Merle Watson Information
Merle Watson Biography

On how, when, and why he became involved in music.......

"In the summer of 1964, Dad had been touring about two years. I was 15 years old and got interested in touring with him on the weekends and making a little money. My mother started me playing my guitar when he was on tour about two months before that. I didn't play at all till I was 15. I learned some chords and things. When Dad came back off the road, he told me, "You're going to go out to California with me." I've been with him ever since then. I was still in high school at the time, so I played summers and weekends until 1967, and from '67, it's been continuous."

On what sparked his interest in slide guitar.......

"I started playing slide guitar in 1973 or '74. I heard Duane Allman play "Statesboro Blues" one day. I said, "I gotta figure this one out!" Of course, it was the blues, southern rock, electric stuff. I kind of took from his ideas and put it into country. The black blues influence on him, of course, is where some of it came from, the Delta blues guys. Allman's single-note lead work and clean style of playing are what got me interested in slide work. I hadn't been interested before because it was pretty scratchy and noisy and not real clean music. Allman developed it into this real pretty, clean, single-note lead thing as well as backup stuff."

On who, besides his father, had a significant influence on him.......

"The first influence was in '64. That summer when I started touring I met Mississippi John Hurt. That was my main influence, fingerstyle and blues. Dad's style of playing wasn't an influence on me probably until five or six years later. The first five years were primarily fingerstyle and blues. Dad doesn't slow down or teach very much; he just kind of plays it and you have to just get in there when you can. The flatpicking I started coming along with in the early '70s and paying more attention to Dad's style. Of course, Duane Allman was probably the next big influence with the slide."

On what types of music he listened to.......

"I listen to classical at home. I don't listen to any other kind of music very much at all. If I turn on music in my house, nine out of ten times it will be classical. I listen to some jazz and some rock stuff, light rock. I was a big fan of the Allman Brothers."

On the issue of ever having had career interests other than music.......

"I went right from high school into music. In fact, I was touring while a sophomore in high school. I went to school there in Boone for another couple of years and I did some courses as I toured, but I didn't go any farther with school. I just went right into music full-time. For awhile I had other jobs set up. I worked in construction and related jobs. I pretty much did that through the week and played music on the weekends. But in the early '70s, I had to give all that up and take the music or the other. No way to keep up both jobs."

On the question of wanting to perform or be involved in music in some capacity all his life.......

"I don't want to tour the rest of my life. I'm planning on cutting back with Dad. When Dad hits 65, Dad and I are busting up the partnership and that will mean retirement. Four and a half years from right now we're going to do our last income tax returns together. And Dad has plans, as long as his health goes along good, to do about one weekend of concerts a month, probably locally and close to the East Coast area. After what will be 28 years on the road, Dad wants to really kick back and spend some time around home, and that's the point where I am cutting the road too. I will probably be more into studio work at that point; I'm leaning more and more to that. But I also probably will have to get out and tour with a band occasionally. There's no way you can tour 25 years and just be able to leave it. So I think Dad and I'll probably play a few things now and then together. I'll just itch and have to go out and tour a little now and then."