Industry pioneer Carl Perkins, whose guitar playing influenced several generations of musicians and who penned the classic “Blue Suede Shoes,” died Monday of complications related to a recent series of strokes. He was 65.
Though he was perhaps best known as helping put Elvis Presley on the music industry map when the then-unknown singer recorded “Blue Suede Shoes,” Perkins was a musical hero to the industry and counted artists such as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen among his admirers.
Perkins had been treated several times in the past two months after suffering strokes and also had surgery on a blocked artery in his neck in June. He died at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Nashville.
Perkins was among the early proponents of rockabilly, a genre that was born with Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios and advanced by such artists as Presley, Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash.
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Perkins’ own shot at stardom in the ’50s — he recorded “Blues Suede Shoes” in 1956 — was largely overshadowed by Presley’s success, though Perkins would go on to write and record songs that became industry staples. A near-fatal car accident that year also pulled Perkins from the spotlight, though his recording sold 2 million copies.
Many of his songs were recorded by the likes of the Beatles (“Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and “Honey Don’t”), Cash (“Daddy Sang Bass”) and John Lennon (“Blue Suede Shoes”).
Perkins, who wrote the rockabilly standard “Dixie Fried,” recorded tracks with McCartney, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, and was frequently invited to perform at benefits and music specs.
He was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He won a Grammy in 1986 for being part of the “Interviews From the Class of ’55” disc, which also included Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Phillips and Cash.
Perkins recently performed at the concert to aid residents of Monserrat alongside Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Elton John, Billy Joel and others.
“I have the best gig in the world,” Perkins told Daily Variety in 1996. “I get to play with cats who have a real love for what they do, and show a real (appreciation) for what I do.”
Perkins liked to suggest he “wasn’t a good singer. When I play the guitar and sing I think about my playing, so my singing suffers.”
The son of a tenant farmer in Tennessee, Perkins grew up picking cotton in Lake County. When he was 7 he began to play a crude guitar made out of a cigar box by his father.
On stage, the trademark shuffle of Perkins — who usually sported blue suede shoes — was enough to earn applause, as the bespectacled and curly haired axemaster effortlessly ran through his paces.
In addition to writing songs that other performers turned into hits, Perkins was much-imitated by a young Dylan, Clapton, John Fogerty and George Harrison, all of whom acknowledged copying his style before developing their own.
In 1991, he had to stop touring to undergo treatment for lung cancer and later successfully battled throat cancer.
“I know how precious and fragile life is now,” he said of the experience.
Perkins was often accompanied by his sons Stan on drums and Greg on bass. He also helped found a center for child abuse victims in his longtime hometown of Jackson.
He is survived by his wife, Valda, his sons and a daughter.
Funeral services are pending.
— Adam Sandler
