Eric Gales is an undisputed blues maverick – his child prodigy moniker back in the day has since progressed into that of a bona fide modern blues legend, with countless albums, collaborations, and accolades under his belt.
And aside from his recent work on the soundtrack of the Michael B. Jordan movie Sinners alongside Buddy Guy, it has recently been revealed that Gales was almost tapped to lend his electric guitar chops to one of last year’s most anticipated albums: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
“She wanted a solo. Bey wanted a solo,” Raphael Saadiq – one of the album’s producers, songwriters and musicians – divulged in an interview with NPR while discussing the record’s eighth track, Bodyguard.
“And I did a solo. And she was like, ‘Can we make it longer?’ And you never hear that from an artist in 2025 – playing a guitar solo, they want it longer. But she knows her audience, and she knows that is rare.
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“And she’s like, ‘I think we could do that. We can have a 16-bar solo on this record.’ So that was a little bit of pressure, to go back in there and play, like, a 16-bar solo.”
While Saadiq played the solo himself, he very nearly called up Gales. “I would’ve called my boy. I would’ve called Eric Gales,” he continues.
“Eric Gales is one of the most amazing guitar players in the world today. He’s from Memphis, Delta blues. He played a lot of guitar in Sinners. But I would’ve called him to play, but he was on tour, so I had to play it. And it came out good.”
Aside from Saadiq, a string of high-profile guitarists and session players were recruited for what many describe as Beyoncé’s magnum opus – including Gary Clark Jr., Raphael Saadiq, Jon Batiste, Nile Rodgers, and Justus West.
