You could have a pretty fun time playing a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style game with the life of KC blues artist "Rock-N-Rick" Patterson. The 48-year-old frog-voiced guitarist and songwriter has shared the stage with blues greats like Johnny Copeland, Sherman Robertson and a never-ending stream of talented musicians, some of which later went on to play with icons like Robert Cray, Paul Simon, Chuck Berry and Howlin' Wolf. But like many musicians, a combination of long nights and excessive vices threatened to take Patterson away from the stage. "I got caught up in the haze that can take a lot of good musicians down," he says. "There's a lot of us that don't make it, and I was one of the lucky ones." Now, Rock-N-Rick is hitting the stage with his band the Roadmasters. Only this time, Patterson is clear-headed, focused and promoting a collection of skillful blues-rock originals aptly titled "Beat a Demon." And Patterson has no intentions of letting previous temptations overshadow the lessons he's learned. "I'm attacking it with everything I've got, and I'm going for broke on this one." Rock-N-Rick and the Roadmasters will perform at 9 p.m. Aug. 8 at Magoon's.