When Willie Green strums his guitar and belts out the blues today, he’ll be going off memory.
The 83-year-old blues singer, who is performing at 7 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, refuses to write down his lyrics or music, channeling his rocky life — he was once homeless and drug-addicted — spontaneously into song.
Green, an Alabama native who now lives in McIntosh, Florida, will perform solo and with his band inside the center’s Squitieri Studio Theatre.
Tickets for the two-and-a-half-hour show cost $20 and are for sale online or at the Phillips Center box office.
Before rehearsing Tuesday afternoon, Green reminisced about his 24-year career and spoke about his freewheeling approach to music.
“It’s all up here,” he said, pointing to his head.
Green’s performance will be filmed for TV as a part of the inaugural Cypress Sessions series, to be aired on WUFT-TV in the spring. It will mark the Alabama native’s first televised appearance.
“I’ve never been on TV before,” he said. “I’m a little nervous, but I’m not quite as nervous as I was when I started.”
As a 19-year-old at a bar in St. Augustine, Florida, Green said he didn’t think he was good enough. With his harmonica pressed to his lips, he felt nervous to play for a crowd.
“I was shaking like a leaf,” he said.
Four albums later, and many a show under his belt, Green said he can play just about anything for just about anyone.
Green has been a regular performer for the past 15 years at The Yearling Restaurant in Hawthorne, southwest of Gainesville.
And although his life is limited now — he lives in an assisted-living home in McIntosh — the producer of Cypress Sessions hand-picked him for the TV show, which showcases Floridian musicians with interesting back stories.
Bill Bryson, the show’s producer, said Green’s music oozes genuineness, a nod to Green’s nickname, The Real Deal. He hailed Green as the ultimate embodiment of a blues singer.
“He was on my radar for this series,” he said. “And it’s good timing because he’s much healthier now.”
About five years ago, Green was hospitalized for more than a month while he fought an infection.
“I couldn’t talk, walk, nothing,” he said. “I thought that was it for my music.”
While undergoing physical therapy, all he had strength for was playing harmonica.
He said he had people praying for him, and — after a life of obstacles — it’s a miracle he can still play today.
For today’s performance, Green bought himself a new suit. He smiled as he spoke about the performance, a chance for him to sing his story.
“I thank God that he let me keep playing,” he said.
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, a 62-year-old typically solo pianist, Tampa DJ and Ocala resident, warms up on his keyboard for Willie Green’s band performance in the Phillips Center’s Squitieri Studio Theatre on Wednesday before his performance today. Wirtz said blues was considered “devil music.” “Gospel says no matter how bad things get, with a little bit of hope, things will get better,” he said, while “blues says don’t count on it.”
