EDMONTON -- "I'd like to say that a lot of people tell lies," Buddy Guy says, getting right into it. "They told me when I wrote my little book, I'd a lied more it woulda sold more."

Some truth, then, about Buddy Guy, playing Tuesday at the Jube with Tony D and David Gogo in the band as part of the Jazz City International Music Festival: The story of his success follows more of a country singer's path than anything.

Born in Lettsforth, Louisiana, 65 years ago next month, Guy got into the guitar as a teenager because of two blues Slims ringing in his ears: Lightin' Slim and Guitar Slim. He bummed around Baton Rouge until '57, hit Chicago and almost didn't make it but for a chance sit-in with Otis Rush at the legendary 708 Club in east Chicago, where the blues clubs used to be flypapered before they were allowed downtown.

American racial harmony, such as it tenuously exists now, took time, even with the blues. Muddy Waters saw Guy play at the 708, and things stabilized after that for the guitarist, with a series of regular gigs that lasted until he had his own clubs.

I had a few pints at Legends, Guy's only bar now, a couple months back, and the place is thick with history, fine tunes and respect. It's a room with nice sight lines and cool characters. In short, Buddy Guy took a chance, brought his talent to the big city and found a life he's never abandoned since. Enter the white fans.

"Used to be, was 90, 95% black people in the audience, now it's the other way around. When the whites started listening to the blues, during the British invasion, when Eric (Clapton) and (Paul) Butterfield would come in and see what we was doing, first thing we'd say, 'There's a cop in here!' Weren't no white people coming in except cops. They were some of our early white fans. They didn't have no reason to hassle us, they was looking for someone who did something, they didn't care about the musicians."

Guy's voice is high and lyrical as he talks. He's engaged in history. But there's the present to think about, too.

Given that his new album is called Sweet Tea, an homage to the music that got him hooked in the first place, I ask him if the Tea of the title is referring to "tea," which is what they called pot back then. Guy laughs.

"Some of us was calling it herbs, some of 'em calling it grass, to keep the police from knowing about it. I forgot it used to be called tea. You gave me a good idea, though.''

He laughs again.

"Maybe I can sell more records to the young people that way. What do you think? We get so ignored, we can use any help we can get."

Sweet Tea doesn't need much help. The brainchild of Dennis Herring, an L.A. producer who moved back to Mississippi, it's hill country music, more haunting than your regular Delta blues.

Guy was, well, doubtful at first when invited to the party.

"The record company came and found me, man. I said, 'Man, I can't do this - this is the original music, I wouldn't do nothing but mess this up.' I went down to Mississippi with a frown on my face. The next day I was tapping my feet. By the third day they could see I was really into it," Guy says happily.

"That guy, man," he says of Herring, "had got the studio. They got this old stuff with the cobwebs on it, amps I hadn't seen since whenever. I still didn't record nothing in the studio. They didn't want me to be influenced by what they played, so he put me in the hallway, I did my thing there."

Back to the beginning again for Buddy.

"I didn't open no club to be making money. Eric, me, B.B. (King, of course), we started in the blues, like a baby it crawls before it walks. They don't come to you and find it, you have to go to them.

"I can play my butt off, and when I take that first step off the stage into the crowd, that's when I get my biggest reaction. I was born on the farm. You don't retire on no farm. I spent the last year travelling, always moving, to make sure somebody goes around and makes sure people know about this stuff so it don't fade away like no dinosaur."

If Buddy Guy's a dinosaur, ain't no space meteor fast enough to take him down. (More on: Buddy Guy).