It was 1995, Krissy was 3 years old and his father invited him on stage to play along to Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison.
This is when the story started for British Norwegian Krissy Matthews.
Now at 28 years old, he has gained a reputation as being one of the most unique guitarists the 21st century has seen, and has gained a wealth of experience that only most musicians could dream of.
At 12 years old, Krissy was invited by John Mayall himself to perform 2 songs together, two nights running at Notodden Blues Festival, Norway. The opening act was Peter Green & Friends.
A few years later, Krissy became the last person to perform live on stage together with the late great Mr Jeff Healey in the UK, shortly after receiving industry advice from the King of the Blues, Mr BB King.
Not a bad beginning for someone so young!
Since then he has appeared on national Norwegian breakfast TV 3 times, recorded a live session for BBC Radio 2 Paul Jones Blues Show at Maida Vale Studios (London) and been featured on Nicky Horne’s Friday Night Rock Show for Vintage TV. He has recorded and released multiple records and paid his dues constantly performing and touring in clubs, festivals, schools and old people’s homes across the world!
In 2015, Krissy joined the iconic German outfit Hamburg Blues Band as a permanent featured member where he is still to this day backing legendary artists such as Chris Farlowe, Arthur Brown and Maggie Bell every night. Previous guitar players whom he replaced were Clem Clempson (Humble Pie / Colosseum) and Miller Anderson (Keef Hartley / Spencer Davis).
He has performed over 1000 concerts across UK, China, Russia and Europe.
Iconic venues such as Museumsplatz (Bonn, DE), Tanzbrunnen (Cologne, DE), Freak Valley (Siegen, DE), Ronnie Scotts (London, UK), The Cavern (Liverpool, UK), Loreley Amthitheater (Loreley, DE), Zwarte Cross (Lichtenvoorde, NL), Festa Avante (Lisbon, PO) and headlining one of Germany’s most famous festivals Burg Herzberg in 2018 to 20,000 people together with The Herzburg Blues All Stars are just some of the highlights.
In March 2019, he was invited to grace the stage with his trio at the very well known “Rockpalast Festival” for national German TV company WDR.
An accolade and a dream for any musician!
This is planned to be released as a live CD/DVD package in Spring 2023 via MIG Music.
It has been delayed due to the effects of the Covid19 pandemic.
Krissy and his band have previously shared the billing with monster names such as Toto, Gregg Allman, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Beth Hart, Jimmie Vaughan, Steven Seagal, Clawfinger and Los Lobos.
In March 2019, Krissy released his last studio album “Monster in Me” via MIG Music.
This was produced by Baard Torstensen from Clawfinger and co-written with Baard and Pete Brown.
The man once known as “the unofficial fourth member of Cream”.
Pete is the poet behind timeless songs such as Sunshine of Your Love, White Room & Politician.
A brand new Krissy Matthews studio record was finished during the pandemic in October 2020 and Krissy signed a great new deal with the legendary German label Ruf Records.
This includes 9 songs all written during and about the world Lockdown, and how this personally affected him.
This was released on August 27 2021 and has the name "Pizza Man Blues".
May 10 2024 sees the brand-new release "Krissy Matthews & Friends", which, after "Pizza Man Blues" is his second album released with Ruf Records.
It is a monster album which unites the who's who of the modern blues and rock scene and took Krissy one year to produce!
Friends on the album include rap metal giants Clawfinger, the god of hellfire Arthur Brown, the voice Chris Farlowe, Germany's soul queen Inga Rumpf, legendary singer songwriter Stoppok, the iconic Hamburg Blues Band, elite drummers Dennis Chambers & Curt Cress, Blues singing dynamite Big Daddy Wilson and many more.
The album includes 24 songs and is almost 3 hours long with a mix of Krissy's original material and his favourite cover songs. "It was a long time in the making and I managed to get it done. I started the pre-production in November 2022 and went in the studio to begin the meat and potatoes process in January 2023. I wanted to get all my favourite musicians together that I have met on the road in my career. They are not all here by any means, but a good handful are! I did not want this album to have a box, so there are many different genres from metal to blues and jazz to rock'n'roll. But in the end, it is a Krissy Matthews record."
Krissy continues to endlessly tour with Hamburg Blues Band and his own solo career.