Back in 2015, on hearing that blues legend BB King was unwell, a 10-year-old Toby Lee recorded a video called Get Well Soon Mr King, playing a wailing blues solo on his Les Paul. The video went viral, attracting millions of views in only a short time.
After BB’s death, his daughters were so touched by Toby’s tribute that they flew him to Memphis, where he played in BB King’s club on the city’s famous Beale Street.
A prodigious talent, he’s since appeared on UK TV many times, won an Olivier Award as part of the cast of the West End production of School Of Rock, and appeared on US TV’s Ellen DeGeneres Show. This January, he won the Bob Harris Emerging Artist gong at the 2025 UK Americana Awards in London.
We caught up with Toby at the end of last year, when he was on the road with Jools Holland, promoting his latest album, House On Fire.
Despite having only recently turned 20, you’ve been playing a long time, haven’t you?
“Well, it’s kind of been a long old journey. I grew up in a household full of instruments and I could have gone down any rabbit hole, let’s say. Because we had pianos, my mum had violins, dad had a full drum kit set up, we had guitars, we had basses.
“I started on the drums. That was my first thing and with drums you can tap anywhere, you know, like with my pencils at school, just drumming on the desk and annoying everyone. But the neighbors weren’t so keen on that. So there needed to be a shift change.”
“There was a ukulele that my grandma had bought me, I think, for my birthday. I must have been four or five years old. It was a little green thing with palm trees all over it and that was my first go at a stringed instrument.
“I got so obsessed with it that I felt sick if I didn’t have it. So every car journey, it would be in the footwell, like I couldn’t let it leave my side. And I just got more fascinated by the whole process of a stringed instrument.”
When did the six-string guitar make its first appearance in your life?
“I got my first six-string when I was about six years old and, again, I was completely obsessed with it. I’d seen all these videos of guitarists pop up on the emerging YouTube of the time and seeing Slash with his big hair and this big Les Paul. And I thought it was the coolest thing in the world!
I’d seen all these videos of guitarists pop up on the emerging YouTube of the time and seeing Slash with his big hair and this big Les Paul. And I thought it was the coolest thing in the world!
“I remember there was a video of Gary Moore and he played Red House on this Fiesta Red Strat, and I thought it was just the most incredible thing, to the point where I’ve watched it more times than I care to admit, just because it blew me away.
“And so then came the want of guitars and guitars and guitars. By the time I was 10, I decided it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, because I didn’t really know life without it. Since then, I haven’t put my guitar down.”
Apart from Gary Moore, who else numbered among your early influences?
“I think a lot of people assumed that I went into blues through Robert Johnson and the early Delta blues stuff, whereas I came in from a completely different angle. I loved early rock ’n’ roll: I loved Buddy Holly, I loved Elvis and Eddie Cochran, and my dad would always have it playing around the house and so I was always surrounded by every form of music.
“I think the bit that was very apparent to me was that whether it was a solo in a Deep Purple song, or a Guns N’ Roses song, or even some early rock ’n’ roll or whatever, I could hear that there was a similarity between all of them and that it stemmed from the blues. So I went through just listening to everything. And when I say everything, it wasn’t just blues, it was literally everything.
“I was never that kid that played video games on computers. My whole computer life would be looking on YouTube. So I guess my start into bands was seeing music videos. You know, you’ve got your live stuff and then you’ve got your more storyboarded stuff, but I was fascinated by everything in terms of the music side of things because it was putting a story to the music.
The only sad reality of it was I was the only one at school that really enjoyed music for what it was
“It made me feel like I wanted to be part of that energy and part of that vibe. And obviously the only way to do that is to play the music and be part of a band. And that was kind of where the obsession began.
“I would spend my whole day at school sat in an English lesson or a maths lesson, waiting to get home to get on the laptop to listen to these bands. But the only sad reality of it was I was the only one at school that really enjoyed music for what it was. A lot of people saw music in a different light. I saw it as something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
“I had a little iPod and my dad pre-set it with a load of songs that went from everything from Sum 41 to Ronny & The Daytonas and all these crazy, crazy things. But I think that really opened my mind to all types of music because the genre base in my family was just so large.”
Skipping to the present, tell us about your love for Gibson Firebirds.
“It wasn’t particularly any guitar player that made me want a Firebird, it was just the guitar itself. I loved everything about it, and at that point I hadn’t really played one that much – I just loved the shape. And so I had a couple of newer Firebirds before I could get my hands on the one I have now. The story behind this particular guitar is a very long-winded one, so I’ll try to keep it as concise as possible…
“I had a ’61 SG Special and a ’59 ES-125, and so I played the SG for a bit and I loved the ES. Both of them sounded incredible, but it felt like you really had to work to get the tone out of them. So I started trailing on eBay to see what I could find and I found a ’76 Gibson Explorer with a set of P-90s in it.
“I had a look and saw [the seller’s] other items and he had a Firebird – a ’76 Bicentennial Firebird, but it had been refinished in Wine Red and it had had every tailpiece fitted to it known to man, but at this point it had a stock tail on it. It had three humbuckers and all gold hardware. I just thought, ‘A hot-rodded Firebird? This is great!’ We came to a deal and I ended up with this Firebird.
“It had green frets, it hadn’t been restrung in about 20 years, and everything was disgusting on it. I cleaned up the Firebird, put a new set of strings on it and recorded a whole album on it because it was just amazing. And so the love of Firebirds, especially vintage Firebirds, went from there.
“When we were at [the seller’s] place, he told me that he’d sold vintage Firebirds and stuff in the past, and he bought out this new Custom Shop case. I’m thinking, ‘Okay, he’s got a Custom Shop Firebird or something in it.’ And he said, ‘It’s a ’64 [Firebird] V. I’ve had it for a while now. I’ve had loads of people ask me to sell it, but I’ve never been ready. And I want it to go to a home where it’s not going to sit in a collection and it’s going to be used…’
“So [long story short] I sold [my old Volkswagen Beetle] and I went back to Mick, the guy that had the Firebird, and said, ‘Can I buy it?’ And I made him the promise that I would always, always use it.
“And I’ve used it at every gig ever since. It’s flown to every country I’ve been to and I’ll never, ever get rid of it. I never thought I’d have a favorite guitar, but I would be wrong if I said that this wasn’t it because every time I pick it up, it just fits.”
What’s your amp of choice on stage?
“It’s a Blackstar St James and it’s bright red, so it’s definitely the striking-looking amp on stage. But I’ve been working with Blackstar for about four or five years now; they’ve been incredible to work with. They came to me a couple of years ago and said, ‘Look, would you be interested in working together on a collaboration and doing a signature amplifier?’
I couldn’t believe how they managed to get 50 watts out of this thing that kind of just weighed nothing
“I was initially using an HT-20, which I absolutely loved, but I’d had it re-covered in red and white, just because I thought it would be really cool to have a red and white amp. So [Blackstar] said, ‘We’re bringing out the St James range. It’s going to be the lightest valve amp we could possibly create.’
“And so they were telling me about how they changed the transformer out for a switch mode power supply and [invited me to] try the weight between my HT-20 and [the St James].
“And it’s like my HT-20 head weighed about as much as the whole stack, including the cab. And what I couldn’t believe is how they managed to get 50 watts out of this thing that kind of just weighed nothing. It’s a fairly compact little thing, too, but it absolutely screamed. I’m a bit of a sucker for reverb and it’s got a good reverb channel, which is always fun. It’s been an incredible workhorse.”
- House On Fire is out now via Universal.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
