If Bob Log III didn’t exist, no one would invent him because no one is bat-shit crazy enough to think his psychotronic one-man-band concept could actually work.
Born Robert Logan Reynolds III in Chicago, Log spent his Arizona childhood absorbing the sounds of AC/DC, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Screaming Jay Hawkins and Hasil Adkins, which led him to acquire his first guitar at age 11. Five years later, the Delta Blues of Mississippi Fred McDowell inspired Log to shift to slide guitar and his die was cast.
Log began his reductive musical journey with the quirky-yet-basic Blues quartet Mondo Guano, followed by a six-year stint as the guitar half of the Blues Rock duo Doo Rag with drummer Thermos Malling.
In 1998, Log went completely solo and eventually developed his unique foot-activated drumming system and the phone-mic-in-a-motorcycle-helmet vocal rig that allowed his hands to concentrate on his Silvertone archtop guitar and play the sizzling hell out of it. The addition of the human cannonball onesie came sometime later, as did the rumor — floated by Fat Possum, his label at the time — that his left hand was actually a monkey’s paw grafted onto his wrist after a childhood boating accident.
Audience participation is a large part of Log’s presentation; he will often balance a woman on each leg while keeping semi-perfect rhythm with his feet, an act often accompanied by the women stirring a glass of scotch with one of their boobs, physically manifesting the lyrical content of the aptly titled “Boob Scotch.” Log is also prone to crowd surf in an inflatable raft.
To date, Log has dropped five studio albums and one exquisite concert doc, Live!!! Aloha from Japan.
For a limited time through Log’s website (boblog111.com), a mere $200 (plus shipping) and a photo of a butt (yours or someone else’s, clothed or jaybird naked) will get you a customized song about the pictured rump, immortalized on five CDs and a download. And this is how Log reinforces his unironic tag line: “One Man Band Guitar Party Dance Mess.”
BOB LOG III plays a free show at MOTR Pub on Friday, Aug. 22. More info here .
