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Red Hot Blues Boy Jonny Lang
By Judith Maitland
 

SINCE HE'S NURSING BOTH A COLD AND jet lag, Jonny Lang's already raspy voice sounds even
rougher. The 16-year-old blues guitarist-singer-phenom has just flown from Paris to St. Louis to
Phoenix and is nearing the end of his stint as the opening act for Aerosmith. "I think it's good for me to
be on this tour where everybody's coming to see Aerosmith and not me. It's maybe more humbling."

But judging from his lightning-fast rise, Lang had better get used to taking center stage, where his recent
Disney Channel concert at Walt Disney World rocked America's living rooms.

The Fargo, North Dakota, native wielded the sax in the school band before taking up guitar and playing
local gigs. Word of mouth spread quickly, and soon record execs were knocking down his door. As his
first major-label album, Lie to Me, went gold this summer, Lang hit the road with Aerosmith and blues
legend B.B. King. "I got to play three songs with him," the usually laid-back Lang exclaims. "I could
have died then!"

Although Lang takes his sudden fame in stride, he loses his patience with those who question a teenager's
ability to handle the blues. "People that ask that don't know what it's like to be onstage playing music.
Any music you play . . . the same feeling goes into it. It's not like, to play the blues you have to have
this special life where you're, like, drunk and from Mississippi. Just listen to the album. It's like, I am
doing it."