By Clare Ngai

Photography by Ashley sky Walker

What’s your AMMO?

Friends, family, and all different types of music.

You’re from Austin, Texas, how has it influenced your music?

Austin’s a crazy place. You can walk around the streets and experience hip hop, country, electronic, blues, soul, rock, pop all within a few blocks of one another. It’s a huge melting pot of styles that have been all around me. It’s inevitably been in me for life.

Your last EP “Bright Lights” has gotten really good reviews by different music authorities, looking back is there anything about the EP you’d have done differently?

No, the EP was just a taste of some things to come in the future. Just a little taste..

The Rolling Stone review said they could envision you duetting with Adele; is there any artist you’d really like to work with?

There are tons of artists I respect across the board. Really, I respect any artist that gets out there and does their thing. There are tons of musicians that would be great to work with, things just have to fall together organically, rather than as an aspiration.

If you weren’t a singer, what would you be and why?

Just a guitar player, I guess, because I like to play guitar.

You have a jam-packed tour schedule coming up, are you excited?

Yeah, it’s gonna be fun to get back out there and do this thing.

What would be your dream venue to perform at?

It’s tough to pick just one. Playing at the Apollo for this Hubert Sumlin memorial last month was really special to me. So much history there at the venue and with the guys I was playing with onstage. I’ll never forget playing there with all those cats.

Top 5 essentials?

Water, food, sleep, friends/family, music

Who is on your radar?

Everyone around me.

What’s next for you? After the tour?

Recording, and then Coachella in mid-April. We play both Saturday the 14th and then 21st, then back to recording for this album to come out in September.

For more on Gary Clark Jr. go to www.garyclarkjr.com