Seasick Steve was born Steve Wold in Oakland, California. During his early teens he slept rough, took casual work and busked. Later, he worked as a recording engineer and producer. In 2006, he made his own album, Dog House Music, and performed on Jools Holland’s New Year’s Eve television show. This led to bookings on the European festival circuit and, in 2007, a Mojo award for best breakthrough act.

When were you happiest?
Right now – I have a job and I’m doing all right.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing any of my kids. I’ve five sons.

What is your earliest memory?
My daddy playing the boogie-woogie on the piano in Oakland.

Which living person do you most admire?
My wife, Elizabeth.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m not the nicest fella if I get angry.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Greed.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
Forty years ago in Seattle I tried to tell Lightnin’ Hopkins that he wasn’t changing chords at the right place in a blues song.

Aside from property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
A 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle. I don’t ride it as much as I used to because I had a heart attack four years ago and I had to change my lifestyle a bit.

What is your favourite smell?
My motorcycle.

What is your most treasured possession?
A little brown guitar. I’ve had it for 40 something years, and it’s more than 100 years old. It doesn’t sound that good, but I can’t get rid of it.

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Clint Eastwood.

Where would you like to live?
By the ocean. We rent a house in Norfolk and we have an apartment in Norway, but I don’t really live anywhere. I am moving a lot.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
The spare tyre around my waist.

What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?
I wouldn’t go to a costume party to save my life.

What is the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you?
‘I’m going to kill you, you motherfucker,’ down a dark alley.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
I’ve got no guilt when it comes to pleasure, none at all.

What is your favourite book?
Guns Of The Gods by Talbot Mundy.

Is it better to give or to receive?
You can’t have one without the other.

What do you owe your parents?
Fuck all, apart from my life.

To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
Me and my wife got married by a justice of the peace and didn’t have the money to pay – $15. This boy I knew paid for it but I didn’t pay him back. I’d like to pay him back now.

Which living person do you most despise, and why?
Life is tough enough without wasting time despising.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
I’ve never had a dinner party and I surely don’t dream about it.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
‘It’s all good.’

What is the worst job you’ve done?
Sanding with a grinder inside a fibreglass sewage tank for eight hours a day. I had to take a bath in alcohol to get the fibreglass out of my body.

What has been your biggest disappointment?
That my heart gave out on me.

If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I would cut out the jail time.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
To when the blues started.

How do you relax?
I play the guitar.

How often do you have sex?
Whenever I get a chance.

What song would you like played at your funeral?
Ain’t having no funeral.

How would you like to be remembered?
I don’t give a shit.

Where would you most like to be right now?
Right where I am, yes, ma’am.