That is a wonderfully told story of an absolute disgraceful situation. I feel heartbroken and ashamed to be in a world where someone as talented as that was treated the way he was treated.

Levon told it just this way exactly in his book. He said he was so ashamed that Robbie and the other guys had to see how life really was in the South and the racism.

When you talk about racist attitudes of the past it’s easy to just assume it was just “separate but equal”. What can not be felt is the darkness of attitudes for real until you hear a story like this one. The ugliness of racism is hard to fathom, the lack of humanity is staggering. Thankfully the music acted as a binding and uniting and perhaps healing force.

Great story with many wonderful details. Told by a great musician and storyteller. What is with the negative comments? Seems as though some of you are on the wrong page. This is for those who understand and appreciate. Thanks, Robbie Robertson, for giving some rare insight into the life and history behind the music.

Sonny didn't say anything because he feared for his life.

those English kids wanna play the blues so bad - and they do! famous SBW quote

I am an old white buck. As a child I lived in the South a few times. I love many things about the South, but "Jim Crow" is not one of them. In the autumn of 1968, I enrolled into a school in Hampton VA that was half white & half black. Reverend Martin Luther King had been assassinated that April, but we all got along. White kids & Black kids played Baseball & Basketball together without any trouble at all. In fact, this is when Motown was at its zenith, and the black girls would do their best impressions of The Supremes, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Marvelettes, Mary Wells, etc, etc - in the cafeteria. It was great stuff!!! I fell in love with the Blues, and once shook hands with Muddy Waters. I haven't washed that right hand since. We lived all over the globe during my childhood, compliments of the USAF, and I have never understood where any one race, creed, color, ethnicity or religion gets off on thinking they are above another such group of people. We really dropped the ball in the game of humanity.

If you speak about this today it is called: "Critical Race Theory"

As someone who lives in Fayetteville rn and whose family is from Helena this is an insane story to hear. I’m 26 and just recently came back from Mississippi in January where I visited Sonny’s gravesite - the experience of just seeing where this legends soul eternally rests floored me and I’ll never forget it. I’m just now finding out that Arkansas was a huge blues hub for men like Sonny, Howlin, RL, Junior and many more. Rest easy to the best harmonica player I’ve ever heard.

Way to treat a dying man !

RIP Robbie. 1943 - 2023.

Great story!

What a sad and revolting story indeed ! Afro-Americans gave us so much through their music. Most of the music I love and play was made by Black musicians or the "kids" they influenced. We all should feel so grateful about that.

I did a TV show in the Sixties with 'Sonny Boy' in England where I live. We were all in the room waiting to be called to tape our part of the show, he had a small suitcase with his harps and two bottles of JD. He opened a bottle and passed it round, and also got out a harp and we were jamming with him our guitarist playing acoustic guitar.

This wonderful guy can tell a story in an interview, in a documentary, in a poem, and in a song. I love listening to and hearing this man.

Good bless sonny boy and people that love him

RIP Robbie 💔 your spirit will never die ❤🎶🎸🥀🕊️🕯️🙏

This video needs to be in the Library of Congress. Tragic first hand account of that period.

An amazing and sad story about Sonny Boy Williamson and that era.

This made me cry