"I don't think of technique anymore. I'm not the type that practices for six hours a day. I get my stamina from playing gigs and my inspiration from baring my soul at the performance."

Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton: Blues Chef!

The Sauce Boss is a powerhouse entertainer, mixing his Bluesy slide guitar and soulful voice into a high-energy show. His very own hot sauce goes into a big pot of gumbo while he spices up the show with his own Blues. He has served hundreds of thousands for free at his live shows. Sauce Boss mixes media like cornbread. Hot sauce, blues, chicken, funk, onions and okra, heartfelt songs, peppers and soul, seafood… and slide guitar, all go into the gumbo. The aroma fills the place. The crowd stirs up the pot. The Sauce Boss stirs up the crowd. It’s a soul-shouting picnic of Rock and Roll brotherhood, and at the end of the show, everyone eats. Bill Wharton, (Sauce Boss), is the guy Jimmy Buffett sang about in his song "I Will Play for Gumbo." Wharton’s anthem, “Let the Big Dog Eat” is included on Buffett’s “Late Night Menu at the Margaritaville Cafe” album. Albert Castiglia released his cover of the tune, and it hit #1 on blues charts. "Let the Big Dog Eat" has also appeared in the movies, “Something Wild” (Jonathan Demme), and the Rock Doc, “Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President.” This tune and sixteen other works in the documentary earned Wharton “‘Best Original Score” from the Los Angeles Film Awards.                                                 (Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton / Photo © by Eric Ilasenko)

Sauce Boss’ new 12-tracks album “The Sauce” (2024 / Swampside Records) is a tour de force. Solo acoustic, funky one man band, and the trio, Xtra Sauce (with Neal Goree, guitar, and Brett Crook, drums.) Also, Damon Fowler joins Bill and Brett on a few tunes on “The Sauce”. From the heights of blues rock to acoustic whisperings, this album takes you far away.

Interview by Michael Limnios                        Archive: Sauce Boss, 2021 Interview

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I have grown as an artist over the decades by eliminating the dead wood. Over the years I have shed superfluous actions that stand between my audience and myself. The things that garble the message I wish to send. I have found the Sauce Boss through a thorough self-exam on a regular basis. If a song does not pull its weight in a performance, I don't include it. So whittling Bill Wharton down to his core values and actually caricaturing them has created the Sauce Boss. It has made the message more accessible and sonically legible. After all it's all about communication and communion with the audience.

What moment changed your music life the most? What is the driving force behind your continuous support for your music/cooking’?

The moment that changed my music life was the moment that I realised that the performance is not a rehearsal. It is not the time to "warm up". The real performer goes to work when he walks in the door. From the time he is first seen to the time he leaves the building he is at work.

The driving force behind my work, both musically, culinarily, and indeed everything I do is a wholistic will. (my father called me Will because he believed in free will). The will is this core whose purpose is not to be rich and famous, not to be a "star", but to share in a communion that makes us all better people. The less I have thought about commercial success, the better the outcome has been.

Currently you’ve one more release as Sauce Boss. How did idea about Bill Wharton’s nickname “Sauce Boss” come about?      (Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton / Photo © by Peach Hench)

The Sauce Boss came about in this way: A friend gave me some peppers from St. Augustine – Datil peppers. At the time I was not very impressed with the selection of hot sauces available. This was in the early 80s. Sooooo, I started growing the Datils and making hot sauce for my own consumption. First thing I knew, all my friends would come over to my house and eat up all my sauce! So, I had to make more. But they would still come over and eat it all up. Finally, I decided to myself,” If these guys are gonna eat up all my sauce, I’m gonna put it in bottles and sell it to ‘em.”

So, then I began carrying it with me to my gigs. And I’d do a little snake oil routine extolling the virtues of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. “Yes Sir, Brothers and Sisters, Liquid Summer will change your life! Changed my life and it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!!!” So late one night, I was playing at Tobacco Road in Miami, Florida, doing my one-man band thing, singing with my old National, my kick drum and hi-hat. The place was packed, and I was jammin my ass off. Well, then, I launched into my Liquid Summer spiel, and proceeded to sell cases of the stuff to the patrons. I sold a lot of sauce that night. My buddy at the end of the bar said, “You da Sauce Boss.” That was 1985.

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album “The Sauce”?

I built a studio next to my house; outfitted it with some great mics and preamps, and started to record. Though I have made more than a dozen albums, and was competent at making records, this is the first record I made writing, producing, playing, and singing, and... (the hard part for me) engineering the project. I understood the basic process, but was totally lacking on the nuts-and-bolts aspects and I went through computer hell figuring it out. But in the end, the album swirled in the cosmos, into soul and my brain to coalesce on the hard disc. What happened was a unique sound. The sound of my core. The distilled sound of the Sauce Boss.

What's the balance in music between technique and soul/emotions? How do you prepare for your recordings and performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina?

I don't think of technique anymore. I'm not the type that practices for six hours a day. I get my stamina from playing gigs and my inspiration from baring my soul at the performance.

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

The importance of the blues. The blues is a survival kit, a gift from African Americans to the world. Like I sing, "Rhythm and blues will cure most anything. It'll make a blind man see; it'll make the whole world sing".

What has been the hardest obstacle for you to overcome as a person and as artist and has this helped you become a better musician?

The hardest thing to overcome? Myself as opposed to my core.

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(Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton / Photo © by Eric Ilasenko)