{"id":2090457,"date":"2025-10-14T14:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2090457"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:50:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:50:19","slug":"buddy-red-gets-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/buddy-red-gets-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddy Red Gets the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody had a profound effect on Buddy Red, who was 18 years old when the Oscar-winning Queen biopic came out. \u201cOnce I saw the movie, it\u2019s like a lightbulb just flickered on in my mind. I said, \u2018This is what I\u2019m looking for,\u2019\u201d the shy, soft-spoken Red recalls on a day off at home in Atlanta, although he still looks like he\u2019s dressed to perform in a sharp wide-collared dress shirt. \u201cMy musical taste, all the things that I listen to, the fact that Freddie Mercury was a nobody and a little bit of a weirdo until he became Freddie Mercury. And I always feel, y\u2019know, a little out of place. Maybe all this stuff is for a reason, maybe I\u2019m supposed to be on a stage somewhere and really showing people something that they haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quickly, he became a man on a mission. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized I have to play an instrument, because I was producing, making hip-hop beats, before I saw the movie,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI said, \u2018Let me hurry up and buy a guitar before I talk myself out of it.\u201d The result is a series of singles including \u201cSold His Soul,\u201d released in August, that feature Red ripping bluesy riffs and psychedelic solos that instantly bring to mind a young Jimi Hendrix.<\/p>\n

More from Spin:<\/p>\n

\"(Credit:<\/span><\/div>\n

(Credit: Quadir Thomas)<\/p>\n

Buddy Red comes from a musical family, but he\u2019s operating in a different genre from the other performers in his household. He was born Messiah Harris, the eldest child of rap superstar Clifford \u201cT.I.\u201d Harris. His stepmother is Tameka \u201cTiny\u201d Cottle of the \u201990s R&B hitmakers Xscape, and two of his brothers, King and Domani, are also rappers.<\/p>\n

In fact, I interviewed T.I.<\/a> for SPIN five years ago, singling out the Messiah Harris-produced track \u201cFamily Connect\u201d as one of the best songs on the rap veteran\u2019s 2020 album The L.I.B.R.A. The self-proclaimed King of the South recalled how he was spurred to work with the producer 9th Wonder because his son was a fan. \u201cI just kinda linked him with 9th, and they got together. 9th came down, him and Messiah hooked up and exchanged some of their techniques, they use the same machine,\u201d T.I. told me at the time.<\/p>\n

As Messiah Harris fell in love with classic rock bands like Pink Floyd as well as \u201980s synth pop, he started to feel a little isolated. \u201cVery early on I realized in my musical journey, I\u2019m gonna be on my own a lot, because a lot of people around me don\u2019t hear things that I hear the way that I hear them,\u201d he says, recalling the musical education he received from his family. \u201cThey\u2019re only playing me 2Pac, they\u2019re only playing me TLC or New Edition. Of course I\u2019m gonna ask you, why haven\u2019t you played me Rick Astley or Alphaville or Queen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Credit:<\/span><\/div>\n

(Credit: Quadir Thomas)<\/p>\n

Red, who was in college at Georgia State when he bought his first guitar, resembles his father more closely than any of his siblings do, the same distinctive, handsome features framed by a thicker mane of hair and a scruffy beard. But he speaks a lot more slowly and cautiously than T.I., at times seeming more like a nervous teenager than the worldly bluesman, wise beyond his 25 years, that he seems like onstage. When he went to New York City for the studio session to record \u201cSold His Soul,\u201d he was overwhelmed by the difference from the deep south he grew up in. \u201cI was immediately intimidated by my surroundings. I\u2019m by myself, it\u2019s my first time in New York alone, I don\u2019t know any of these people, the subway looks scary as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red does, however, dress as loudly as many of his musical idols, favoring vests, neckerchiefs and flowing scarves. \u201cMy fashion sense, didn\u2019t start to come about until I started collecting records. That\u2019s when I started looking at the people that I was listening to,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started looking at what Robert Plant was wearing, that\u2019s when I started looking at the crazy outfits the Jimi Hendrix Experience was wearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, he started to work out a stage name to go with his guitar-driven songs, taking inspiration from the members of Pink Floyd, who had combined the names of two of their favorite blues singers, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. \u201cI said, \u2018Okay, how can I do that?\u2019 And I\u2019m thinking about my grandfather on my father\u2019s side, his name\u2019s Buddy,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m thinking about my mother\u2019s side of the family, she says that the way that I dress and the music I listen to, always reminds her of her brother Red, my Uncle Red. I\u2019m thinking Buddy\u2026 Red\u2026 Buddy Red, that\u2019s how it came to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

As people started to learn that one of T.I.\u2019s sons is a rocker, some other Southern hip-hop greats who\u2019ve dabbled in playing the guitar have taken an interest in Buddy Red. \u201cPeople like Andre 3000 speak to my pops about me, Lil Wayne has spoken to my pops about me,\u201d Red says. \u201cI think once he started seeing the effect that I\u2019m having on people, that\u2019s when he started doing his best to guide me creatively. It\u2019s been times before that, where he said, \u2018If you want me to be honest, I don\u2019t know what to do with you, I don\u2019t know anything about this, I gotta do my research.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Buddy Red discography is small so far\u2014just five solo tracks released over the last three years, plus a guest appearance on Atlanta singer ilypicasso\u2019s track \u201cAttachments\u201d earlier this year. \u201c1958\u201d is his most popular song, and it\u2019s also the only time so far that he\u2019s operated as a one-man band, playing all the guitar, bass, and drums on the self-produced track. \u201cI wanna get more into that going forward, because I think I sound pretty good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Buddy Red has written other songs that fill out his live set, and in the last few weeks he\u2019s performed at the Butter Fine Arts Fair in Indianapolis and the Neon Prairie Festival in Tulsa, backed by a drummer and bassist. But he\u2019s worked with a variety of different producers and musicians in the studio so far, and really wants to lock down a consistent sound and personnel before he makes a full-length album. \u201cIt\u2019s not really cohesive, so before I start thinking about how to put this project out, I want a team that wants to put one type of project out, and I\u2019m still looking for it,\u201d he says. \u201cI have a couple of meetings later this week with some producers to talk about what it is that I wanna do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red\u2019s Indianapolis performance featured the debut of a new cover in his repertoire that reflects how he\u2019s still seeking out different corners of rock history: \u201cNo Fun\u201d by the Stooges. \u201cI discovered the Stooges for myself maybe a few months ago, and when I did, I said, \u2018Wow, this is what I\u2019ve been looking for,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI love Iggy Pop\u2019s voice and how he doesn\u2019t really care, he can screech, he can do this Midwestern drawl, he\u2019s not taking himself so seriously up there. I wish I didn\u2019t take myself so seriously, so when I played \u2018No Fun\u2019 for the first time, it felt really liberating, and I discovered a new style for myself right then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody had a profound effect on Buddy Red, who was 18 years old when the Oscar-winning Queen biopic came out. \u201cOnce I saw the movie, it\u2019s like a lightbulb just flickered on in my mind. I said, \u2018This is what I\u2019m looking for,\u2019\u201d the shy, soft-spoken Red recalls on a day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2090458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[394184,323954,394185,72944],"class_list":["post-2090457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-buddy-red","tag-freddie-mercury","tag-messiah-harris","tag-red"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Buddy-Red-Gets-the-Blues.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2090457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2090459,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090457\/revisions\/2090459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2090458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2090457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2090457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2090457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}