The voice resembles Tennessee bourbon: rich, smooth, warm. Yet Charlie Musselwhite’s face, deeply lined and scarred, suggests a life lived the hard way. “I used to drink and go crazy,” says the veteran blues musician, “but I stopped all that a long time ago.” Musselwhite is in a reflective mood as he prepares for a rare UK tour. “I spend a lot of time on the road,” he says, “so when I get home, I take great pleasure in doing simple things, even weeding.” Rich in experience, if not money, Musselwhite is a consummate blues singer and harmonica player. “I was fortunate to be born into interesting times,” he says. These involve partying with Elvis Presley as a teenager, calling John Lee Hooker his best friend and playing on Tom Waits’s recent recordings. Oh, and Dan Aykroyd describes Musselwhite as his inspiration for The Blues Brothers. Interesting times, indeed.

“I was born in Mississippi hill country, so my people were what you might call hillbillies. We shifted to Memphis when I was an infant. Memphis is a river town, kind of rough and musically very rich. As a child, I’d follow these black street singers around and try to figure out how they did it.” Memphis in the 1950s was segregated, but young Charlie ignored the law and the Klan, crossing the tracks to befriend Gus Cannon, Will Shade and Furry Lewis, black bluesmen whose pioneering 1920s recordings helped to invent American music.

“My mother was a Mississippi Delta girl, but she didn’t fit any of the Southern stereotypes. She always taught me to respect everyone. I never thought of them and us - it was all of us.” Fellow Memphian Elvis Presley won super-stardom by revving up blues songs. Musselwhite recalls him with affection. “When Elvis became popular, it kind of validated all us po’ boys from Mississippi. I got to know him by going to these big Memphis parties he’d hold, and he was a real nice guy, had a great sense of humour.”

Musselwhite was forced to flee in 1962 after Memphis police took too close an interest in a moonshine organisation he was part of. “When the police started following me, I realised it was time to get out of town. In Chicago, I found work easy to get and better paid. I lived in the South Side and got to know all the blues clubs. People called me Memphis Charlie, and nobody ever gave me a bad time about my skin colour. We all came from the South, liked the same music, ate the same food. I’d play harmonica at parties, and one day a waitress I was friendly with said to Muddy Waters, ‘You ought to hear that boy play.’ He invited me onto the bandstand. I couldn’t believe it: I was on the stage playing blues with Muddy Waters.”

Soon Musselwhite was working with Big Joe Williams, Robert Nighthawk and John Lee Hooker. This led to his becoming a blues conduit for two wealthy Chicago youths - Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield - who would go on to join Bob Dylan’s seminal electric backing band. Was he surprised, I wondered, when Dylan and the Rolling Stones started trying to play the blues? “No. I always thought the blues was special, so I couldn’t imagine anyone who heard blues not enjoying it.”

The 1960s blues boom won Musselwhite a record deal. From playing in Chicago’s roughest bars, he suddenly found himself opening for Eric Clapton’s Cream at the Fill-more, in San Francisco. He pulls out a copy of his 1966 debut album, Stand Back, Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite’s South Side Band. A handsome young man beams from the cover. “Whiskey and wine, that’s what did me in,” he says. “It got to where I couldn’t function properly.” Sober now for 20 years, Musselwhite shrugs off lost opportunities, Musselwhite’s UK tour continues tonight at the Musician, Leicester preferring to reflect on his good fortune. Dan Aykroyd is a good friend. “He used to see me play this bar in Canada when he was a student, and it stuck with him, the white guy in the black suit and shades playing blues.”

Someone who appreciates Musselwhite’s musical knowledge is Tom Waits. “Our paths have crossed numerous times over the years,” Musselwhite says. “There’s stories of us back when we both drank heavily, having huge conversations and laughing a lot, but we don’t remember it. Now Tom and I joke that we’re the only people who shifted to northern California - wine country - and don’t drink.”

He selects a harmonica and starts playing. The sound is soulful, elegiac, moving. “That’s Christo Redemptor,” he says when he is finished. “I’m booked to play it tomorrow at a friend’s funeral. He was a Hell’s Angel, so it’s going to be a real sendoff.” Charlie Musselwhite continues to live in interesting times.

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• Alicia Keys lets rip
• Streep and Baldwin get complicated
• Guy Ritchie on Sherlock Holmes