Chuck Berry Biography, Videos & Pictures
Chuck Berry Facts
| Name: Chuck Berry | Guitars: Gibson |
| Born: October 18, 1926 | Amplifiers: Fender |
| Origin: St. Louis, MO | |
| Bands: Johnnie Johnson Trio, Solo Artist | |
| Links: Official Website, Facebook | |
Chuck Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the fourth child in a middle-class family of six. He pursued his musical interests at an early age, and played his first gig while still in high school. Before Berry graduated high school he carjacked a man in 1944 after his own vehicle broke down and left him without a ride home. The man called police from a pay-phone and Berry was arrested, along with the friends who were with him at the time. Chuck spent time at the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men until his 21st birthday in 1947.
Shortly after his 22nd birthday, Berry married Themetta Suggs and took on a number of jobs before deciding to enroll in Poro College of Cosmetology. Having played the blues since his childhood, Berry began taking side-jobs as a guitarist for local area bands to earn extra income. One steady gig from this time was with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. The band played several country songs as it was the favorite music of many whites in the area. Chuck decided to try the music out on largely black crowds and found that after an initial shock, they began to enjoy dancing to it.
In May of 1955, Chuck went to Chicago and met legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, whose songs he had played on the club circuit back in St. Louis. Waters put Berry in touch with Leonard Chess of Chess records who was interested in Chuck’s take on country music. Chess was looking to expand beyond blues albums as the market began shrinking and suggested Berry do a take on an old Bob Willis country song, “Ida Red”. Berry’s version of the song, “Maybellene”, became a huge hit, selling over a million copies.
Berry had another hit in 1956 with his song “Roll Over Beethoven”. That year he also met Carl Perkins and the two quickly became friends based on mutual respect and a shared love of country music. Chuck’s country inflected blues style would earn him over a dozen charted songs up until 1959. Several of the songs reached the top ten, including some of his most famous songs, “School Days”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, and “Johnny B. Good”, among others.
In 1959, after opening a nightclub, Berry found himself in trouble with the law again. The musician had invited a 14 year old Apache waitress he met in Mexico to work in his club. After she was fired from the club she was arrested on prostitution charges. Berry was arrested and convicted under the Mann Act, which prohibited the transport of females across state lines for “immoral purposes”. Berry was convicted and sentenced to prison for five years. In later interviews he criticized his lawyer for allowing the judge to center the trial around his race without objection.
Berry was released from prison in 1963 and enjoyed a boost in his career with the public’s renewed interest in guitar rock. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were among the popular acts to release covers of Chuck Berry songs, giving him exposure to a new generation of music fans. The career resurgence gave Berry six more singles in the Hot 100 charts between 1964 and 1965.
In 1966 Chuck left Chess records and began a hitless four year stint with Mercury Records. Changing musical tastes of the time kept Berry out of the charts, but he remained prominent in the concert circuit. In 1969, Berry headlined the Schaefer Music Festival with huge acts of the day, including Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, and B.B. King. Following his hitless years at Mercury, Berry returned to Chess records. Under Chess, Berry scored the final hits of his career, live performance recordings of “My Ding-a-Ling” and “Reelin’ and Rockin”.
Throughout the 70s, Berry toured the country performing his previous hits. Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller would both provide backing bands for Berry early in their career, but most of the other bands backing Berry during that time were sloppy and hurt his reputation among new fans, and alienated older ones. As the seventies wrapped up, Berry released his final studio album, 1979′s “Rockit”. That year, Berry also found himself in a brush with the law yet again, this time he pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service. He performed his community service by giving benefit concerts.
 |
 |
 |