Buddy Guy at 90: Radio City Salutes a Blues Original

Buddy Guy’s 90th birthday concert gave Radio City Music Hall a serious blues-guitar roll call on October 1, 2026. The sold-out New York concert, billed as Buddy’s Got the Blues, featured a house band led by Steve Jordan, according to the Associated Press.

The date matters: Guy turned 90 on July 30. October’s show was the celebration, more than two months after his birthday. For guitar players, it is also a good excuse to trace a few familiar sounds back to one of their sources.

Who played at the Radio City celebration?

AP’s report places John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa among the night’s performers. Tedeschi and Trucks played “Messin’ with the Kid,” while Gales and Bonamassa teamed up on “Baby What You Want Me to Do.” Guy also performed with Shemekia Copeland and Bobby Rush.

Blackbird Presents’ advance lineup also included Gary Clark Jr., Samantha Fish, Billy F Gibbons, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jimmie Vaughan.

The Chicago connection behind the tribute

Guy took his guitar to Chicago in 1957. His biography documents Chess Records sessions alongside Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, placing him inside the city’s electric-blues story long before this Radio City salute. That history gives the celebration its weight: the guest of honor helped carry the music that later generations would build on.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame identifies Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan among the guitarists who cite Guy as an influence. When Guy entered the Hall in 2005, B.B. King and Clapton inducted him. The line from Chicago blues to rock guitar is right there in the names.

Three records to put the birthday news in context

Start with 1991’s Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, the album tied to Guy’s first career Grammy, for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Then move to Feels Like Rain, which brought him the same award two years later. These are useful catalogue entry points if the tribute has put him back on your listening list.

There is a current chapter, too. Ain’t Done With the Blues won Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2026 Grammys. Put it beside those earlier records and let the listening carry the story beyond the birthday headline. Ninety is the milestone; the music is the reason to keep digging.

Image: AI-generated GuitarGangsters editorial illustration, not a photograph of the concert.