Blues great Buddy Guy due at Modesto’s Gallo Center

At age 78, Buddy Guy certainly has a lifetime of achievements to his name, but the blues great still has no intention of resting on his laurels.

The Chicago bluesman continues to tour across the country at a pace that could tax men half his age. And the Louisiana native continues to put out new music despite already receiving many of the biggest highest lifetime achievement awards in the industry.

In February, Guy also picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys. This comes after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and Kennedy Center Honors in 2012. When he picked up his Grammy honor, the musician continued his hard-working humble ways with his acceptance speech.

“To receive something like this on a night like this,” he told the crowd. “My mother used to tell me, ‘If you don’t have any money, Buddy, hang around with people who’ve got money.’ So, I think I’m in the right place tonight.”

Guy will bring his electrified sound and style to the Gallo Center for the Arts on April 9.

Over his 50-year career, Guy has been a major influence on rock icons including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Stevie Ray Vaughan, thanks to his sound.

Fellow guitar legend Jeff Beck wrote about Guy’s impact on his fellow musicians for his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award presentation. He said Guy’s playing “transcended blues and started becoming theater.”

“Buddy’s impact on the blues and rock ’n’ roll cannot be denied. As a musician, his influence has been evident in the careers of not only myself, but Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among many, many others,” he wrote. “I remember seeing him play in the early ’60s and saying to myself, ‘I didn’t know a Strat could sound like that.’ … His live concerts are legendary, and the music world would be a very boring place without his influence. I know that my guitar wouldn’t sound half as good if I hadn’t heard his first.”

In 2013, Guy released his newest album, “Rhythm & Blues,” a 21-track project that features collaborations with everyone from Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith to rising guitar star Gary Clark Jr.

Still, for all the accolades and applause over the years, Guy said in a recent Guitar Center Sessions interview that the evolution of blues and the challenge of the guitar always keep him interested.

“The blues is like the Ford car, I don’t care how it changed since Henry Ford days, it’s still got that Ford right across the front and back of it somewhere,” he said. “I’ve been fooling with it for quite a while and there’s still a lot I don’t know about the guitar.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Blues great Buddy Guy due at Modesto’s Gallo Center."