Steve Winwood speaks

One reason for the slight mystique that surrounds Winwood is that, with the exception of an extraordinary period in the 1980s when he invented himself as an AOR MTV star in America, he has been quite reticent. You do not hear many interviews with him.

The most substantial one I can find on the net can be downloaded from the site of NRK - the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. It was recorded at the Notodden Blues Festival in August of last year.

Winwood is interviewed with Jeremy Spencer, Tom McGuinness and Paul Jones (left to right in the photo) by an endearlingly enthusiastic and slightly inept Norwegian journalist. Much of the conversation is about the British blues scene in the 1960s and it is fascinating stuff. Winwood arrives shortly after the conversation has begun and the whole thing last around 40 minutes.

Jones mentions Winwood's brilliance as a teenage blues singer with the Spencer Davis Group. Try Mean Woman Blues.