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Tavis: Robert Cray is a five-time Grammy-winning musician who's won worldwide acclaim for his unique blend of blues, soul and R&B. He and his band, aptly named the Robert Cray Band (laugh), are out now with their first-ever live recording, called 'Live from Across the Pond.' He's also getting acclaim for his Iraq war protest song, 'Twenty' which has won a number of awards this year. Here now, some of the video for 'Twenty.'

Tavis: I can't help but think, Robert Cray, if Donald Rumsfeld had listened to that song some time ago, he might not have been served up the embarrassment of having to resign yesterday.

Robert Cray: (Laugh) Well, I wish that would have happened.

Tavis: Yeah.

Cray: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I really feel that it was just the wrong, completely wrong thing for him to do, to send those troops over there without the protection that they needed. And also just the basic idea of going to Iraq in the first place.

Tavis: It's one thing for politicians to make those kinds of decisions, those kinds of determinations. It's another thing for an artist who doesn't have to delve into that kind of controversial territory, to go there as a songwriter. Did you have any reservation about this track? About getting so political, as it were?

Cray: No, actually, it was my responsibility, I felt. First of all, understanding that once a soldier gets their orders, that that's what their job is. They're supposed to do that. My father was in the Army, spent 30 years in the service. And so I was writing on behalf of the soldiers who aren't allowed to speak. And so I was doing my job, just like they're doing their job.

Tavis: Yeah. I was - to shift gears somewhat dramatically here, and thank you for indulging me on the Iraq song, 'Twenty.' When this CD came across my desk, I was actually a little stunned. It was just shocking to me that in all the years of doing what you have done, what you do so well - you know where I'm going with this.

Cray: (Laugh) Yeah.

Tavis: That you had never done a live CD. (Laugh) It wasn't in my collection, and I thought about it. I said, 'Okay, okay, they haven't done a live CD.' But that kind of struck me as strange.

Cray: Well, it is strange. There's a lot of bootlegs floating around.

Tavis: Exactly.

Cray: Yeah, and we've made it...

Tavis: I've heard you live.

Cray: Yeah.

Tavis: Whether or not you got paid for it's another issue.

Cray: Yeah, that's true. (Laugh) But we've made a lot of attempts in the past, and the deal was - it's like when you have one shot to make a live recording, you have to pretend like you don't know that you're being recorded. And so therefore, there's a lot of good bootlegs out there. But for us, and we know that we're being recorded, they got the professional machines out there, you gotta make sure your voice is in form.

Just gotta stay tight with the fellas on stage. But what's always happened, I lose my voice. We play too tight, it's not loose. You only got one shot. So for this record, we were able to be in one spot for seven nights, we did it at the Royal Albert Hall in London while on tour with Eric Clapton. Same setup every night. We weren't thinking about the recording, because we were the opening act. And we were trying to gain some new fans, and so we recorded every night, and we just went out and played.

Tavis: I wonder, to your point now, I never considered this. I wonder how it changes what a band does on a particular night if they know they're being recorded, as opposed to not knowing.

Cray: Well, when you know you're being recorded, you're thinking you're gonna do your best.

Tavis: But that's every night for you. You don't go out every night and give less than your best.

Cray: No, I never do, but you don't have to, you're not thinking that, you don't have this thing in the back of your head that's telling you you gotta be especially good. When you go out and you do what you do, you're gonna do your best, like you mentioned. That's what you do. And so, there's added pressure in the back of your head, saying, well, the tape's rolling, we gotta be really good.

Tavis: And I ask that question because maybe the trick here was for your manager, your agents, not to tell you (laugh) that for seven nights, you were being recorded. And you guys would have just killed it. And they would have said, 'Robert, you know what? This week was so good, we're gonna put out a live CD of this.'

Cray: Well, yeah, but that's basically what happened by doing the recordings in London. Because we weren't thinking about being recorded, we were just playing in a huge venue with, like, seven, 8,000 people every night. And it's not our stage; we have a limited amount of room. And it's the quartet against - we're gonna try to best the main headliner. So we're going out there to kick. (Laugh)

Tavis: Tell me what it's like - I started to say what it's like playing with Eric Clapton. I can imagine it must be a wonderful experience to open for Eric Clapton. I guess what I really wanna get at is why you think that's such a good mix. I'm always curious when I see an opening act and a headliner, how that came to be, why they thought that mix worked.

I've been to concerts before where the opening act and the headliner just - I didn't quite get why the two of them were on the same stage. Both talented groups or individuals, but the mix didn't work. You and Clapton have been friends for years, about to go back out on tour again. Why does that Cray-Clapton collaboration on stage work?

Cray: Well, there's a lot of similarities in the kinds of music that we enjoy. We're both fans of blues, so I think that's the number one thing. And I've always been a big fan of his music, and I think that it's rubbed off on me, and he says the same thing about what we do. And then with the blend that we have, which includes the R&B and the soul thing, it's something that they don't do.

They do theirs from a different perspective. Their music from a different perspective. And so together, I think, that bond is the blues. That brings the two bands together, and then what we do and what he does on top of that widens the whole scope.

Tavis: That raises two questions, Robert. One, how did you become such a fan of the blues, number one. And number two, I wanna come back to this, and we'll talk about how eclectic a mix your sound is, and how you put all that stuff together. Those different influences, and actually make it sound good. You could mix that together, (laugh) and it could blow up on you.

Cray: Right.

Tavis: But you mix it, and it sounds beautiful. But let me come back to that in a moment. How'd you become a fan of the blues?

Cray: I became a fan of the blues when after playing guitar for a while, I was about 15 or 16, a good friend of mine who also played guitar came up to me and he started, he had this Buddy Guy record. I think it was Buddy Guy. And there was just the coolest guitar work on it. It was just, it just said something that a lot of other music that we had been listening to wasn't doing.

There was B.B. King, there was Magic Sam, and all these guys. But the thing was is like when we were 15 and 16 years old, there was Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters. Where, where'd these cats get these names? (Laugh) And you'd put on a Howling Wolf record, and the first thing you hear is that (makes noise). And so, like, (laugh) we just went nuts. And we started getting all the records, and I went back to - I started taking my parents' records.

They had some John Lee Hooker records, and I had been listening to all this stuff anyway. Not with as much depth as I did at 15, 16, playing guitar. But we had some of the records at home. We had John Lee Hooker records, and B.B. King. But we also had Bobby Bland and Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson and all that stuff, too. A lot of gospel music that was played on Sundays.

So I had that, but as a guitar player, there was all these new people. Robert Johnson. We started reading about Robert Johnson and his so-called association with the Devil. And this was, like, for 15 and 16 year old kids, it was great. So, me and my good friend Bobby, and another friend of ours, we just started getting the records. We went to the record stores, and we were getting those albums for, like, 99 cents. And we'd just, like 'Woodshed.' And that's how it all started.

Tavis: You have some sense, though, that when you mix this stuff together, that it's going to work. That sense comes from where? How do you know that mixing a little R&B and a little blues and a little gospel influence, and a little, yeah...

Cray: Well, you didn't.

Tavis: Yeah.

Cray: Well, you didn't. How it all worked out was that with all the music that I listened to growing up, and then when I started playing guitar. And the reason why I started playing guitar is because the Beatles came out. And everybody got a guitar. (Laugh) So that's how I did. But before that, I'd play piano for a little bit. But I started playing guitar 'cause the Beatles came out.

I'd seen Jimi Hendrix a couple of times. I listened to everything that was on the radio, I was playing all that. Then I got into the blues. And I did that for a while, and then I started to realize that I was getting an attitude that nothing that I was doing was any better than the blues, and I stopped and I go, Otis Redding is just as cool as Robert Johnson. He just does his own thing.

It's a different thing. And so, therefore, we started in the early days of having these little garage bands playing blues. We would open up with, like, 'Hip-Hugger' by Booker T and the MGs. We'd emulate one of our heroes, Albert Collins. And Albert Collins used to come out on stage; his band would play 'Hip-Hugger.' Albert's guitar would be slung over the front of his amplifier, and so we would do that, too.

The band would start off with 'Hip-Hugger,' and I'd walk out and grab my guitar that was already (laugh) slung over the amplifier, and start playing. (Laugh) Joining in for the middle of the song.

Tavis: Yeah. I wonder now, before I let you go, I wonder now if all these years later, you still think that there's nothing that beats the blues. That same thought you had as a teenager.

Cray: In a lot of ways, yes.

Tavis: Yeah.

Cray: But over the years, I've learned to appreciate a lot of other kinds of music for what that music has to offer. But still, one of the saddest persons that I've enjoyed listening to over the years has been Elmore James. And when he starts singing about the sky is crying, (laugh) the sky is crying, look at the tears roll down the street, you believe him.

Tavis: Yeah.

Cray: Yeah.

Tavis: Yeah.

Cray: Yeah.

Tavis: That was in - speaking of your world tour, I was in Berlin earlier in the summer and caught B.B. King on his last performance of his career in Europe. He was closing it down in Europe. Caught him on his last night, and he sang a song that I can't get out of my head. Nobody loves me, speaking of the blues. 'Nobody Loves Me But My Mama, and She May Be Jiving, Too.' (Laugh)

I can't get it out of my head. I love the blues, and so does Robert Cray. One difference, he's good at it, I'm not. You don't believe me, check out his new CD. 'The Robert Cray Band, Live From Across The Pond.' Robert Cray, an honor to have you here.

Cray: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: Nice to meet you. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.

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