This is a great loss. Here's a little more info from Chicago Tribune:
Phil Guy 1940 ~ 2008
Chicago blues man, brother of Buddy Guy
By Trevor Jensen | Chicago Tribune reporter
August 22, 2008
Phil Guy wasn't as flashy or famous as his older brother, Buddy, but made his own mark on stages around the world as both a rhythm guitarist and band leader.
Mr. Guy, 68, of Park Forest died of cancer on Wednesday, Aug. 20, in hospice care at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, said his wife, Jeniece.
Playing for the last decade with Phil Guy and the Chicago Machine, Mr. Guy sang growling blues and recorded albums that were a mix of blues, soul, rock and occasional hip-hop.
His albums include "Funky Booty," "Say What You Mean" and "He's My Blues Brother," the title track of which features a duet with Buddy.
Mr. Guy lacked his brother's flamboyance on stage but won wide respect from blues fans for his tasteful and understated playing.
"He had a really good, straight-ahead Chicago style," said blues historian David Whiteis. "He played with a maximum of taste and a minimum of needless flash."
The son of sharecroppers, Mr. Guy learned to play on his brother's old guitar when Buddy left their hometown of Lettsworth, La., for Baton Rouge. Not long after he began playing the acoustic instrument, he saw Lightnin' Slim with an amplified guitar at a club. Slim let the youngster play a lick.
"It was like a bomb went off for me," he said in a 2004 Chicago Tribune interview.
In the late 1950s, Buddy Guy left the South for Chicago and his younger brother took over his spot in harp player Raful Neal's band out of Baton Rouge.
For the next 10 years he played with Neal and others, shined shoes, bused tables and worked as a messenger in a law office.
Buddy Guy enlisted his brother to join his band for a tour of Africa in 1969, and Mr. Guy moved to Chicago. From then on, he was a full-time musician, with no more day jobs, his wife said.
The Guy brothers toured over the next 10 years, including a swing through Europe with the Rolling Stones and a spot on 1970's Festival Express Tour across Canada with Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead and The Band.
Mr. Guy also played with Son Seals, Koko Taylor and John Lee Hooker. In the early 1980s, Mr. Guy signed his own record contract and began touring as a front man.
"I always wanted to be a sideman, not a leader," he told the Tribune in 2004. "But when you make a recording you have to step out."
"Music was his life," and he was very contented with his own career and proud of his brother, his wife said. His only gripe about touring was the food, as he never developed much of a liking for anything but the Southern fare he grew up on, she said.
In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Guy is also survived by three sons, Donald Ray, Ray and Maceo; a daughter, Nona Brown; another brother, Sam; sisters Annie Mae Holmes and Fannie Mae Guy; and three grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 10 p.m. Monday at Gatling's Chapel, 10133 S. Halsted St. in Chicago. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Gatling's.
When I was a child I spoke as a child, But all I heard was how I should get ahead,
Now growing up it ain't anything but all This indecision with these debts and doubts
And worries hanging over my head. When I was a child I spoke as a child,
I wish I could remember what I said.
