THE JODY WILLIAMS STORY

Howlin’ Wolf, Jody Williams, Earl Phillips and Hubert Sumlin. circa mid . From the B&R Archives. Interview by Mike Stephenson y name is Joseph Leon Williams, that’s the styles because some of the people who were around also impressed me. People who I played with I’d pick up a little bit here and there because at that name my mother gave me. I’ve been called age I was trying to learn all I could. When I got started on , a little of everything over the years, but taught me how to tune the guitar to an open E. He taught me how to play the M bass background but his playing was limited, I wanted to learn more. I was Jody is a nickname. When I started recording, hungry for knowledge on the guitar so I would hang around in the clubs and they had put Joe Williams on the record they might stuff like that. You could say I was getting on the job training. have confused me with the singer Joe Williams I started to come into contact with more and more people. I don’t recall how I got into the studio but I went to Chess Studios first around 1956. who was with Count Basie! So people would have helped me. This is the guy who wrote many tunes, matter of fact he wrote the been buying his recordings thinking it was me and first tune that I recorded and he’s playing on it – ‘Lookin’ For My Baby’ (Blue Lake 116). Blue Lake was one of the labels that was owned by Al Benson who buying mine thinking it was him and that would was one of the big disc jockeys in the town. have been a lot of confusion – so that’s the reason On ‘Looking For My Baby’ I went under the name of Little Papa Joe. That name was given to me by Willie Dixon. That was because they didn’t want me for Jody. to get mixed up with anybody else. I don’t think everything was released at I was born in Mobile, Alabama; it’s in the south of the country, 3rd February, the time because I did ‘Groan My Away' (unissued but later released on 1935. We migrated to Chicago when I was about five years old and that’s Relic 8025) and I think I played the slide on that one. I’ve not played the slide where I’ve been ever since. I went to school there and everything. I got one guitar since. I thought about reviving some of the stuff we did on the street brother and one sister and my father died at an early age. I went through corners with the and the washtub. I reckon people would love that. school in Chicago, mainly on the South-Side, high school and grammar One of the first records I did for the Chess company was ‘Lucky Lou’ on their school. I had additional schooling when I was in the military. Argo label (Argo 5274). Back in those days a lot of record companies had the After we left Mobile and migrated to Chicago my mother would back me up payola thing. That’s where they would pay disc jockeys to play their records. on just about anything that I wanted to do. I don’t know how old I was when Now they couldn’t sit there and play all day long so what they I first got into music but I first picked up the harmonica because of some of did they played some Chess, they played some Checker and they played the idols that I enjoyed. There was a group called The Harmonicats, it was some Argo in between. Of course you had the small independent labels and a group of three or four and they played harmonicas in different parts. They the larger companies had more than one label. This way they could get more sounded beautiful. I guess I was about nine years old when I started playing of their artists on record. On the Argo label I went under the name of Little Joe but I didn’t play . I used to play things like ‘Autumn Leaves’, standards Lee – I’ve never used that name, I don’t know where that name come from. like that. I wasn’t interested in blues. I played harmonica in school plays and Herald Records also issued ‘Five Long Years’ and I recorded 'Moanin’ For things like that. Molasses' and 'Lonely Without You' for Nike Records (Nike 1013). I did that I started doing some talent shows and amateur shows around town. I played when I came back from the service around 1962. I came back from Germany on the radio, can’t exactly remember what show it was. This was all on the in 1962. I did 'Hideout' for the same company (Smash 1801). They put that harmonica. I was playing on a talent show at a theatre in Chicago, The Willett stuff on three labels. One of them was Smash and the other was Jive Records. Theater on 51st and Calumet; this was when I met Bo Diddley. After being They were the same company and they may have leased some of that stuff around for a while I was listening to more records, listening to Lowell Fulson, out to Mercury for one of their subsidiaries. I’m not too sure about the Yulando T-Bone Walker, B.B. King. These are the people who impressed me. So I label, which released 'Time For A Change' and 'Lonely Without You' (Yulando started picking up their styles. As a matter of fact I played a number of different 8665). That would be around the mid 1960s.

22 >> B&R >> 184 Like I mentioned before, record companies had numerous labels and they would distribute the stuff on different labels so more people would buy it. Back in those years I had a group called the Big Three Trio which consisted of a drummer Bobby Davis and my bass player Bob Walton. But on some of these recordings I had four or five horns on there. That was on 'Moanin’ For Molasses' and 'Lonely Without You'. One of the saxophone players was called Bernard Barkson – I had saxes and trumpets on there. After I came back from the service I started the Big Three Trio and gradually added horns. I didn’t play with four or five horns every night. I would play with just four of us sometimes, with just one horn. Before I put my guitar under my bed we played a little bit of everything. I had some very good musicians, some of them were jazz musicians and they taught me a lot.

RECORDING WITH WOLF When I was playing with the Howlin’ Wolf, well, I was like a studio musician for Chess Records. I would come in and hang out and I would record for so many people as I was capable of playing the stuff they were doing. I went down to the studio one day, this was around 1954. I remember that because Wolf had a large suburban Desotta, a dirty brown Desotta,(that was a Chrysler car they don’t make no more), it was sitting out in front of the recording studio. Chess had their own studios there that they had built behind their office. I went inside and there was Howlin’ Wolf. I didn’t know who he was until introduced me to him. Wolf had just come in from the South. Leonard said “He’s staying in Chicago and he will be needing a band”. I was available and there was Earl Phillips, a drummer who worked off and on with us in the studio, so we got him. Wolf sent back down South and got Hubert Sumlin. So in the band there was Hubert and I and Earl Phillips and then we had a piano player, Hosea Kennard, he played with us for a while. There is one famous picture of us at the 07 Lake club and you see Hosea in the middle on the piano. Hubert nicknamed him Yak as he talked so much. We were together around 1954. There is a picture of us when we were playing at the Zanzibar. I don’t remember all the sides I recorded with Howlin' Wolf. I recall we did 'Evil Is Going On’, 'Forty Four' and 'Baby How Long' for Chess – that’s me and Hubert on there. 'I’ll Be Around' that’s me playing lead on there. (Recorded May and October, 1954). I also recorded 'Moaning For My Baby' and 'I Didn’t Know'. (Recorded, Howlin’ Wolf. From the B&R Archives. April, 1958). I was doing some things with other people even while I was with RECORDING FOR CHESS Wolf. I was with Wolf a little over a year or so and I was with Bo Diddley at I recorded with so many people when I was with Chess. I played with some the same time. of the Doo Wop groups. I don’t know who they were. One of them was called Things get a little foggy in the 1950s. When I left Howlin’ Wolf’s Band, Wolf the Daylighters. On the original recording of 'Moanin’ For Molasses' there’s was alright. The only problem I had was with the money. That’s why I left the a group called the Daylighters doing the harmony background. They would band, I didn’t have anything against him personally as we got along good. come round to the clubs where my band was playing just after I left Wolf and All these different musicians that came and went in his band, that happened I would bring them up on stage and let them do some songs. I also recorded after I left. behind Dale Hawkins, the guy who did 'Suzie Q'. We weren’t making a lot of money back in those days. As a matter of fact When I was with Chess I played with , that’s me playing on the Union scale was only $12 a night for a sideman. Unfortunately the money ‘One Kiss’, that’s me playing lead guitar on there. The other number was ‘Can’t used to come up short sometimes. So I told him, “The next time the money Believe’ (Chess 1569). comes up short I’m going to have to leave.” I had lots of people standing in I wrote the first song that Billy Stewart recorded for Chess. That was ‘Billy’s line waiting on me. I wasn’t out of work. I tried to be true to a band and that Blues’ (Argo 5256/ Chess 1625) in 1956. He used to be our valet when Bo particular bandleader and that’s what I did even though a lot of people were Diddley and I was together. He kept my clothes clean so I could go out on trying to get me away from Wolf. When I was with Wolf other bands would try stage presentable. We would let him come up on stage and do a song once in and get me away from him. I told ‘em the only way I would go is that you’ve a while. He could play the piano and sing; he had a beautiful voice. I started got to take Hubert with me, I was trying to look out for Hubert. Hubert and I thinking about it, that this youngster should be able to do more than what he is did a lot of things together. We stayed in a particular building that Leonard doing. So what I did was, I wrote this song strictly for him. When we got back Chess’s father owned.

Label shots courtesy Chris Bentley, Victor Pearlin

23 >> B&R >> 184 big enough for me to hide in, here was I thinking this dude was watching me to rip me off but I was ripping him off. Me and B.B. hit it off right away. The same day after we’d finished with the Wolf stuff we recorded ‘Must Have Been The Devil’ and also me and B.B. did that instrumental ‘Five Spot'. That’s me and B.B. King playing on there. B.B. King is a real gentleman but I haven’t seen him for a few years now, he probably has forgotten about me. (NB: ‘Blues Records’ lists the guitarists at the Otis Spann session as Robert Lockwood and B.B. King, whilst Michel Ruppli’s ‘Chess Discography’ lists solely Robert Lockwood. However, the Wolf session that produced ‘Evil’ etc was cut on the same day as the Otis Spann session.) I also did a recording with an all white orchestra, about a seventeen-piece orchestra – Buddy Morrow’s orchestra. He was a trombone player and bandleader. That wasn’t for Chess but I got that recording through Chess. It was for the Mercury label in 1956. Back in those days some of the white artists what they would do was, the black music wasn’t played on all of the radio stations, some of the same stations that played some of the big named white artists they wasn’t playing the black artists. This particular song that I recorded with Morrow was called 'Rib Joint' (Mercury 71024) and it became a pretty big number so some of the white artists thought they had better cover that song. A guitar was being featured on this particular record but Buddy Morrow didn’t use a guitar, he didn’t have a guitar player so what they did they made a connection with Leonard Chess to get me. So they sent me over there. I was the only black guy in the studio and that’s the first time I played with an orchestra that big.

HENRY STRONG’S STORY Some of the musicians I knew then included Muddy Water’s harmonica player Henry Strong; his nickname was 'Pot'. Me and Otis Spann we had a flat together, we played together, lived together. This was before he started playing with . We played at the Tick-Tock Lounge, The Hollywood Rendezvous on the South Side. We hadn’t gotten to the 708 Club and some of these other big clubs but we played a number of the smaller clubs, the hole- in-the-wall joints. This was like a workhouse where you get on the job training. When Henry Strong got killed, me and Hubert was in that building. This is the story. Henry Strong, whose nickname was Pot, he got his nickname from smoking reefers. We all used to play together and we all had this flat together. Pot was shacked up with this chick, I can’t think of her name; she was a very jealous woman. A lot of women are attracted to musicians. Sometimes women would come up and give you a dollar bill or to request a song or to dedicate a song to them, that’s what happened this particular night. We were at the 708 club, that’s where Muddy Waters was playing that night. We all got back to the house. Muddy, Jimmy Rogers and Pot were scheduled to leave town, they were going out to play some one nighters. This was around 1954 because I remember the car that Muddy Waters had, he had a Holiday Oldsmobile Coupe, a red and grey. I’d got back to the house before they did. Pot was packing his clothes and this lady was following him around, he was just trying to pack up his stuff and get out of there. She pulled out a knife and hit him with it. He made it back to his room; he had just bought a pistol from a security guard down at the club. He couldn’t get to it. He ran Label shots courtesy Chris Bentley, Victor Pearlin and Billy Vera. down the hall and tried to get out of the back door. He run past it, and the back door that was in the middle of the building. We were up on the third floor and to Chicago I took him down and introduced him to Chess. I said to Leonard, that back door he was running to was nothing more than just a balcony. So he “Just look at him and who does he remind you of?” So Leonard leaned back had to run back towards the front and she hit him with that knife again. So she and looked him up and down and said, “He looks like Fats Domino”. I said, must have hit an artery somewhere because there was blood everywhere, all “Not only does he look like Fats Domino, he can play the piano and sing like down the hall. It scared the hell out of me because I didn’t know what the hell Fats Domino”. she was going to do next. So I told Leonard that I’d written a song for him that I’d like for him to hear. So I was trying to get back to my room. Pot made it to the door and run down So I took my guitar out and Billy got on the piano and we started playing ‘Billy’s the stairs. By this time Muddy Waters was coming up the stairs. He wanted Blues’. Leonard liked it and said, “What are we going to do for a B-side?” Now to find out what the problem was and when he came up there she started on back then it was 45s and 78s and they were played usually only on one side him with the knife. Muddy ran back downstairs. Pot had made it to the car and but once in a while you’d have a song that had a hit on both sides. When they’d they drove to the hospital. That’s where he died. There was so much blood send the 45s to the DJs they’d have the sides marked ‘A’ and ‘B'. The ‘A’ side in the car that Muddy had to get rid of it. That opened up my eyes to jealous was always the one that got played, very seldom the B sides got played. So women. I thought about this for a while and I said to Leonard “Why don’t we do a part one and a part two?” So you’ve got a vocal and an instrumental version. It was RECORDINGS IN CHICAGO released and it was a big hit for them and that was how he got started. I lost Me and Junior Wells and we all used to run together; these are track of Billy for a while because I went my way and he went his. I went into the people that I grew up with in the music. Junior came into the studio and the service and when I came out he was appearing at a theatre on Cottage he did this song for Leonard Chess but he didn’t record him, I don’t know Grove. I went over and saw him. He put on a hell of a show. He’d come out on why because it was a good song. So Junior left the studio and as soon as stage with a choir robe on. He did a beautiful rendition of ‘Summertime'. I’ve he had left Leonard told me “If I could get Junior to give me that song I will started doing that number myself on my live shows. I’m trying to play more of let you record it”. So I went out on the street and I talked to Junior outside on a variety of things that people would like. Cottage Grove and I told him what Leonard had said. I asked him what he I recorded with Otis Spann. We did ‘Must Have Been The Devil’, it came out wanted for the song and he thought about it for about thirty seconds and he on the Checker label. There was me and B.B. King on there. Now B.B. King said “Give me $12”. I thought why $12? In later years I got to thinking and the was one of my idols but I’d never met him. Now the way ‘Must Have Been The only reason I could come up with is that was what the Union scale was at that Devil’ came about, I was in the studio recording with Howlin’ Wolf, I think we time so I reckon that’s the only figure Junior could come up with at the time. might have been doing ‘Evil’ or ‘I’ll Be Around’ or something that day. It might So I gave him $12 and I had the song. I recorded it then but I don’t know if it have been ‘Forty Four'. It was one of those tunes. Spann was on the piano, was released. Earl Phillips was on the drums and Hubert and I was on the guitar and Wolf I used to work with Earl Hooker off and on back then, around the clubs. was singing and blowing the harmonica. I don’t recall how long we’d been in Junior Wells also. I had gotten on stage with Earl Hooker but we never battled the studio. I’m in there playing some B.B. King type of stuff. This guy comes against each other like I used to with some other guitarists. We used to into the studio and sits down. I didn’t know who he was so I didn’t pay too enjoy each other’s playing and in my opinion if he was alive today he would much attention to him. I saw this guy watching my hands and watching my be on top, he was just that good. You have to be around people like this to fingers playing the guitar and I thought he was watching me to steal some of know them. Earl Hooker was like a mechanic he was a musician’s musician. my stuff. So I moved my chair around so he couldn’t see me play. So I let it Anything new came out, he got it. I remember one night we were playing at the go at that. White Rose in Phoenix, that’s a suburb of Chicago. He had this looped tape After we’d finished playing, Leonard let us listen to the playback to see where thing or whatever it was. He would play a phrase and put the guitar down and the mistakes were. I put my guitar down and moved over to the piano and the thing was still playing through his amplifier. started talking to Spann. Wolf called me over and he said, “I want to introduce He went over to the bar and got a drink and the band carried on playing and you to an old friend of mine, B.B. King”. When he said that, the studio wasn’t that last phrase he played kept on being repeated. He would play the guitar

24 >> B&R >> 184 with his teeth and all that much money you could make in nickels, dimes and quarters. We had a ball. kind of stuff. He was quite I recorded with Bo Diddley, that’s me playing guitar on 'Who Do You Love' a showman and a hell of a (Checker 842) in 1956. That’s one record that stands out because a lot of guitar player. people liked my solo in there. We also recorded ''. We I used to play with Magic used to do that stuff on the street corners, two guitars and a washtub. We Sam and Jimmy Reed, also recorded 'I’m Looking For A Woman', 'I’m Bad' and others that I can’t Hound Dog Taylor, all these remember (recorded in November, 1955). We were on the road together, two guys; we were all one separate tours; each one of the tours was 65 nights, one-nighters, different big happy family around city every night. Chicago. I knew all of these On the shows we had And The Comets and Roy Hamilton guys, I played with them. headlining the show. Also on the show was and The Teen Some people say how lucky Queens. What I would do is, I’d do my thing with Bo Diddley and then I’d go I was to be around all these back to the dressing room. Come out of the dressing room wearing different greats. These were just tuxedos and come out and play with Big Joe Turner. When we’d finished I’d people that I hung around go back to the dressing room and get changed again and go back and play with, just ordinary guys, but with The Teen Queens. Clyde McPhatter was on the show. This was after he’d as time goes on, you reflect came back from the service. Then there was Shirley and Lee. LaVern Baker on a lot of things that was was on the show. Never recorded with any of them but I played with The going on at that time. All Drifters. The Platters were on the show. these people I was hanging Now this was the mid 1950s and we were playing through the South. Bill Jody Williams, early 1950s from Mike Rowe’s around with were great. Haley and Roy Hamilton were headlining the show. Bill Haley was white, Roy They were some of the all Hamilton was black, so when we played down South what happened was, ‘Chicago Breakdown’ time greats but I was right Roy Hamilton was black and his orchestra was black but his accompanist and in the forest so I couldn’t director, he’s white. So what they did, they closed the curtains and he’s out see the forest for the trees. on the apron in front of the curtain singing and his conductor he’s behind the Going back to the early years, I recorded with . As a curtain playing the piano and directing the band. When Bill Haley came on they matter of fact, I wrote 'I Was Fooled' (Vee-Jay 156) that was one of his first were just out there by themselves. In some segregated places we played in recordings, that’s me playing guitar on there. I was also playing on 'Don’t Stay the South, it was either Montgomery or Birmingham; had been Out All Night', 'I Ain’t Got You', 'Here’s My Picture' and 'You’ve Got Me Wrong' attacked while he was on stage. So when we came with the show we did two (recorded for Vee-Jay in October 1955). shows, one in the afternoon for the whites and in the night for the blacks. There Vee-Jay used to be right across the street from Chess in those days. Bo was a picket line out front of the theatre. Diddley recorded for Checker and Billy Boy played harp for Diddley, but they There were a couple of places that we played down South, the Klan were wouldn’t record Billy Boy. So Billy Boy went across the street to Vee-Jay, he marching. There was one show down South, maybe the Carolinas, I had just walked right across the street. When me and Bo got started on the street done my show and I was watching Roy Hamilton from the edge of the stage corners on 91st we met Billy Boy. Billy Boy played the harmonica on the street because I used to love his voice. After him was Bill Haley And The Comets. corners with us off and on. We made so much money playing out there on By this time I saw some people walking around backstage looking important the street corner with the nickels and dimes we bought a cheap amplifier for and looking nervous. I didn’t know who they were at the time. So I’m standing the guitars. It was kind of hard to compete with those amplified guitars on the there and Bill Haley is out there singing and Bill Haley ducked and eggs started harmonica so what Billy Boy did was to get a big mason fruit jar and he blew flying. These people who were looking a little nervous backstage, that was the his harmonica in that to get a bigger sound. I also backed Harold Burrage fire marshal as they had gotten bomb threats. We were scheduled to do two around 1957 on some of his Cobra recordings, 'Messed Up', 'I Don’t Care' (Cobra 1512) and I recorded with . I did 'Groaning The Blues', 'If You Were Mine', 'She’s A Good ‘Un' and 'Three Times A Fool' (recorded for Cobra in 1957). Cobra was on the West Side of Chicago on Roosevelt Road. They had a studio in a back room. I’ve forgot how Otis Rush and I met. He needed a guitar player to play some background or something like that. So there I was. We would play in the clubs together all of the time. I think Otis has taken some of my licks but I hold nothing against him. I think Freddie King has done the same. They way I look at it is, if you’ve got to take something why not take the best. If Chess needed a guitar player for their recordings, they liked me; they would call on me. When Buddy Morrow would need a guitar player they would call me. I knew Muddy Waters well. A lot of people don’t know this but that song that Sonny Boy Williamson made, ‘Don’t Start Me Talking’, that’s me and Muddy Waters on that. That was for the Chess label or it might have been for Checker, I don't know. I think I did some other recordings for Sonny Boy Williamson but I can’t remember. I did some things with Jimmy Witherspoon, that’s me playing guitar on ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business’. I did some stuff with Floyd Dixon. I was on ‘Alarm Clock Blues’. Floyd played in the style of Charles Brown (NB: Blues Records lists Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers as guitarists on Sonny Boy’s ‘Don’t Start Me Talkin’’ cut for Checker in 1955; Blues Records also lists Robert Lockwood as the guitarist on Dixon’s ‘Alarm Clock Blues’ cut for Checker in 1956. The guitarist is listed as unknown on the Jimmy Witherspoon track.) If I remember correctly I used to play in the style of Johnny Moore. See I used to work on the road with those guys, Charles Brown, Johnny Moore we were all out there together, that was in the 50s. It was about their second comeback. There was J.T. Brown; he went under the name Nature Boy Brown. We all played together and they also did their own thing. Back in those days I had a Gibson amplifier with one twelve inch speaker in it. We used to play some pretty big dancehalls. Johnny Moore he had an Ampeg amplifier with one big fifteen inch speaker in it. He put the amplifier on the chair so that the sound would go out over the crowd. With this big speaker you get nothing else but nice round tones. With my little speaker I was getting all kinds of distortions. Johnny would see this and he would let me play through his amp. So it was like, back then you’d get all this natural distortion, now big rock groups are having to pay for the distortion by having to buy all kinds of foot pedals (laughs). I can hear Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers in the 708 Club with their speakers giving all manner of distortion.

RECORDING AND ON THE ROAD WITH BO DIDDLEY Bo Diddley was playing the guitar when I first met him. He was accompanied by Roosevelt Jackson who was playing a washtub bass. It had a piece of clothesline going down the middle. If you closed your eyes and listened it sounded just like a regular bass fiddle. This was about 1950. That’s how Bo Diddley and I got started by playing on street corners, two guitars and a washtub bass. By this time I’d switched to guitar. You’d be surprised how Label shots courtesy Chris Bentley, Victor Pearlin and Billy Vera.

25 >> B&R >> 184 couple of years as an electronic technician, building stereo systems and stuff like that. I then went to another school, as I didn’t think I was earning enough money. I went there at night and worked during the day. When I went to the school of electronics I was still playing music. I gradually weaned myself away from music, as I wanted to get away from it that bad but I couldn’t do anything else. This was a time when you saw very few blacks doing electronics. I’m all dressed in a suit repairing Xerox machines and some folks don’t connect that a black guy can do this type of work. So for 26 years I was a Xerox engineer and I met a lot of good people. I got to the point where this work was not challenging to me anymore and it was time to make changes again. I was old enough to get into a retirement package and so I retired at an early age where I was young enough to do something else. It was March 1994 when I retired. I do other work now. I’m a first line ATM technician. I go round to the banks, fix the cash machines and stuff like that. The company is nice enough to let me travel around the world entertaining, as they know I enjoy what I’m doing now. I see life a little different than I used to. I appreciate things more at my age Every so often over the years somebody would ask me about playing again, no way, I wasn’t interested. I’d either change the conversation or tell them a flat no or walk away from them. I wasn’t interested in playing, I never intended to play again. When I retired very few musicians knew where I was. Billy Boy knew where I was, Reggie Boyd knew also. Well, along came this Michael James from California, he’s an agent. He’d been trying to talk me into playing for some while. He kept on hounding me for almost a year. One day I was talking to Dick Shurman who was talking about us going out, us going to the clubs and I couldn’t think of anybody that I wanted to go out there and see other than Robert Jr Lockwood. In my teens people used to think that he was my father because we resembled each other. Just by chance Robert Jr was supposed to be down at ’s Legends the following Saturday. Dick asked me if I wanted to go. I said "Yea I’d love to go but on one condition that I don’t want anybody to know who I am". He promised that nobody would know who I am. So we went to the club, we sat quietly. I enjoyed what I was hearing and it put the thought in my mind but I still wasn’t sold on playing yet. I enjoyed spending time with Robert Junior Lockwood and we talked about some of the old times. I don’t know how many months had passed but one day my wife mentioned it to me about playing, she said "You might feel better, be in a better mood". I didn’t know if she just wanted me to get out of the house (laughs). I had a tape that my drummer had made of the band when we were in the clubs, been about 1964. I hadn’t heard it since then. So I listened to it and it sounded good, tears came to my eyes. The reason why, was the thought of me not Bo Diddley. From the B&R Archives . Label shot: Billy Vera. ever being able to play that guitar again. So that’s when I started practising shows but we packed up after the on my guitar. first show and we left. To think, I called this guy Michael James and said that I didn’t mind being on the "Why would somebody want show, as I wanted to see if I still had it in me. So he put me on the show and I to hurt me because my played that night. My fingers were weak but I played anyway. All the accolades skin colour is different that I received from the public that night, that old feeling came back and one to theirs?" I can’t thing led to another. The record company came to my house; normally record understand this racial companies don’t do that. Dick Shurman got a promotion package on me, prejudice. Now my letting people know that I was going to start recording. So they had faith in me, wife is white and as they’d not heard me play for years. Dick Shurman was being real helpful we raised three and supportive and he produced the Evidence CD. children and Last year I played at the Howlin’ Wolf festival down in West Point, there is no racial Mississippi, and they’ve got a museum down there for Howlin’ Wolf. One thing prejudice in my I’ve done over the years is learn how to paint three-dimensional sculpturing. family. My mother I take a picture and re-produce it in three dimensions. I promised the guys would never teach down there in the museum that I would send them something. What I intend on us racial prejudice doing is doing a picture of the band, the original band with Howlin’ Wolf, that’s even though our Hubert, Earl, Wolf and myself. I’m going to be doing some more recordings people have been soon for them. mistreated and abused. I’ve been living with my Jody Williams was interviewed in Heerlen, Holland on 21st March feet in both worlds, it’s no 2003. Thanks to Les Irvine for his invaluable help in transcribing and big deal to me, there is only acknowledgements to both John Hendrix and Fred Reif in helping to one race and that’s the human arrange the interview. race. It’s the same way with Phil and Leonard Chess, they were Jewish but if you knew them and talked to them they’d been raised around blacks all of their lives. If you talked to one of them on the phone you would think you were talking to a black person. Now their father was different because he had an accent. The Chess folks made their money from the blacks. Even though they cheated a lot of us they opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people. They bought the radio station in Chicago W.V.O.N. Some radio stations have a meaning in their call letters. For Chess it was ‘Voice Of The Negro’.

WHY I QUIT SHOW BUSINESS Well, my music was being stolen and record companies ripping me off and artists stealing my material. Bo Diddley was right there with me. I repeat it when I’m asked about it for the simple reason. You’ve got a lot of promising entertainers coming up and some of these youngsters have got God given talent and maybe they are not aware of what’s going on. I notice some of the same reasons that I put my guitar under my bed and forgot about it for thirty years with no intention of ever playing again because I was just that bitter with it. I had my music stolen, record companies messing on me, club owners not wanting to pay anything. So I thought I don’t need all this stress, trying to run a band. So I went to school for electronics. I got a diploma in AM and FM radio, black and white and colour television, air conditioning and refrigeration. I worked a Jody Williams, Heerlen, Holland, March 2003. Photo: Mike Stephenson

26 >> B&R >> 184