by JOHNSON CUMMINS

With the new Elvis singles collection taking up comfy residence in the number-one slot right now, it seems that the Sun Records sound is once again finding new audiences. If you want to get into rock ’n’ roll at the ground floor, look no further than Sun, and while you’re there, take a good look around. You’ll notice one name that’ll keep popping up—Billy Lee Riley. This legendary rockabilly star was part of the Sun roster when it really mattered, and even today still averages a hundred shows a year and keeps putting out records at an alarming rate. The Mirror talked to this living legend over the phone from his home in Newport, Arkansas.

Mirror: In the ’50s, a lot of people felt threatened by rock ’n’ roll. Was there any backlash over your wild shows?

Billy Lee Riley: When I started playing this music, there were a lot of people against us, especially older people. They didn’t like all of the shaking, but that was just part of the music. One particular show we played was a homecoming at this school, on a two-foot stage. They brought a piano on the stage so I climbed on top of the piano and was singing and going crazy but then the piano started rolling. (laughs) Just before it rolled off of the stage I just grabbed on to one of the ceiling girders and didn’t miss a word. After the show the dean banned us from playing there again. A year later we changed our names, and the dean didn’t remember me, and we got banned again. By modern rock standards we were tame, but at the time, it was something new that people had never seen before.

M: Before the rockabilly surge in the mid-’50s you were more of a blues man.

BLR: After the Depression, the radio was a luxury. The black music that I loved wasn’t even played on the radio. The music that I grew up listening to was really raw music played by neighbours, fellow farmers and sharecroppers. It just became part of me.

M: When did you get involved with Sun Records, and release your groundbreaking single, “Flying Saucer Rock ’n’ Roll?”

BLR: That would be in 1955, when I got introduced to my producer, Jack Clemmons from Sun. I then met Jerry Lee Lewis, and he started playing piano for us on songs like “Flying Saucer” and “Trouble Bound.” “Flying Saucer” was more kind of Little-Richard-style, as I still had the flavour of black music in my blood.

M: You returned the favour when you were recording on some Jerry Lee Lewis sides.

BLR: We played on a lot of his records and would play package shows with him as his band because he didn’t have one. We were never his band, but we were the band that he played with for all of his Sun records. We ended up being the band with Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison, and my piano player and drummer did a lot of stuff with Johnny Cash too.

Rat packin’

M: What it was it like, working with these legends?

BLR: Jerry Lee was pretty crazy but he was just a young kid like the rest of us. Johnny Cash was a real quiet guy. Roy Orbison was probably one of the most down to earth people you could meet. He was just a really, really nice person and we became really good friends.

M: You also got to work with Mr. Bojangles himself, Sammy Davis Jr.

BLR: In the ’70s, I moved to L.A. and did a lot of session work. I started working with Dean Martin and the Beach Boys and people like that. I just did my job and got out, but with Sammy it was different. He was very appreciative and impressed with my playing. I didn’t have a mic to use for my harmonica so he said to share his. I just had one solo, so I blew some real good blues notes and knocked their socks off. He stopped his big band and said, “Hold on a minute, me and my harmonica man are going to start this song off.” So I got to do the intro with him and it turned out to be the A-side of his record. It was called “Not for Me,” which Bobby Darin had done a couple of years before. It was midnight when we finished and he called up Bobby and got him out of bed. He played the song over the phone and said, “See Bobby, this is how you should’ve done it—then it would’ve been a hit!” (laughs) He was such a gentlemen and that was rare to find in L.A. at that time.

M: Do you still like doing rock ’n’ roll?

BLR: When I get up there and do rock ’n’ roll, I get really excited and just go crazy—and I’m getting too old for that. (laughs) I’m still highly energetic. I get up on that stage and I just turn into something else and leave everything else behind. :

With the Stumbleweeds, Howlin’ Hound Dogs
and Alley Dukes at the Rockabilly Jam #17,
1855 Rachel E. on Saturday, Oct. 19, 8pm, $20

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