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He may be a legend in his own mind, but talk to him long enough, and James Lewis Carter "T-Model" Ford will make you a believer, too.

Whether he's talking about his guitar-playing prowess, his popularity with the ladies or the jealousy his talent stirs up in his peers, Ford is a dinosaur that's miraculously survived extinction -- a walking, talking example of the iconic bluesman, the one who made a deal with the devil at a Mississippi crossroads and loves nothing better than to fight, fornicate and play some down-and-dirty roots music.

Of course, given that he's an octogenarian, he doesn't get around as well as he used to. But the man can still strut, and he can definitely still play.

"I was a powerful young man, and I didn't pick at nobody, but when we'd start, I'd be the one to get the end of it," Ford told The Daily Times this week in a phone interview from his Mississippi home. "Now, I'm happy. I don't even think about fighting nobody, and I hope nobody feel like they want to be fighting me. I'm not able to stand up and fight like I used to."

Born in Forest, Miss., around 1924 -- he's never been able to remember the exact date of his birth -- Ford worked various blue-collar jobs from the time he was old enough to walk, plowing fields, working at a sawmill and, later, driving a truck. Supposedly, he was sentenced to 10 years on a chain gang for murder during those days, but according to the T-Model Ford legend, he was able to reduce his sentence to two years.

It wasn't until he was in his 70s that Ford started to play the blues, the novelty gradually giving way to outright respect as the plagues of old age avoided handicapping his ability. It's been the source of frustration and jealousy on the part of some of his peers, Ford said.

"My hands, they don't hurt me -- I pick with my fingers, there ain't no hard places in them and they don't swell up," he said. "They're like a little baby -- soft and tender. And everybody seems to be jealous, because they can't play like me.

"I remember, B.B. King got a little mad with me when we went one summer to Australia and I opened for him. His drummer lived where I lived and would sometimes play with me, and when B.B. quit playing, he came off the stage and all the white ladies were saying, 'B.B., that's the best show you ever played in your life with T-Model Ford!'

"He was just sitting there looking at me, and he ain't spoke to me since," Ford added with a laugh. "I wasn't trying to beat him -- I was just doing my thing."

These days, Ford lives in Greenville, Miss., with Stella -- his woman of 15 years. It doesn't stop the female fans from fawning over him, but that's something he can't help, he said.

"Oh, sugar, they cover me everywhere we go -- yes indeed!" he said. "I been married five times, and now I'm not married. I'm a lady's man, even though me and Stella are still together. She wanna act jealous sometimes, but I don't pay her no attention."

Last year, a partnership with the Seattle-based band GravelRoad heightened his exposure and gave Ford some much-needed assistance on the road. Last summer, he was back on the road less than two weeks after have a pacemaker put in, and he's still going strong. He's planning on starting work on a new album -- a follow-up to last year's "Jack Daniel Time" -- and giving the world another dose of his blend of the blues, everything from Delta to Chicago to hill country, topped with an attitude that says to anyone who watches him play that he's a man who's spilled more liquor than most people half his age have ever drank.

"I asked the doctor about me drinking a little, and he said about half a little thing won't hurt me, long as I don't overdo it," he said. "I have about half a bottle of Jack Daniel's sitting in my room at the head of my bed right now. But I sip it; I don't drink it."

Wednesday, he'll stop by The Pilot Light in Knoxville's Old City, a show that'll make an interesting change of pace from the various sub-genres of indie rock that usually get played there. One thing is most definitely for certain -- with T-Model Ford on stage, it's going to be a show.

"It's gonna be a show, man! They gonna like it; even if I don't play no guitar, they're gonna like it," he said. "They all just sit there and gaze at me and watch my hands and look at me, just smiling that pretty smile on my face, and people like it.

"I don't worry for nothing, and I'm just as happy right now as I ever been in my life. I thank the Lord for letting me live to see all these places and for letting me learn how to play guitar."