The Headhunters first met Johnson at the 1993 Grammys pre-party, after ironically, listening to Johnson's new album on the bus .  They noticed him sitting by himself in the ballroom and joined him.  The musicians became fast friends and collaborators.

Kentucky Headhunters mainstay Richard Young sits in his music room on Headhunter Highway and talks about Johnnie Johnson, his late close pal and occasional house guest who helped invent rock ‘n’ roll but didn’t really get much of the credit.

Johnson was the lively bandleader and piano player, with what Young recalls as “huge hands like overripe bananas,” who in 1952 enlisted rock poet Chuck Berry into his outfit and, with no particular place to go, they changed the world.

Although Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, his role in rock history has been a part of a great debate for decades.
Did Chuck Berry invent rock ’n’ roll? Or was it Elvis Presley? Ike Turner? Little Richard? Fats Domino?

Or was it a team? Like Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black.

More to the point for this tale: Was it the pairing of duck-walking and flamboyant Berry’s spitfire wordplay accompanying or accompanied by the rhythm and rollick of Johnson’s piano?

Heated debates, depending on who you talk to, have swirled for years.  Johnson's fame and recognition was due to him long before his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  And the Headhunters wanted to honor Johnson in the best way possible.

Young relishes the fact that he not only became a friend of Johnson’s but that the band he’s in was able to record what turned out to be a well-regarded and recently released posthumous album, Meet Me in Bluesland by the Kentucky Headhunters with Johnnie Johnson.

The Headhunters had an album release showcase, one of many events planned around the album, Thursday night (July 23) at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville.

Of course, Johnson, who died a decade ago, wasn’t there. But the rest of the gang who made what Young regards as his band’s “happiest” record paid tribute.

Young, 60, has been playing music for 46 years with his brothers, cousins and others from along Headhunter Highway (where U.S. 68 meets Kentucky 640, the place where Gen. Nathaniel Greene granted 7,000 acres to the family after the Revolutionary War, he says.)

“We’ve still got about 700 acres here. We all live around here,” say Young.
The Kentucky Headhunters had a massive burst of glory 25 years ago when they were the award-winning toast of Nashville. Nearly every awards organization — the Grammys, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music — saluted them for their 2 million-selling “country” album Pickin’ on Nashville, which somehow slipped past the country music industry police who attempt to keep such rocking fare at bay.

The album immediately became critically acclaimed upon release.  Although Johnson died more than 10 years ago, he was there in song and in spirit.

And while they still are held dearly in the hearts of their country fans — who demonstrated their love last month during their CMA Music Fest autograph signing and concert appearance — Young knows Headhunter music is more similar to Johnnie Johnson’s than contemporary country (although he notes he has plenty of friends in those modern country circles.)

“It didn’t take me but one minute on country radio and hear one of our songs come on and know that our country career was short-lived,” he says, looking back on this silver anniversary of the Pickin’ on Nashville glory days.

It was too rock’ n’ roll. So they started working on other genres of music and built up a resume and road schedule that had “a baby-Grateful Dead following” as they crisscrossed the nation.

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Photo Source: CMT