Carl Perkins in the Southern Quote

This son of a Tennessee tenant farmer was born in 1932. He and his brother grew up in the cotton fields, enchanted by the rhythmic gospel music of their fellow laborers. By the age of seven he was playing a guitar fashioned from a cigar box, a broom handle, and some baling wire for strings. He’d hide behind the chicken house and pretend to perform at the Grand Old Opry.

As a teenager, Carl traded the cigar box for an electric guitar, formed a band with his brothers, began composing his own songs, and sending demos to record companies. He amassed a ton of rejection letters explaining there was no interest for his music style that blended black rhythms with country. Carl knew they were wrong. After hearing a singer named Elvis on the radio he realized where he should take his music. Carl was signed by Elvis Presley’s manager, Sam Phillips.

One night, while opening for Elvis in Arkansas, Carl watched a fella who was overly worried about people on the dance floor stepping on his new shoes. He jotted the song down on a potato sack and “Blue Suede Shoes” was born. The song caught fire across the country, pop and blues charts. Twenty-three year old Carl was headed to New York to appear on national TV when he was involved in a terrible car wreck. During his recuperation, Elvis released his version of Blue Suede Shoes and eclipsed Carl’s success. The setback contributed to a lifetime struggle with alcoholism Carl would finally whip at the age of sixty-four.

Throughout those years, Carl Perkins had many more hits. The history of “Blue Suede Shoes” always threatened to overshadow his achievements as a singer songwriter and instrumentalist, but his fans and peers never tired of testifying to his talent and influence as the original rockabilly artist.

In today’s Southern Quote, we hear the wisdom of the late Carl Perkins who once said, “If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.”