New Orleans piano icon
DR. JOHN

New Orleans piano icon Mac Rebennack, better known to the world as Dr. John, has become such a fixture of that city's vast musical heritage that you'll often hear him referred to in the same breath as Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair—his esteemed Big Easy predecessors. Indeed, Rebennack has been tapping the keys and singing in his soulful rasp for five decades, flavoring his Louisiana R&B and funk with African, Indian and Creole influences.

His biography is almost as exotic as his music. He started out backing better-known New Orleans artists on piano and guitar, developing a nasty heroin addiction along the way (which he eventually kicked decades later). He did a stint in L.A. as one of producer Phil Spector's session men and eventually landed the role of piano player in Sonny and Cher's band (it's hard to believe, but they were hot back then). By the late sixties Rebennack began to develop his Dr. John persona, a character based on a nineteenth-century New Orleans Bambarra prince who was heavily into voodoo and the occult-subjects Rebennack never tires of. Sonny and Cher gave him free studio time, which would result in his classic 1968 debut, GRIS-gris. The rest, as they say, is history.

READ THE THIRSTY EAR INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOHN