R.L. Burnside Quote

Every month I have my piano students study a new songwriter/composer. Sometimes I pick classical composers, but often I try to choose more modern songwriters from varying styles and eras. We discuss the style of music and the composer's background and then start each class of that month listening to a song by that composer.

This month we are discussing R.L. Burnside, a blues musician who died just last year. His music is unlike most that you've heard, but excellent. I laughed out loud at this quote, which obviously, is not fit for children...but I just had to share with someone.

Burnside claimed to have been convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver.

"I didn't mean to kill nobody," Burnside later said. "I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."