Drifting into town

MMM: Folks, when you talk about The Drifters at this point, you’re talking about 58 years of musical history and it’s a history that’s been marked by some of the great voices of American music including people like Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Ben E. King and Johnny More. And I can’t tell you how cool it is for the Mojo Man to be here today with another one of those great voices of the Legendary Drifters, Chicago’s very own Jerry Hendrix. Jerry, thanks so much for joining me here today.

JH: My pleasure, my pleasure.

MMM: Jerry, I know that we all are looking forward to The Drifters show at Sun City coming up on June 14 and I’m going to get back to that in a minute, but first I thought folks would like to find out from you a little bit about your own background and how you got into the music business, found your way to The Drifters and so forth. Tell us a little bit about that.

JH: I started singing in the church choir, when I was maybe about 6 or 7 years old. I was up there screaming and hollering, not much of a voice then I guess, but that’s where I started, and got into singing. And when I was 12 I heard Billy Ward and The Dominoes singing with Clyde McPhatter leading the songs. I said, “My I like those songs”, so I started singing a lot of the doo-wop type songs. It wasn’t called doo-wop back then, it was called R& B back then and songs like the Orioles back then, The Jacks, the Spiders and those where some of the groups back in those days

MMM: Now this is in the 40’s?

JH: This is in the early 50’s, very early 50’s…. ‘49, 50, 51, 52, that’s when there were the Coasters, those groups and I liked the way it sounded. I said “Gee whiz”, so I started singing those songs, so eventually I got pretty good at it, at least I thought I was good at it. And I joined a group at the time called The Matadors and did this little doo-wop singing on street corners and on from there.

MMM: Now was that here in Chicago?

JH: No, that was in Memphis, and after being with the Matadors for a little while I joined a group called the Five Knights, and I was about 15 then. The Five Knights and we sang together for a few years, and we changed our name to the El Capitans and then later I joined a group called the Turks. And with The Turks, we began recording at Sun Studio, the famous Sun Studio.

MMM: Sam Phillips’ studio…

JH: Sam Phillips, Sun Studio and Phillips label, yeah, where we did a lot of the background singing for Carl Perkins Charlie Rich, the Silver Fox; we were their background group at the time…

MMM: Now the Turks?

JH: Yes, The Turks. So we did a lot of their singing and then some individual songs, which sold about 300 or 400 copies, most of it was to our friends! But back then it never really hit real, real big but we were working though. Well, one day we were in the studio and we were singing with Charlie Rich, recording “Philadelphia Baby” and that was in the Bandstand days, both “Philadelphia Baby” and “Whirlwind”. We were recording it with Charlie Rich, he was over on the piano playing and we were doing the back ground and Bill Justice, the music director at Sun, he looked through the window and called me out and says “There’s a phone call for you.” “I said for me”? He says “yeah”, so I go to the phone and they say “This is Bell Tone studios in New York, we would you like to come and audition for The Drifters”? I says “yeah sure” and hung up the phone, I figured somebody’s playing a joke. The Drifter’s were my idol, my favorite group! So then I go back into the studio and he calls back again and he says “Jerry, there’s somebody.. they want to talk to you”. So the guy on the phone says “Look we have plane tickets for you to come to New York Bell Tone Studio to audition for The Drifters” So I said “This is serious” and sure enough there were plane tickets there and I went to New York and met with Bill Pinkney. Now I had known Bill Pinkney for some time, cause we had done shows with Bill when I was with the Turks, some shows around in Memphis and Arkansas, so I had known him, but he had recommended me. So from then on, I’ve been singing ever since.

MMM: That’s amazing and Bill Pinkney for those of you that don’t remember was a pretty accomplished athlete.

JH: Absolutely, great pitcher back in the Negro Leagues, a really great athlete he, was really a good athlete.

MMM: Now, I know that over the years, we had a little conversation before we did this interview and I know that there were maybe 100 people that have gone through The Drifters?

JH: Absolutely, it’s been a revolving door; they call it The Drifters for a reason!

MMM: Well that’s a great name. So tell me who is in the group now, who are the folks going to see with you at Sun City

JH: They are going to see Jerry Hendrix, one of the original Drifters, Yohan Harbin who is an accomplished musician on his own, he is a Grammy Winner. In fact he has a couple songs that were released years ago and they are being re-released by the British. And we also have Michael Slatton. We picked him up when we were doing our Casino show up in Hayward Wisconsin. We were on a farm and I heard this big bass voice and he was singing at some place, I said “We got to have this guy”. I never heard such a voice, tremendous bass, natural bass, hard bass. And then we were in New York and saw this young man singing with Loleatta Halloway. Well, it was Loleatta’s brother named Thaddies Holloway and he became our baritone.

MMM: So that’s the makeup of the group now.

JH: Right now, right now, yes.

MMM: And I know that if you did a show of just The Drifters hits we would probably have to pack a lunch or a sleeping bag, but give us a little taste of what we are likely to hear at the show in terms of The Drifters hits

JH: Oh, you’re going to hear of course The Drifters and The Drifters main hits and some songs that you want to hear from The Drifters that you never heard before. We try to bring those alive because I found out that people say “I haven’t heard that song in years I’m so glad that you guys sung that song”. Maybe 50% will be Drifters, but then you’ll hear some Temptations which all the young people like and the old too. Well I won’t call them old, we’ll call them seniors like myself! You’ll hear some Platters, Midnighters, The Twist, Ponytime and those times, Finger Poppin Time. All of those… you’re going to be getting up shaking and you’ll hear some of the O ‘Jays, so you’re going to hear a well rounded package of music for everyone that day.

MMM: Sort of beyond The Drifters, it’s really a tribute to doo-wop music more generally, isn’t it?

JH: Absolutely, that is correct. They are going to enjoy themselves. They are going to be dancing. Like I said even the 70’s 80’s 90’s are going to be up shaking it.

MMM: Do you get the audience involved at all?

JH: Generally, a lot of times, I’m a ham when it comes to the audience, so I’ll go out and pick out someone from the audience, and Ill sing to them or they’ll sing to me and we will sing together. And that’s a good thing, cause you know a lot of times in the audience, I’m an old guy, 73 years old, so I’m going to forget some of the songs. You have to think about “what’s my next line, what’s my next line?”, so I look at the people singing in the audience and I say “oh ok that’s it, I gotcha”. And when I see somebody knowing all the songs, I say “come on up…help me out”

MMM: Not everybody can do that, but with The Drifters your songs are so well known!

JH: Oh, yeah I get them up and then I dedicate songs to them and I get out there dancing with them, and tell them “don’t hurt the old man.” But they come out dancing twisting and doing the pony and the monkey. We usually start it out kind of mellow… nice Drifters style but we end up banging into the walls! And everybody gets involved.

MMM: Well, I know how excited the folks in Sun City are to see you and I know also, that the evening show on June 14 is a flat sell out and so you all have agreed to do a matinee show that day as well, isn’t that right.

JH: That is correct.

MMM: Do you remember what time it starts?

JH: No, they haven’t given me the exact time yet.

MMM: Well check your Lifestyles folks, or other local newspapers for the matinee time and the evening show on June 14 and you will be able to hear Jerry and hear Yohan and Thaddies and Mike do some of the great Drifters hits and the other great doo-wop hits too. Is there anything else you would like to tell folks about what they can expect on the 14th when they come to see you?

JH: Expect to have a great, great time, and expect to be a part of the show because you all are the show. And we really want to thank everybody for keeping our music alive throughout all these years, because like I said it’s been over 50 years for me personally. I started when I was 17 and I’m 73 now, so it’s been a little while.

MMM: Well thanks so much for joining us again and I guarantee you that the Mojo Man and hundreds of my very best friends will all be there to help you with those lyrics!

JH: Well I appreciate it I’m looking forward to it and thanks so much.

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