Still speaking of Johnny Jenkins, you wrote to me "he was very nice to me; and I loved hearing his stories about Otis and Capricorn". Was it in these sit- uations that you had the idea of writing the biography of Otis Redding? What you can tell us about Otis? The Otis Redding book arose from a meeting with my editor where we kicked around ideas for the next book. We thought Otis would be a natural progression for me, and no one had written a book about Otis. Chank Middleton introduced me to
Johnny when I started working on the Otis book. I don’t think Johnny had given an in- terview in 30 years. The first time I went to his house, he sat across from me. In between us was a coffee table and on the coffee table was a big pistol and a shotgun. The next time I saw him, the guns were gone and replaced by his guitar. I really liked Johnny, and he was extremely helpful when I was writing that book.
Johnny could’ve been a star. He discov-
ered Otis and mentored him. He was a great guitar player and had a great look. It’s said a young Jimi Hendrix visited an aunt who lived in Macon one summer and saw Johnny play, then adopted his look. Johnny happened to be a left-handed guitarist and if you compare how Johnny looked early in his career with how Hendrix looked at Woodstock, there is s a striking resemblance. Otis was the greatest soul singer in his-
tory. And he died right before he was about to become a major star; he was on verge of get- ting in front of white audiences when he died in 1967 in a plane crash. He grew up in Macon with Little Richard and played the same clubs around town as James Brown. Put those two books together, and there’s a pretty rich history of how a little sleepy town in mid- dle Georgia became a center of the musical universe for the better part of two decades.
The 2017 death of Butch Trucks and 40Italy they are pretty well-known as great musicians and nice people. I’m very fond of what Tedeschi Trucks is doing. They may be the best band going right now, and I think Derek is the best living gui- tar player. I’m interested in how the Allman Betts Band develops: I met Duane Betts when he was around eight years old. I spent a cou- ple of days with Devon Allman when I was writing Midnight Riders, and he was a really impressive person. I really liked him. I love Michelle Malone, who is based in
Atlanta and is a great singer and songwriter and a monster slide player. I keep up with Tinsley Ellis and Randall Bramblett, who are both putting out great albums. I like the Drive-By Truckers and Jason Isbell. I’m curi- ous how Kingfish Ingram and Samantha Fish and Ana Popovic and Marcus King will evolve. I’ve gotten into exploring tangents of
old music that are new to me. Right now, I’m fixated on the jazz guitar. Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, Barney Kessell, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green are all in heavy rotation.
In addition to being a profound con- noisseur of the Allmans, are you also a collector of memorabilia? Do you have any particular objects that once be- longed to the band that you cherish? Can you tell us some stories about it? I was at Jaimoe’s house one afternoon and he was thumbing through a scrapbook. There was an 8 x 10 photo of he and Duane that was taken in Miami during the Eat A Peach ses- sions. I mentioned that I thought it was a great shot and the next thing I know, he’s peeling it off the page. Then he grabbed a pen, wrote, “Scott, your guitar playing is bet- ter than you think . . . especially for a journal- ist. Love, Jaimoe.” And he gave me the photo.
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