Johnny Jenkins, 67, Wild Rock and Blues Guitarist

Johnny Jenkins, 67, a flashy lefthanded blues guitarist who helped launch the singing career of his former driver, Otis Redding, died Sunday in Macon, Ga., after a stroke.Jenkins was a self-taught guitarist, a fixture on the Macon scene known for his Chuck Berry-like duck walk and behind-the-head guitar picking. He started out with a small blues band called the Pinetoppers that played the college circuit and first heard Redding at a talent show at a Macon theater.“I heard Otis at the Douglass, and the group behind him just wasn’t making it,” Jenkins told pop music biographer Peter Guralnick. “Well, he sounded great with me playing behind him.”Redding received a lot of airplay for the 1960 single “Shout Bamalama,” backed by the Pinetoppers. But he remained the band’s gofer, and when the Pinetoppers were asked in 1962 to record for Memphis’s Stax records, Redding drove the group to Tennessee.The session was reportedly a disorganized disaster, with several musicians leaving early. Redding asked whether he could use the remaining time to sing. Among his selections was “These Arms of Mine,” a ballad on which Jenkins can be heard on guitar and Steve Cropper on piano.“These Arms of Mine” became Redding’s breakthrough, selling 800,000 copies, and he alone won a recording contract. He went on to have hits with “Respect,” “Try a Little Tenderness” and “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” before a fatal plane crash in 1967.Jenkins had declined to join Redding’s band on tour, citing a fear of flying, but there may have been other reasons for his refusal.He told one interviewer, “People always want me to make him sound like a good guy, and, see, I know better…. [Redding] was a bully. He was hell to get along with.”Back in Macon, home to James Brown and Little Richard, Jenkins retained a loyal following. Among his greatest admirers was another leftie guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, who had relatives in the area. After he became famous, Hendrix invited Jenkins north to New York to jam with him.Jenkins had an acclaimed solo album, “Ton-Ton Macoute!” (1970), which featured guitarist Duane Allman and other members of the Allman Brothers band.But feeling cheated financially by many in the music business, Jenkins did not release another solo album until “Blessed Blues” (1996), which included several sidemen from Muscle Shoals studios.Johnny Edward Jenkins, the son of a day laborer, was born March 5, 1939, east of Macon in a rural area called Swift Creek. On the radio, he was drawn to hillbilly music and at age 9 built his own guitar from a cigar box and rubber bands, and performed at a local gas station. He left school in seventh grade to take care of his ailing mother and by 16 had turned to music full time.At one college event with the Pinetoppers, he met Phil Walden, a white student at Macon’s Mercer University who was attracted to black rhythm-andblues music. Besides working as Jenkins’s manager, Walden co-founded the legendary Southern rock label Capricorn Records, which produced “Ton-Ton Macoute!” and “Blessed Blues.”Jenkins continued playing nightclubs in the Macon area and reemerged on record with “Blessed Blues,” followed by “Handle With Care” (2001) and “All in Good Time” (2005).

Johnny Jenkins, 67, Wild Rock and Blues Guitarist

Johnny Jenkins, 67, Wild Rock and Blues Guitarist

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