Chuck Berry makes Rolling Stone’s to-do list
By Kevin C. Johnson
Chuck Berry
It’s not like Chuck Berry needs extra publicity — his monthly concerts here are regular sellouts.
But it certainly won’t hurt that the classic rocker made Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 40 Things to Be Excited About Music in the current issue with Black Eyed Peas on the cover.
Berry comes in at No. 9 on the list, “because you can still see Chuck Berry play once a month.”
The accompanying text reads:
“On one Wednesday every month, at 9 p.m. sharp, a white Cadillac pulls into the parking lot of St. Louis’ Blueberry Hill club. Chuck Berry, 83, pulls his guitar case from the trunk and descends a deep set of stairs to the Duck Room, ready to prove yet again that rock & roll isn’t dead as long as the man most credited with inventing it is still picking and screaming.
As the audiences screams for ‘Maybellene’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ Berry honors every request. During some songs, he forgets the lyrics and cracks jokes instead. In others, he is stunning, letting loose blistering guitar solos that still possess the feral energy that gave birth to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and thousands of other rock bands.
“One night, we were talking about the early days,” says Blueberry Hill owner Joe Edwards, “and he said ‘you know, I’d really like to play the kinds of places I played when I was starting out.’ ” That conversation took place in 1996. And since then, Berry has missed only one month. Even when he’s not playing, Berry stops in for chicken wings and conversation. “I didn’t think I’d live this long,” he says. “So now my motivation is to be around until 2020.”
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