INTERVIEW WITH BILL “HOWLING MADD” PERRY

By: Shy Perry

Question- You've been in music for over 50 years, how did you get started in the Gospel and Blues field?

Answer- In Gospel, I was sitting on the corner one day when I was about 13 or 14 years old playing my guitar and a guy drove up and asked me if I wanted to be a part of their group. A local group out of Chicago. Which I said yeah cause it had always been my dream to play with a group, especially with a Gospel group cause I was raised up in the church. So that's how that venture got started. It got started with I guess you would call one of the lowest groups on the totem pole. But I made it all the way from there to the big times. With the Blues, I believe it was when we done the Apollo Theatre, we had a big show booked in Memphis, and when we got to Memphis, we got booked into the Lorraine Motel. We called up the promoters to let them know we were all in town and ready to play that night and he informed us that the show had been canceled at the last minute. So there we were checked in the hotel, no money, or nothing. It was still 3 or 4 days until the next show and I just decided to get up and put on some nice, clean clothes and walk down to the restaurant. I don't know what I was going down there for. I didn't have no money. I went down there anyway and there was Little Milton Campbell sitting there with a whole table full of food. And I stopped in my tracks and started drooling at the mouth. And the funny thing about it was about 3 or 4 weeks before that, we had been recording at the Chess Studios in Chicago and Milton was up there recording too, so we ran into each other a few times. So he recognized me as being a guitar player and he asked me if I wanted to play in his band. And I thought he was joking. But looking at me, I guess he knew I didn't have no money or nothing like that so he went in his pocket and pulled out a big roll of money, peeled off $100 and gave it to me in advance and said, I'll see you Sunday. I think that was on a Friday. He said we're leaving out Sunday morning early. I said ok. I left with the group that I was with, went and played 2 more shows in Huntsville, AL and Nashville, TN. After that show, I caught the bus back to Memphis to catch the band before they left and as the taxi was pulling into the Lorraine Motel, the band was loading up and was getting ready to leave. So I made it just in time. With Milton, I got a chance to be on stage with people like T-Bone Walker, Freddy King, a long line of people. There was a dancer called Wigglin' Ann and we backed her up one time. Wigglin' Ann was an exotic dancer. Then we had a break and I went to Chicago and while I was there, I ran into some people that was looking for somebody to be a writing partner with, a musician. I  took the opportunity which resulted in my 1st record being recorded which was called I Was A Fool and from there the journey has been kind of here, there, and other places. You name it. So that was my entry in the Blues field and the funny thing about it was, I had this idea about Blues people and stuff, but when I left the Gospel field and went into the Blues field, I found out that I was leaving Harvard and rejoining kindergarden. 

Question- How did you figure out that you wanted to play the guitar and sing?

Answer- I always knew that I wanted to play the guitar. Singing was a whole 'nother different story. I didn't think that I could sing. When I was about 12, I went to a show with my Uncle and brother to see Rufus Thomas and that was the changing point in my life. I had never seen a real, professional show before. So I wanted to be able to work a crowd the same way Rufus did that night, Through that 1st record of mine, it gave me the 1st opportunity to get in front of people and do my own thing. It took a while to get use to it, but after a while it becomes just like breathing. It comes automatically. 

Question- What does the Blues mean to you? 

Answer- Right now it means a lot to me because of the way it's going. It use to be that you had to have some talent to be a Blues player ot any kind of player as far as that concern. You had to know chords. And as BB King said one time, he didn't play a lot of chords. He played a lot of notes. I'm just in reverse, I play a lot of chords and I don't play that many notes. But I do here and there, not that I can't do it, I just rather play rhythm and that's what I started out doing and still love doing it today. But the way things are going, it's funny that the people that you run into calling themselves Blues singers and Blues players is just absolutely amazing and don't have a clue of what the Blues is really about. Anybody today that can learn how to play somebody else's songs is considered a Blues person if they got the nerve to stand up in front of people and do they thing. When you run into people that don't know the 1st thing about no kind of instrument, harmonica players that just blows into the harmonica with no style or nothing, just blowing into it. Guitar players that maybe know one or two chords, maybe. A lot of them don't even know how to tune their guitars. If you don't know how to tune your instrument, how can you know how to play it? That's the way I look at it. I know this is a whole different idea the way it was years back cause you really had to have some talent to be out here in front of people. In other words, people didn't play that back then, it seems like. Not unless they were sitting on a front porch somewhere. 

Question- Since young, black people are not as involved in the blues as they use to be in the past, how do you feel about that? And do you think there is racism in the Blues?

Answer- Do I think? I Know that it's racism in the Blues! But that's everywhere, you name it. There are some younger players that's coming along and getting their name out there in a good way that's got talent, but that's some of the younger generation. The older guys just don't seem to care, that's my opinion. And looking back, I saw Blues disappear from the black scene basically. And I think it's affected our culture of blues. Yeah, cause it's taken it from where it was to somewhere that you can't really even recognize today in a lot of ways. The way it's portrayed to people, for us who created it, Blues and stuff like that, we get pushed back. Some really can't play. They can bang on their instruments, but that's about all that there is and to prove that point, a Grammy nominated Blues person, which I will not mention no name, was at a show. I was getting paid the same thing that that person was getting paid. The difference was, I had a pretty good house of people. That person only had one person listening to them. What can you say behind stuff like that? You got to go with the flow, I guess. It's one of the reasons why I try to stay as independent as I can because I'm not going to be used as somebody that's ignorant and don't have a clue about what the Blues is all about. Comparing Blues with plucking chickens and all that kind of stuff. What can you say, you know?

Question- You have a brand new album out called Perry Music Heals the Soul. Tell me about that?

Answer- That's been my dream to put the album out, a compilation, for a few years. Luckily, I own all my masters and stuff like that, so it's not hard for me to go back into the archives to pull out songs. The songs that I pulled out for this Perry Music Heals the Soul, every song on there, in my opinion, heal the soul and make you feel better. Make you want to get up and move and groove and dance. Have fun, juking all over the place. 

Question- What are your future plans?

 Answer- After we've taken this Heal the Soul CD as far as it will go, I'm going back to the archives to put out a part 2 compilation because we have quite a few other songs in the vault that we can go back to, that the majority of people that know us, know nothing about the different songs. That's going to be another project sonewhere down the road. A compilation part 2, Perry Music Heals the Soul. Whatever your ailments, down thoughts may be, Perry Music will bring it back up. Put it at 100 percent.  

Question- What's your advice for up and coming artists?

Answer- Don't be stupid. Don't let somebody fool you into signing something that you'll never see a dime of the money that your music will bring in. Take a little time out and learn a little something about the music business. Try to stay as independent as possible because other than that if you don't know what you're doing, if you're stupid, then right away, you're going to be used. And you'll end up with a name that will represent something, but no money in your pocket. With me, if you ain't making no money with what you're creating, why deal with it? Why give it to somebody else then later on complain about what they did. No, what they did was took advantage of your stupidity. Anybody, young, old or whatever the case may be, learn a little something about what you're doing in this business and take it from there. Don't be stupid. Don't jump up and sign any piece of paper that somebody stick in front of your face telling you a whole bunch of falsehoods. Be careful out there dealing with folks because these folks are very slick. They know how to manipulate you through any type of weakness that you may have. There's people that I can name off that was manipulated through alcohol, women. In other words, give me the booze and women and I'm not concerned about nothing else. And then later on when you ain't got nothing, then you try to point your finger at somebody else, you can't do that. Learn a little something. Don't be so quick to sign something that somebody is sticking in front of you because what they're sticking in front of you could be taking everything you may make, in the years to come, away. That leaves nothing for you, nothing for your decendants, your heirs or whatever the case may be. Just to say that I'm out here doing this and not making any money, don't make any sense to me. That's my opinion. There's people I know that loves to do that.