SAN JOSE, Calif. – “Terrible” Tom Bowden shows up a few minutes late for an appointment in West Oakland – and, of course, a friend immediately lets him hear about it.
“What are you talking about?” Bowden counters. “I’ve been here since ’38 – 1938.”
And during that time, Bowden, 86, has become nothing short of a legend in the area: a immensely talented bluesman who draws comparisons to Otis Redding and has traveled in the same company as Aretha Franklin, B.B. King and many other iconic performers; an old-school tough guy who duked it out with a heavyweight champion and lived to tell about it; and a rough-and-tumble, larger-than-life character whose story includes stints in prison, drug addiction and, eventually, salvation…