Country music always reminds me of the barber shop. Although it was my first influence, I always enjoyed R&B more.....guys like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Nashville had a large R&B community with clubs, record labels, and television. Saturday night at 12:00 on channel 5 , came Night Train with your host..... Noble B. Blackwell. The show started with a full quart of Sterling Beer on the desk, and as the show progressed, the bottle emptied!! The house band was The King Casual band with Johnny Jones on lead, Billy Cox on bass, Ring Brown on drums, and Jimi Hendrix on rhythm!! In Memphis, there was that whole Stax thing going on and I just loved it!! There was Wilson Pickett, Albert King, The BarKays, The Memphis Horns, Elvis and all that good barbeque!! Motown was delivering the absolute best formulated R&B sound and I was just enthralled by The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, and The Temptations. Phil Spector was making "The Wall of Sound" records with Martha and The Vandellas, The Ronettes, et al,and I just couldn't stay still!! Those clever Britts were imitating a lot of our R&B and doing a great job. Then The Beatles did Sgt. Pepper and the whole world changed!!
Early on, my bands were playing R&B because I liked to make the people dance. I would get in real close with my drummer and bass player and concentrate on that power to move people. A guy named Tant Dowell lived in my neighborhood, and his band,The Monsters, were Nashville's finest. Although he was a couple of years older than me, he let me into there rehearsals because they were always borrowing my gear. Even though I was under aged, we used to go to the Briar Patch and hear The Allman Joys. Damn they were good, and they were funny!!
Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jack
Bruce, and Stephen Stills were my main musical influences. They
had musical integrity.Not only were these guys great guitarists,
but they were great arrangers, songwriters, and producers. My
car stereo is full of their music to this day!! Back in 1968,
my playing was starting to peak and everybody wanted to know
how I did it. I was reluctant to show anyone, figuring they could
do better by working at it like I did. There was this one kid
who was friends with my schoolmates and he showed up at one of
our rehearsals. Off in the corner, I heard him playing and though
he had only been playing a couple of months, he was good. I said,"
Hey Stanley, you're getting pretty good, let me show you some
stuff". I showed him some basic Pentatonic shapes and how
to play through Majors and Minors and the grace notes that went
with it. Well, he went home and locked himself in his room for
6 weeks, and when he came out, he could just blow me away!! He
was a natural. Stan Lassiter still lives in Nashville, and he
became my teacher!!