I worked with Lowell many times and it was always a great experience. He was a real showman and could he dress. One week that I worked with him he had a different flashy suit for every night.
On the gig in the middle of a set Lowell broke a string. I gave him my guitar and took his off to replace the missing string. I noticed that his guitar hadnt been set up in a long time match sticks in the string slots to improve the action and generally a mess. I asked him after the gig if I could take his guitar home and work on it a bit for him. he said yes much to my surprise. I took it to a luthier the next day and had him do a setup and I paid him. That night I tuned Lowells guitar and put it on stage. We did an opening number and he came up. He grabbed his guitar and started to play. After about 2 seconds he turned around on stage and gave me shit for ruining his guitar. After the set he apologised but it felt so foreign to him, actually being in good working order, that he didnt like it. He said he would get used to it.
There was something very fatherly about Lowell. He was a great guitarist and singer and he wrote some very important tunes. Lately people are starting to realize with the popularity of the movie Ray that Lowell was the first band leader to give Ray Charles a job. Im so sorry that I will never get to play with him again. Lowell passed away a few years ago.