Susan Whitall - Fever: Little Willie Johns Fast Life, Mysterious Death, and the Birth of Soul: The Authorised Biography

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013

http://archive.org/details/feverlittlewilliOOwhit

"Willie John was a singer's singer. There is no deeper blues

than his-and only his-"I Need Your Love So Bad," there is no

rock 'n' roll quite like his "All Around the World," there is no

ballad performance as simultaneously easy, swinging and erotic

as his-and only his-Fever." He could kill you with a George

Jones song. He sang like he owed nothing to anybody and the

world might forget but he never would. His voice isn't the voice

of a lot of people's hearts, I guess, but it's the voice of a few of

us. We're the fortunate ones."

" - Dave Marsh

I'd like to dedicate this book to the memory of my father, William Edward John, professionally known as 'Little Willie John.' Many things have been said and written about my father over the years. I believe he would be happy to see that we finally set the record straight. And also to my mother; without her consent and approval I would have not embarked on such a project. I love you, Mom!

I'd like to thank my brother, Keith and my wife, Cathy, for their special and unique contributions to this book, and my two sons, Kevin II and Keith this is your story too, it's part of your heritage, your roots! On behalf of the entire John family, I thank Ms Susan Whitall, for her vision, professionalism and great patience. Susan, it's been a pleasure and a learning experience working closely with you. Finally, a special thanks to Mr Clarence Avant, a man who did not forget his old friend, and who continues to speak well of him more than 40 years later.

As a young man, I had four wishes regarding my father's musical legacy. Firstly, I wanted my father to be recognized and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Secondly, I wanted my father's final recordings to be released and made available to those who appreciate his talent and love his music. Next, I wanted to be part of a book project that would accurately and tastefully tell the interesting and poignant story of my father's life and music. Finally, it was my hope that his story would be the subject of a motion picture. The first three of these four wishes have now come true. It is my hope that the fourth will also become a reality.

William Kevin John

FOREWORD BY STEVIE WONDER

My first time hearing Little Willie John, I must have been seven or eight years old, at the most maybe nine. It was amazing. I remember listening on the radio and hearing, "IfI don't love you baby, grits ain't groceries... "They said he was a young boy from Detroit and how talented he was, that he was going to be performing at the Fox Theater. I was really excited about his voice and what he was able to do with it. He was unique-the fact that he was able to sing high, that he was able to do the riffs that he did.

There was a DJ in Detroit who would always play his music, all the time; his name was Ernie Durham and he was on a station called WJLB. Back then they would play a song, and if they liked it, they would play it over and over. Willie's songs would play, and Ernie would say "Whoo ooo eee!"

Growing up singing as a little boy, everybody who was a singer would try to copy or do a better riff than the next person, similar to how rappers do snapping today. Singers would sing in the backyards or wherever, there would be competition on who could do the riffs. Willie and Jackie Wilson were the ones everyone would listen to for the riffs. They'd say, "Wow, you've gotta hear this riff, LWJ did this riff!" "Well Jackie Wilson did that riff, yeah, but Little Willie John did this riffhereV

You can hear Little Willie John when you hear Usher. You can hear him doing those riffs sometimes, the kind that Willie would have done. What makes a singer unique and long lasting, at the end of the day, is if they are able to sing a riff to any chord progression and it makes sense. You've got to also know how

to do it tastefully. Sonic people over-sing, you say, a OK, can you get back to the melocl) .'" Willie had a way of singing the song, going out but coming back, similar to great jazz musicians like Miles Davis or Coltrane. There has to be a |)Ln r where it's melodic enough without becoming boring.

I think the person who was most inspired by Little Willie John is his son. It is an honor that I've been blessed to have the son of such a great singer be a part of m\ career -my life, my group-and it's just amazing how God works that he would allow that to happen, that Keith would come into my life through someone who was a big fan of Little Willie John's, Charlie Collins. Meeting Keith and Kevin John, I saw how their appreciation for their father didn't limit them in having their own uniqueness.

You hear his influence in lots of people who sing today. It's impossible for people to talk about rhythm & blues and talk about singers and not mention the voice and talent of Little Willie John as being one of those great people.

PROLOGUE: IN SEARCH OF LITTLE WILLIE JOHN

Every few years someone comes up with 'the last untold story' in popular music. I won't say Little Willie John's story is the last, but it is one of the more unfortunate omissions from the annals of American rhythm & blues history.

Over the decades, Willie's life and career have been boiled down to a shallow, sordid haiku: Great talent, a violent assault in Seattle, prison and then death. Sketchy details that do nothing to explain who he was, where he came from or why he sounded the way he did. I've always loved Willie's voice, from when I was a child growing up in Philadelphia and I first heard "Sleep" playing on WFIL. I had no idea who he was, or that his voice and his story would tug at me so many years later.

In my early 20s, I was on staff at Detroit's Creem magazine, while it was mostly riding the mid 1970s wave of rock, punk and metal. I was always drawn to rhythm & blues, the music that made rock 'n' roll possible, and was equally fascinated by how integral the Detroit scene was to it all. When I left Creem for the Detroit News in the early 1980s, I was able to dig even deeper into the city's musical history, and I had the privilege of interviewing many of the singers and musicians who helped put Detroit on the map. In talking to Joe Messina, Joe Hunter and Uriel Jones-members of Motown's studio band, the Funk Brothers-the discussion would inevitably return to their early days on the Detroit club scene, painting a fascinating picture of how the city's jazz and rhythm & blues scenes intersected and influenced one another.

Right in the middle of it all was this largely forgotten singer, the brash kid

, I II II I Will II JOII"\

who jumped onstage With Count Basie and the big hands, became Detroit's Inst

massivel) populai solo rhythm & blues Btar, and laid the groundwork lor the lingen and groups of the Motown and soul dominated 1960s.