A Rock and County Music Giant

Carl Perkins wrote “Blue Suede Shoes," a 1950s rock-and-roll anthem. One of Sun Studio’s original fabulous four, along with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, he inspired other musicians, including the Beatles. Yet he is largely forgotten today.

Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly, by Jeff Apter, is a new biography of Perkins. It puts Perkins and his contributions to rock and roll in context, explaining why Perkins is often overlooked.

The son of a sharecropper, a member of a poor white family in Tipton, Tennessee, Perkins born in the 1930s, grew up in a shack without electricity or running water. As a child he picked cotton alongside other field hands, white and black, having dropped out of school in eighth grade to support his family.

An untaught older black field hand taught Perkins to play what Perkins called “black blues.” Once out of school, Perkins turned to music to escape cotton fields. Playing in clubs on weekends and evenings, his wife encouraged him to become a full-time musician.

After hearing an Elvis recording and thinking it was “his kind of music,” Perkins showed up at Sun Studio, where Elvis recorded. Perkins wheedled an audition. Sam Phillips, Sun’s owner, signed Perkins to a recording contract.

Perkins created a sound called rockabilly, country-infused rock-and-roll, with heavy black influence. So much so that black musicians like Fats Domino and Little Richard thought him a brother before they first met. Perkins created a string of smash hits.

Every time his career began to take off, he crashed down to earth again. A car accident killed the momentum caused by “Blue Suede Shoes.” His bandsman brother died of cancer as momentum was again building. Things kept going wrong.

Yet if the public proved indifferent, as Apter reveals, other musicians revered him. The Beatles covered his songs when starting out. Johnny Cash, his best friend, supported him. Eric Clapton, Rosanne Cash, and Tom Petty were fans. Paul McCartney once stated, “Without Carl Perkins, there would not have been a Beatles.” Their support kept Perkins in the music business.

The most impressive part of Apter’s biography is not Perkins' career. It is the revelation that Perkins was a genuinely decent man, a faithful husband, devoted father, and loyal friend. Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly shows that while nice guys may not always become the biggest stars, they can nevertheless finish first. It is a biography worth reading.

“Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly,” by Jeff Apter, Citadel, November 2024, 240 pages, $29.00 (Hardcover), $5.99 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.