Just for starters, where do you think rock and roll came from? Who started rock and roll?

Ah, well, I don't know if there's any one person, probably, ah, Sam Phillips had more to do with it than anybody else but, ah, prior to him there was Bill Haley and some other sort of rock and roll things but I think Sam is the guy that really, ah, sort of put it all into focus.

What about your own background, tell us where you grew up and what kind of music you were listening to as a young person.

Well I grew up around Memphis or in Memphis till I was about 6 and then we moved out into the country, not way out, about eight miles out but it was pretty rural, we always had a garden and a pond and all that sort of stuff. And I was always into really hillbilly type music; I loved Roy Acuff and all that kind of thing and the cowboy music. I remember when I was a little kid I used to come in from play to listen to the cowboys on the radio. So I was always attracted to that kind of stuff. But, ah, went to a high school where, ah, most of the people I went to high school with were into something else like Glenn Miller and that sort of thing. Went to my 25th high school reunion a few years ago and now they're all into Roy Acuff and I'm into Glenn Miller.

What did you listen to on the radio? Did you listen to anything blues like WLAC or WDIA?

I never listened to a lot of blues but I listened to a awful lot of, of gospel music, black gospel and, and white well especially black gospel and that, that really stuck with me and still does. That, that became very much of a part of my particular personal rhythm.

Do you remember some individual records in late Forties, early Fifties that really knocked you out?

Ah, well there was "Slipping Around" and all that sort of thing about, during that time, wasn't there? I don't remember, remember a whole lot about the music during that era. I was in the Marine Corp during that time. I'd gone in '48.