Dr. John The Blackest White Man In The World

New Orleans’ greatest living musical ambassador, Dr John has been stirring the mystical spirit of voodoo soul into his unique bitch’s brew of R&B, funk, jazz and rock and roll for over 50 years, but there’s no sign of him slowing down yet. “As long as I got the music to look forward to, I don’t see no reason to quit,” he tells JONATHAN WINGATE

Legendary producer Jerry Wexler, who died in August, nailed the paradox that is Dr John by describing him as ‘the blackest white man in the world.’ At the start of a conversation that is scheduled to last 45 minutes but somehow turns into a three hour tour of his life, I casually ask how he is. “Hey listen, I’m cool. I’m breathing, and that’s a major thing. Well, I look at it like it’s kinda important,” drawls Dr John (real name Malcolm Rebennack, although off stage, he likes to be called Mac) in a laid back New Orleanian patois that is as so thick, it often seems to require a translator.

Although he was virtually unknown outside the music community of his native New Orleans until he released his debut album, Gris Gris in 1968, Mac Rebennack had been a working musician since his teens. His first taste of success came in 1960 when his song Lady Luck became a hit for Lloyd Price, by which time he was already a veteran of countless sessions as a guitarist, keyboard player and producer for Professor Longhair, Joe Tex and Phil Spector among many others.

Rebennack grew up listening to blues and R&B records in his father’s New Orleans store, and had started off playing the piano before switching to the guitar. After getting the end of …

by JONATHAN WINGATE
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