C.D.: After separating from Ashton Savoy, how did your career go on?

Katie: I started my own group called "The Uptighters", I used some musicians from the Opelousas area, got some young musicians, a guy called Mitchel, he was better known as "Lightnin'", and I used a saxophone-player from Lafayatte by the name of Danny George , and a bass player that they called "Ice-Water", and horn players from different parts of the country. We formed a group called "Katie Webster & The Uptighters", and performed around the Louisiana area for quite some time. That is until Otis Redding came through Lake Charles. We were performing at the Bamboo-Club when Otis Redding came through.
I was asked to get a band to perform at the Bamboo, because I was working at the Bamboo six nights a week. This was during the Christmas holidays, and I was asked by the owner, Ray, to see if I could get a band to perform during the holidays, when I had a day or two off. So I jokingly told Ray: "why don't you try to get Otis Redding", 'cause Otis was really hot at that time. And he laughed and said, " do you really think I could get him?" I said, "I don't know". But I looked at a poster and found that he could contact Phil Walden and he might be able to get him. So he contacted Phil Walden and found out, that Otis had actually gotten cancelled on two engagements during the Christmas holidays, because they had overbooked the club. So he was able to get Otis for these two days. And that's what happened, I got hired with Otis Redding right on the spot at the Bamboo Club, when I was opening the show for him, right after Otis came to Lake Charles I got hired with Otis Redding's band. And I went on tour with Otis Redding. That's what happened right after that. I was out there with Otis and the band for three and a half years, until the faitful accident.
And after that I came back and formed another small group, and I called it "A Muther-Fayu". I had some local musicians, one of the boys, who is deceased now, we called him "Skipper", and I had another little guy named Chris Raw , one guy who lives here now, named C.C Carson, they were the singers. And I had another young guy called Classie Ballou Jr. on bass. And a guy that lives here now, called Sylvester Wetherows on guitar. And I was on keyboard, and that was the small group that I had. And we were together for a long time until I decided to get back on the road. Before that I decided to go to California to take care of my ailing parents. And when I was taking care of them I met Jimmy McCracklin, Lowell Fulson and a couple of other musicians in California, Buzz Scaggs and Icecube Slim – and they put together a group for me to work with them out there. They got together and they formed a group out there for me to work in the San Francisco area. And I played all the clubs in San Francisco.

C.D.: When was that?

Katie: '72 up till about ' 79. I lost my parents, my mother in '78, my father in '79. Then I received a letter from Paul Schepers in Germany in '80, and he said they had potential tours. And they sent me a list of the clubs that wanted to book me. So, in '80 I got me a passport, but the booking didn't generate until '81.

C.D.: And that was your first tour overseas?

Katie: Yes. At Bonn. And Paul Schepers was the one that hooked me up with this tour. It was supposed to last seven days. But once I got there, he had fourteen more days settled. That was 21 days. Then after I got there and I was ready to come back, some more clubs called Siegi Christmann, so I was there like 8 weeks. That was my first official tour in Europe in '81 and I toured until 1993 regular, two to three tours a year, until I had my stroke in '93.

C.D.: How did that happen, the stroke?

Katie: Well, the start of it happened in Germany, but the main stroke happened in Greece. Because I continued to try to play even after the stroke was coming on. I continued to try to finish the tour. And I couldn't. So I stayed in hospital in Greece ten days, and then they sent me back to the states, and I stayed in hospital over here ten days. And thank God, I haven't been in for that since that time. I have a little restraint in the left hand, but had no twist in the face, no limbs twisted or anything like that. And the right hand is fine. The paralysis is in the left hand.

C.D.: You had a really tough tour-schedule in the 80s. You told me, you was the artist with the most European tours at that time. Do you think it's tougher for a woman to be a professional musician, to have long tours like that, when you have to take care of children at the same time?

Katie: It's not the children. The thing of it is, I had an incurable sickness, I have Diabetes and high blood pressure. I was not eating right, I was not taking care of myself right. That's the main thing. When you have Diabetes, you have to eat on time and you have to take care of yourself. You can't sleep till two or three o'clock in the evening and don't eat. Then when you get up to eat, run down to Joe's Chicken Shack and get you a chicken sandwich with some greasy French fries and eat that. And then go back to sleep, and wake up at 8 o'clock at night  and grab a hamburger and eat that. And then drink a Coca Cola or a big glass of some sweet drink and go on 'bout your business. You can't do it. You have to take your medicine on time. When they say twice a day, you take it twice a day, I don't care what your blood sugar says. You can't take that medicine today and skip three days and then take it again. You'll find yourself falling out. As soon as you get to feeling dizzy and all that kind of stuff, you check your blood sugar and see what it is, see if it's either too low or too high. And that's what I wasn't doing. I didn't even take my blood measuring machine with me overseas. Didn't take my blood-pressure machine with me overseas, didn't take anything with me, I just took me. And I had the medicine with me, I would through a pill in my mouth today, if I forgot tomorrow, I would take two pills the next day. That's not the way you do that. But that's the way I was doing it. All I wanted was hot stuff, I was on that stage -you know what I was doing- jumpin' and bumpin' and grindin' and shakin' and twistin', playing the piano with my butt, playing with my elbows and my knees and everything, and having fun, having a ball. Kicking up my heels. But you can't make me do that no more, I'm not going to do that no more. I take my medicine on time, and I eat on time. I'm just not going to do that anymore.
During the 80s I hooked up with Alligator Records. When I met Bonnie Raitt and I recorded with B.B. King and with Kim Wilson, Robert Cray and C.J. Chenier, Lonnie Brooks.

C.D.: What did your family say? You were out touring most of the time.

Katie: They were happy for me. My family always pushed me when it comes to music.

C.D.: Does any of your three daughters play music?

Katie: No, they are interested in other things.

C.D.: Are you sorry about that, would you like your kids to follow in your footsteps?

Katie: No no. I'm glad they are into other things. Because this is too hard of a life. I'd rather see them being teachers, like my daughter Betty, I'd rather see them do stuff like that. I don't want them playing, I just want them to enjoy the music. They love Blues music.