this true?

Well, hi back at you, mud hugger. In the past I made a career out of evading that question but since you smell so nice with your city-slicker cologne on and all, I think I might just tell you. Yes, that was me on bass guitar. At the time, the Barker Town Sheriff incapacitated Slap Happy Williams for smoking an illegal substance and doing lewd acts to cow carcasses in the nearby slaughterhouse. So the remaining Clipping Roaches asked me if I would lay down some thumping tracks for them, and I just couldn't resist.

Your latest record "The Universal Ancestor" is supposed to be about the coming of star children and the discovery of quantum foam as the soup of the gods. Is this your first solo concept record?

Yes, it is. I've worked on concept records with bands like Churchill's Pants, Salmon-coloured Lloyd, the Tulip People, Belly Lint, Cold Wet Lead and all those other shoe-gazer bands. But this is my 1st actual solo concept record, unless you count all the albums I've done over the years about sex, death, whisky, religion and the blues.

Did you ever study astronomy or astrophysics?

Funny you should ask that. I actually did take a couple classes in string theory and deep space astronomy at university last year. I find that stuff to be more fascinating than a woman, at times.

You called me a "mud hugger" earlier, what does that mean?

Child, that's just an old bluesman's term for 'one-who-loves-the-blues'. You know, blues was born in the muddy bottoms of the Fens. That music is all covered in swap roots and muck. So, if you like the blues then you is a 'mud hugger'.

When you're not playing guitar or writing songs what do you like to do relaxation?

Is a woman and a bottle of smooth sipping whisky involved in this equation or not?

Let me rephrase the question... when you are alone and you need to unwind, besides hanging out with the ladies, playing guitar and writing songs what else do you do? What other hobbies do you pursue to take your mind off the daily grind, um...so-to-speak?

Well, sometimes I go fishin' in the canals. Other times I head out to the fields of the farm that I own and look for old Roman coins with a metal detector. Occasionally I will travel to Scotland and walk those beautiful mountains. The Cape Wrath Trail is my favourite. The Sgurr Ban is probably my favourite peak. Did you know that bog pine makes for excellent guitar picks once it's polished up a bit?

Is it true that you were offered a sizable part in the Mr Spleen movie that was made a few years back and you turned it down?

Yes, that's true. It was a money thing. I mean I played in several of the Benny Hill movies. Did cameos in two of Monty Python's most famous movies and all, and would have done so for Spleen. It was just money. They weren't offering enough for the time needed for the part. That's all. Besides the ruddy thing bombed in the States.

So you didn't call Mr Spleen and the film's producers a bunch of "goat loving ninnies" then?

Not that I can recall. Next question.

Is it true that you were asked to father Kylie Mynoog's love child?

No. I think that was Gary Newman, or was it Bobby Wee. No, no I think it was one of those tusspots from the Pot Shop Boyz... oh I can't remember for sure. But I have been asked, 17 times thus far, to take one of those DNA-based paternity test. That's got to be some kind of record don't you think?

Actually, I think both Nick Jagger and Lommy from Motorhe'dz have you beat. If I recall I think they've been asked 19 times each to take a paternity test, mostly court appointed though. Anyway, onto a different subject, do you ever listen to punk music?

Actually yes, somewhat, I think the Vibrators were fantastic in their day. Black Flag were cool! Never liked the Sex Pistols much. Nothing else caught my fancy until I heard Leon Fleeb 'A Deep and the Horselickers. They're stunning in their minimalist way.

Who is the one guitar player that most influenced you?

Hmm, let me think a moment. I guess that would have to be Pourous Johnson, a blues guitarist from Mississippi. Many years ago while touring America I had the chance to meet Pourous at his house New Orleans. His wife Alameda May cooked up a heepin' mess of hawg's jowls and possum pie. After the Germans bombed New Orleans with U2 boats during the war, Pourous was going to move to London, but he never did.

What did you two discuss?

A little bit of everything, mainly how to work a crowd. I think the best advice, playing-wise, he gave me was that "if you mess up on a chord or a note, don't show it, just keep it smooth and keep going."

Suddenly, Saxon stood up. His old bones creaked and popped as he stretched. He walked outside and motioned for his limo to pull up to the curb. "Let's go back to my place. I've got something I want to show you," he said as he rubbed his gnarled grey whiskers. It was a short drive from the café to his palatial estate. I sat in silence and watched as he meditated to the sound of dolphins singing.

Once we arrived, I followed him down to his root cellar; copper tubing and empty canning jars, from his moonshine distillery, was spread everywhere. Several well-played acoustic guitars hung on the carpet-covered walls. At the far corner of the room stood an ornate jewellery hutch. It had to be at least 400 years old. The Nordic rune that represented the god Tyr was carved into the door and inlaid with silver foil. Saxon walked up to it and after fumbling around in his pockets for a few minutes he pulled out a twisted old skeleton key and opened the hutch. As the doors flung open I was astonished at the sight of so many wood guitar picks lined up in a row. The wood glistened in the sunlight trickling through the dirty cellar window.

These here are my special picks. I only use them once each and that's when I'm writing and recording new songs. One pick per record, that's it.

What do you do you do with the pick once you are done recording?

I burn it on the sacred stone. See these picks are made from the wood of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. A while back when the world was on the brink of cataclysm a small branch fell from the tree. It was really nothing more than an oversized twig, but it was enough. Anyway, I found Odin's horse Sleipnir wondering out in the Fens all by his lonesome. Well, seeing the runes all over his silver bridle and saddle, not to mention his 8 legs, I knew exactly who the horse belonged to, so I slowly crept up on Sleipnir with a bucketful of oats and honey. He almost jolted, but one smell of them oats and honey and he was my new best friend. Anyway, I slowly led him back to my house then I wrote a note to Odin tellin' him that I found his horse and that he might like to send one of them beautiful Rhine maidens or Valkyries down to pick him up. Well I burnt the note on the sacred stone and waited. Before too long Odin himself came down to get his horse.

What did he say to you? What did he do?

He was most grateful that I found Sleipnir before the trolls or giants did. He asked me what my craft was, I told him that I was a bard, that I played the guitar. He thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers and this huge stag appeared carrying in its mouth a small branch from Yggdrasil. Well, I couldn't believe my eyes. The stag dropped the branch at my feet and then disappeared. Odin said to take the branch to a wood carver named Snorri, up in Iceland, once there I was to have him carve me out as many picks as the branch would make. Ever since, when I began to record a new record, I would come down here and get out a new pick for that session. The music just flows out, it's like magic. I burn the pick afterward as a way of saying thanks. It only seemed like the right thing to do.

Have you ever lost one of those picks or had one stolen?

I have never had any stolen, but I did lose one once. Back in 1967, when I was playing Woodstock, I took one of the special picks along because I was working on a new record at the time. I had been sitting in on a sage smoking session, if you know what I mean, with Country Joe and the Fish and certain members of the Grateful Dead and I accidentally dropped the pick in the grass. We searched for 2 days for it but with no luck. I thought for sure that it was gone. But Jimmy Hendrix found it right before he went on stage. He played his set with it and then gave to me. I told him to keep it, that it would bring him luck.

Do you know what happened to it after Hendrix died?

Yeah, it was sent back to me by his band mates. They wanted rid of it. I think they thought there was a hex on it or something.

Saxon looked at the sky, smiled, then poured a drink of moonshine for me. He insisted that I sample the wicked brew - it might have killed me. I remember a slight pepper and clove taste right before my breath was taken away by its intensity. He laughed a hearty, old timer's laugh. "Son, you best be going now. I feel a new song comin' on and I want to get to playing it," said Saxon as he picked up his trusty old guitar 'Bertha Lou' and began to check the tuning. I bid him a fond farewell. He is indeed a true gentleman bard. The world needs more people like Saxon '3 Feets' Jones.

In my next column I will be discussing Iron Tulip and Tin Maiden's sometimes violent rivalry, presenting an in-depth interview with England's very own electric folk blues masters Bone Willey and the Scrimshaw Jam and I will also reveal, for the first time anywhere, how Saxon Jones got the nickname '3 feets'. So until then, remember tomorrow is always "Hug a Celt Day". Take care, and many blessings to you all.