(audience cheers) -(upbeat rock music) -Woo!

(upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) Sitting in limbo.

♪ Sitting here in limbo ♪ ♪ Think where the time had gone ♪ ♪ But that's good enough resistance ♪ ♪ But I know ♪ ♪ That my face will be beyond ♪ Good Lord.

1971.

We never knew who was coming in or what they were gonna be like.

There was one session, I remember, it was the first, I didn't play on it, but I was in the studio.

They were trying to groom me for the situation.

But there was R.B.

Greaves, who did a record called "Take a Letter Maria," you remember that?

And he was wanting to be a Hollywood actor or whatever and he was rehearsing for something.

It was a Western and he was walking around with a six gun on his side, with a holster and all that, and I kept thinking, "It's not loaded, is it?"

(laughs) (upbeat music) ♪ Giving it up for your love ♪ ♪ I said everything ♪ ♪ I'm giving it up for your love right now ♪ ♪ Oh now ♪ ♪ I'm giving it up for your love ♪ ♪ I'm giving everything ♪ ♪ The hand of fate is on me now ♪ ♪ It pick me up and knock me down ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Concrete jungle ♪ ♪ Oh, hey ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) ♪ Well Billy Joe told me ♪ ♪ Said everything's looking fine ♪ ♪ Ain't it high time we went ♪ ♪ Ain't it high time we went, now ♪ ♪ Ain't it high time we went ♪ (upbeat rock music) ♪ I've been sitting up waiting for my sugar to show ♪ ♪ I've been listening to the sirens ♪ ♪ And the radio ♪ ♪ He said he'd be over three hours ago ♪ ♪ I've been waiting for his car on the hill ♪ ♪ Waiting for his car on the hill ♪ ♪ You had to live it to know how it felt ♪ ♪ And there were so many blows under the belt ♪ ♪ We were dazed and we needed help ♪ ♪ But when love has its way ♪ ♪ It's like a law onto itself ♪ ♪ Reckless love ♪ [Narrator] This is the story of a guitar player who had a major impact on music worldwide, but you may have never heard of him.

Wayne Perkins was born in Center Point, Alabama in 1951, picking up the guitar at age six.

By the age of 15, he was performing with local groups, like The Colours and The Vikings.

But much bigger things were ahead.

This is where it started, when nobody really knows it.

-(wind whooshing) -(soft guitar music) Well, I guess this all started here with my dad and mom teaching me how to play Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, and the Carter Family.

And Mama Maybelle wrote "Wildwood Flower."

That was one of my first things I ever picked out.

Yeah, mom and dad both played, and there's some pictures somewhere, Dale, of her and her cousin, whatever her name was, -Dot or Lucy or, Lola!

-Lola.

Playing at a church thing.

And my mama was big old long hair running back there, strumming acoustic guitar.

♪ There's such a (indistinct) ♪ ♪ That you can't hide ♪ ♪ With those little girl eyes ♪ -(upbeat guitar music) -(indistinct chatter) (upbeat guitar music continues) -Yeah!

-Woo!

-Thank you.

-(audience applauds) Some friends of mine and I were pretending to be a rock and roll band.

And early Saturday morning, we are rehearsing the 10 songs that we knew and hopefully would be able to perform at the Calico Corner, which was at the YWCA.

Temperature is rising and we're in a garage and the door is closed.

So as soon as we ended the song, I reached down and grabbed the garage door and lifted it.

And there's this kid standing there and he has been wandering through the neighborhood and heard the attempt at music and went to see what was happening.

And his name turned out to be Wayne Perkins.

(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) Well, I knew that mother and daddy both were musically talented.

They could both play the guitar and both sing.

-Oh, daddy could sing.

-(group laughs) They'd stretch out on the front porch.

He'd sit and lean back on the house and stretch his feet out and he'd play, he'd start playing and singing and he just wailed.

People would come by and wave and he'd just take his hand and wave.

He didn't even look, he never even looked who it was.

-He just.

-(group laughs) But he was in his own world.

You know, there was always music.

And of course Wayne, you know, when he started playing the guitar and then helped create the band, The Colours.

That's as far back as I remember, the first band.

And they'd practice on the front porch.

[Dale] They drew a crowd.

-Always drew a crowd.

-People would walk up from the neighborhood.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Drive by.

-Yeah.

And the neighbors, some of the neighbors would complain and they would call the police and complain about it.

But the police ended up coming there and parking in the driveway and listening to the music.

[Dale] Wayne was about 14 and Joe Coody that just visited here, he was driving, so he was 16.

You had Calico Corners and Oporto Armory and the- -I remember.

-A skating rink, You know, later on, when I started, like I said, growing my hair out and trying to learn some of the rock and roll in those days, we put that little band together I was telling you about.

They had us on a Sunday show and we were doing some kind of rocking song and I had both of my feet like bouncing up and down like that.

And later on they showed me the film of it and they went down to my, both of my feet, I was on both sides of the mic standing right there.

They were more interested in my feet than they were me.

It was a fun thing to do.

It was the first time I ever was on TV.

But yeah, that was The Colours, and we played a lot of places.

In fact, Mom, we had this old station wagon, this old white Dodge, I think it was, the push button on the column, on the dashboard.

And they'd take us to these gigs.

Mom was so cool.

She'd go pick up my little girlfriend over in Center Point.

They came in here and started courting me a little bit.

The group was called The Vikings.

Wanted me to go rehearse with 'em.

And I went to rehearse with 'em a couple of times and they said, "Oh, well, we want you to play with us, man.

You got the gig if you want it."

I think he was in the Battle of the Bands with The Vikings later on.

-Oh, The Vikings.

Yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

[Dale] So that's when he got into The Vikings.

He was playing a lot with them.

And they were traveling a lot and so.

They had played like the "Shower of Stars" and stuff with The Turtles and people like that in Birmingham when they had the "Showers and Stars."

So that was in the '60s too.

So middle '60s.

They would have, like, several bands that would play and they'd have the local bands mixed with the stars.

Moved to Muscle Shoals in 1969 because a friend of mine heard The Vikings, Jasper Guarino.

He came over to hear us and some gig we were playing outside, Charlie was kind of pissed at me 'cause his little girlfriend liked me.

(laughs) Like, "What you gonna do?"

And he said, "Well, go ahead.

You wanna go with him, go on up there, man, that's okay.

You'll never make it in this business without me."

I said, "Really?

Okay."

Dale Carr was playing at a studio in Muscle Shoals called Quinvy Studios, owned by Quin Ivy.

Talked to the owner and they heard me played drums and I got hired as a staff musician.

Yeah, Wayne Perkins, we both got hired at Quinvy's as staff musicians and it just blossomed from there.

(laughs) So I met Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Barry Beckett, and Jimmy Johnson.

And one of the guitar players named Eddie Hinton quit.

I said, "I got a little guitar player named Wayne Perkins," and he was 17 years old, but he could play a guitar.

I brought him up there and they loved him.

You could just tell by the sound.

I mean, he could sting it.

I could tell, I'm not a guitar player, but I could tell this guy was good.

(soft guitar music) Turn up the drums a little bit.

(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) -(crowd cheers) -Thank you.

[Narrator] The year 1969 took Wayne to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, already a thriving music city.

He started at Quin Ivy's Quinvy Studios, where Percy Sledge had recorded "When a Man Loves a Woman."

And his first master session was on Percy's "Too Many Rivers."

He went on to play lead and rhythm guitar at Muscle Shoal Sound Studios, on records by Ronnie Milsap, Albert King, The Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker, and many more.

His music journey was accelerating.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ Well, it's five o'clock in the morning ♪ I was working with Jasper Guarino and Jimmy Evans, Quinvy Sound, Quin Ivy' studio.

He was an old DJ from WLAY up there.

Started his own studio on Broadway.

So I moved in there for 100 bucks a week.

They were paying $100 dollars a week and that was big money back then.

So I went with it.

And then the guys at Muscle Shoals Sound came down and started listening to me play on the stuff we were doing down there with Percy Sledge.

Chris Ethridge was my bass player buddy that brought me from Muscle Shoals.

We did Ronnie Milsap's first album in 3614.

Chris came in from LA to do that.

Dan Penn brought him in.

It was me and Hawkins and Hood, Jimmy Johnson.

Wayne was a kid to me.

He was like 17, 18 years old.

And he was a good guitar player and so we wanted to use him as a guitar player at our studio.

And I'd have to go get him out of bed and get him to come down to the studio to work.

He was just like every other 18-year-old.

I bumped into Wayne and asked him what he was doing and he said he was moving up here to get in the music business.

Then the next time I saw him, I think it was at Muscle Shoals Sound.

To be honest, I was not sure I remembered who he was, but he looked real familiar.

And so as we talked a little more, a little more, a little more, I began to realize, "Oh yeah, that was that kid."

Leon showed up, Leon Russell showed up there in 1971 to do a record called "Leon Russell and the Shelter People."

That's where I met him and that's where he came up and Cordell, he and Denny Cordell came up with the term The Swampers.

That's where that came from.

Until Leon wouldn't let me play lead on his album.

He wanted to play all the lead guitar.

He was just one of those kind of session hog guys that wanted to show off all his talents and stuff.

And in fact, I saw him play dobro on that record.

I was sitting in the hallway with him.

I was hoping he'd let, I hung with him the whole time, hoping he'd let me just do something, whatever.

You know, let me play shaker.

I don't give a crap.

Whatever it was.

He never did.

I made him pay for it when I came back from England, after I did the Marley stuff, he paid me real well when I came back.

So David Hood, I just got off the phone with him, he and Jimmy Johnson had produced these two brothers called Tim and Steve Smith, the Smith Brothers.

And Marlin Greene was producing a record on me, a solo record.

And they decided to put the three of us together and call it Smith Perkins Smith.

I started writing with the Smith Brothers.

We came up with a few great tunes and it started to click.

We recorded a few things together and this started to gel.

Chris Blackwell came over to do stuff there that, from England, he brought over, let's see, Mike Harrison from Spooky Tooth.

I played on that record.

I brought over Jim Capaldi.

Harrison's record I think was called "Smokestack Lightning."

And Capaldi's record was called "First Cut Draw Blood."

(jazzy piano music) My first band was called The Misfitz, M-I-S-F-I-T-Z to be cool.

And we had a good little band, four piece band, played the YMCA every Friday night, and got paid for it, which was wonderful.

Began to seek out more talented musicians and other musicians to play with to try to broaden my horizons.

And of course, Muscle Shoals was in the mix for that.

My contact there was Marlin Greene, who I know was also a good friend of Wayne Perkins, and who engineered there, but also he was an artist himself.

Wayne was in Smith, Perkins and Smith, which had Steve and Tim Smith and Wayne Perkins as the principal members.

They were either working on a record or maybe had even finished a record, but Wayne was also a prominent session musician there with all the other great guitar players that were in Shoals working there.

I mean, you had Eddie Hinton, you had Duane Allman, you had Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carr, and others involved.

But Wayne had really made a name for himself and had begun to get a lot of, you know, top-notch session work.

I produced a group called Smith Perkins Smith, which was one of the first groups that Wayne played with.

Steve Smith and Tim Smith were from Birmingham.

And I guess they knew Wayne too.

I don't know, I kind of feel like I knew Wayne before I knew them.

But anyway, it all came, started happening at the same time.

He was really a good player and I had hopes that we'd be able to do something together.

And who knows, we still may.

Wayne was mercurial enough that he could slide in there and be this guy's guitar player.

And then a month later, he's over here being this guy's guitar player.

And that's a special talent.

They don't teach that in music school.

-(mellow rock music) -(crowd cheering) -(mellow rock music continues) -(crowd continues cheering) -(mellow rock music continues) -(crowd continues cheering) -(mellow rock music continues) -(crowd continues cheering) -(mellow rock music continues) -(crowd continues cheering) -(mellow rock music continues) -(crowd continues cheering) ♪ Don't go away ♪ ♪ When I woke up ♪ ♪ I couldn't say ♪ (upbeat rock music) Wayne Perkins's name kept coming up, you know, man, he played on a Leon Russell record.

He was on a Joni Mitchell record.

Smith Perkins and Smith did pretty good.

They're doing their second album.

And then eventually, hey, the Stones have come into Shoals and Wayne's been playing with the Stones.

What?

Playing with the Stones?

You gotta be kidding me.

And you know, another thing is that when you read Keith Richard's amazing autobiography, "Life," he talks about Wayne in that book and he talks about what a great player he thought Wayne was and how close he came to asking Wayne to be in the Rolling Stones.

(jazzy piano music) [Narrator] Wayne formed a band, Smith Perkins Smith, with Birmingham natives Tim and Steve Smith.

English label Island Records signed them as their first US artist, recording their debut album at Muscle Shoals Sound.

While in England, touring and working on their second release, Wayne was asked to do session work by the label's head, Chris Blackwell, most notably on Bob Marley and the Whalers, "Catch a Fire."

Soon after, Wayne was off to California, working with the like of Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.

This led to a two year stint on the road with Leon Russell.

♪ I'm back with all new players ♪ [Narrator] Eric Clapton recommended Wayne to replace Mick Taylor with the Rolling Stones.

Wayne flew to Munich, Germany and added guitar to the Stones' albums, "Black and Blue" and "Tattoo You."

A long way from home, indeed.

Smith Perkins Smith got signed and moved over to England.

We toured over there and while I was there touring with those guys, Blackwell, one of the reasons I figured out later that he had signed us, was to get me to do sessions like I'd done on "Smokestack Light," the thing with Mike Harrison and the Jim Capaldi stuff.

Blackwell had brought these guys to Muscle Shoals to enhance his Island Records.

Signed us.

Well, he thought he'd found a gold mine and he had.

That's why he brought me to England, was to overdub on Marley's stuff and overdub on, and another thing he brought was Jimmy Cliff and we overdubbed on, that was the original thing he brought, "The Harder They Come" album.

And I played on that.

The reggae thing, we got, Jimmy's was the first of the reggae stuff that I'd done, but the one that really kicked reggae off was the Bob Marley stuff.

It didn't really happen until, until Marley's record jumped off the shelf, and I guess it was '73.

They started playing this strange music.

I mean, I'd never heard the likes of, it was, compared to anything else I'd ever heard in my life.

Everything, the R&B, the church music, anything I'd ever, ever heard, this was backwards.

"Concrete Jungle" along with "Stir It Up" were the two that we probably did the most overdubbing on.

But it's particularly distinctive because of the Wayne Perkins playing right on the front of the rock guitar that brings it in.

(upbeat guitar music) And I had this pedal on at the end of the solo, as I recall, which was the sustained pedal from Manny's that I bought in New York.

And you hit this thing and it just like held a note forever.

It would hold a note for three minutes and it held that one note and would start to feed back in an octave higher, and then two octaves higher than that.

And when that happened, they tossed it, Blackwell or somebody hit that, Tony, hit the echo on that thing.

And it just, I mean it like rang across the whole room.

It just sent everybody, it gave me goosebumps.

(upbeat rock music) It was one of those magic moments.

And then Marley come running out there trying to cram this spliff this long down my throat, jumping up and down, patting me on the back going, you know, "That's it, man."

And I had no idea what he was saying.

I met Wayne Perkins in 1973 when he came to Japan as a member of Leon Russell's band.

And I opened a fan page of Wayne Perkins on Facebook.

Yes.

I wrote 20 books in my life.

I'm a writer.

All about music, rock music, and interviews, concert reviews, compilations.

I decided I should meet him again, after five decades.

I met 1973, now 2023.

And that brought me to Birmingham from Tokyo.

Wayne.

How are you, honey?

My gosh.

(laughs) [Akiko] I can't believe I get to see you again.

I come back from England after '72, it was the first of '73.

I was doing some succession work in LA and I brought my English girlfriend with me, Siobhan Barron.

And we were staying at a house up in Pacific Palisades over in the ocean and everything that I'd had up there with Issac Tigrett.

So we were up here, you know, doing some writing and stuff.

And Jackson, we hooked up and he came over and brought Joni with him and came in and it was kind of a funny situation.

My girl, Siobhan, saw Jackson and she was drooling.

She wanted to get with that boy and he's just, he was like a lady magnet.

(Akiko laughs) And so Joni and I were looking at each other kinda like the same way.

It was like, "Okay, what do you wanna do with this mess?"

And I ended up later on going into the studio with her and playing on that one song on "Court and Spark."

It's that song, "Car On the Hill."

-Yeah.

-Either about you, I think Joni composed.

I don't know if she composed, the song, the track was done when I got in there, but I'm not sure who the song was about, if it was about me or not.

I find it hard to believe 'cause it was pretty much, I think she was still working on the lyrics and everything.

But the track was done, 'cause I went in and Tom Scott and I overdubbed at the same time.

He was over there playing his recorders or whatever he played on there.

And I was overdubbing this fly guitar at the same time.

Yeah, she had a big old house over there in Beverly Hills with David Geffen.

We'd been hanging together for a while and she came up there and said, and woke me up, and said, "There's a friend of mine I want you to meet downstairs.

Come on."

So I jumped in the shower and I went downstairs and there sits David Geffen and Bob Dylan talking the "Planet Waves" deal.

-(Akiko laughs) -And I'm going, "Okay."

And I looked at Geffen and he said like, "Don't even mess with this conversation."

So I walk on by and I said, "Okay, Dylan, fine, that's fine."

Said, "What do you want for breakfast?"

I said, "I don't know, an omelet, whatever you wanna do."

So I go over and sit down at the table and she said, "Why don't you get your acoustic out?"

I said, "Well, okay."

She said, "Here."

She sits the omelet down in front of me and she went and got my acoustic guitar.

She said, "Well, why don't you play something?"

And so there was a tambourine laying on the table up there and a couple of little percussion, cabasa and a couple other things that you play, and so I'm playing along there and Dylan is sitting there talking to Geffen and he hears us playing.

He just folded the newspaper up and walked over there and sit right down in front of me.

And I can't remember what I was playing, but he picked up the tambourine and started shaking it to my song.

And I'm going, "Tambourine man, shake it.

Okay.

All right."

Yeah.

So there you go.

And when I came back to America, I got snatched up by Leon.

He couldn't let me play on his record when I was in the studio in Muscle Shoals.

And after that solo on the Bob Marley stuff, on "Stir It Up" and "Concrete Jungle" and "Baby We Got A Date," it was a whole nother animal after that.

So he woke up.

(laughs) He gave me a chance after that.

And I joined his band and stayed with him for a couple of years.

So there you go.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ Well, oh yeah ♪ So we played the gig in Atlanta.

There was 175,000 people there.

It was like 90 in the stands.

And the NPO, everything was full.

I mean, the whole place, you couldn't move.

It's 1973.

Leon was the biggest band in the world.

And we all, we flew first class around the world.

The whole thing was pretty much wide open.

It was a rush for me.

And we took, you know, limos everywhere.

It was a seatbelt tour is what I called it.

(laughs) So we got through with the Leon Russell tour, me and I think Carl Radle and I don't know if Blackwell went down there or not.

Eric came through Tulsa when I was up there and we became friends and hanging a little bit together in Leon's house.

So he said, "Well, I'm going down to Jamaica for a little bit of a vacation."

And I said, "Well, sounds like a good idea to me."

He said, "Yeah, come along."

So I went down there and was just kinda having a good time.

And one day he said, "Did you hear that Taylor quit the Stones?"

I said, "No, I didn't."

I said, "Well, what, they found anybody yet?"

He said, "No."

I said, "Well shit, put in a phone call."

I mean, that would've been a hellacious career if I joined that band, but I don't know that it would've worked because they were, I think they were always looking for another British guy.

When we were doing the "Black and Blue" stuff in Munich, Germany, Woody showed up over there.

He was just quitting the Faces.

And so he showed up over there and they had me and Ronnie Wood and Harvey Mandel.

But we all did good work on the record.

Harvey played on, what was the name of that song Harvey played on?

"Hot Stuff."

But I played on "Memory Motel," "Hand of Fate," and "Cherry Oh Baby."

It was just a great sharing experience for me to be able to get in and create with those guys because it was something to watch Keith and them.

A lot of times you wonder how the hell this is gonna come out.

But it turned out pretty good.

(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) [Narrator] Wayne returned to Alabama and recorded two albums with the band Crimson Tide.

He also wrote music for films "The Karate Kid Part II" and "Back to School."

He appeared on records with country blues artists, Lonnie Mack and Delbert McClinton.

and also played on sessions with Glenn Frey, John Prine, and the Oak Ridge Boys.

He had become a true guitar gun slinger.

Went to Tulsa where Wayne was playing with, you know, when he was touring with the Gap Band.

That was in '74.

I came back home and played with Bob Montgomery and Phil, and then went from there to play with, to form the Alabama Power Band with Greg and JJ and Bobby and myself.

And we did that for several years.

And then we asked Wayne to the band and we did his original songs and we formed the band and then recorded.

♪ Yeah, we're doing, all right ♪ ♪ Yeah, we're doing okay ♪ (upbeat rock music) ♪ From the long goodbye ♪ [Dale] That went on for several years.

Two albums and toured.

And then, well that was '77, '78, and '79 and on into the '80s a little bit.

♪ Every time that you say goodbye ♪ ♪ You will die ♪ ♪ Just a little ♪ (bluesy guitar music) (bluesy guitar music continues) My name is Delbert McClinton and I'm here to tell lies about Wayne Perkins.

I recognized the good guitar part when I heard it and Wayne was right on the money.

But Wayne was, he was a spark.

I recorded a bunch of songs in Fort Worth where I was living in, and I don't remember how I got 'em to Barry.

I went down there and met with him and decided to do a record, which big thrill to me, as close as I've ever been big time, and legitimate session players and the like, you know.

Sure as hell didn't have it in Fort Worth, Texas.

It just.

And so I was excited and thrilled and all of those guys that I met were, were already heroes of mine 'cause I knew their names from the stuff they'd done and the records they had made and playing with Aretha Franklin, and shit, that was just dreams to me.

Barry got the whole band together and I took him a song that I said, "Here's our hit."

And it was, "Giving It Up for Your Love," because it was a big turning point in my career.

I was in Muscle Shoals, which at the time was the biggest word in music.

Wayne played the signature thing for every song.

His guitar was what everything else spun off of.

And the fact that we were turning out one good take after another was just, because I'd played for years.

"Well yeah, well, now I can't really play that," you know, or "I can't," you know, people who were inadequate.

And all I was was the singer, but I knew how the music ought to go.

And he was a live wire.

Boy, he was a live wire and he was the guitar player and I was a guitar minded guy.

We had a lot of fun.

Had a lot of fun.

♪ Donny's in the corner ♪ ♪ Sitting in a rocking chair ♪ ♪ Rocking his baby ♪ ♪ So glad to be there ♪ ♪ Said he's living life ♪ ♪ The way it ought to be lived ♪ ♪ Said he's gonna pack up ♪ ♪ And move out west ♪ ♪ It's all pretty clear that he just ♪ ♪ Needs the rest ♪ ♪ He's been saved by the bell ♪ ♪ At the Mendo Hotel ♪ (upbeat rock music) ♪ That's all I have ♪ ♪ Yeah, I said ♪ ♪ That's all I got ♪ (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) So I sat down and wrote this.

It's called "Overdue for the Blues."

-(mellow guitar music) -(crowd chattering) -(mellow guitar continues) -(crowd continues chattering) -(mellow guitar continues) -(crowd continues chattering) -(mellow guitar continues) -(crowd continues chattering) ♪ There's times when you feel scared ♪ ♪ But I know harm ♪ ♪ Could never come to you ♪ ♪ With yours arms around your girl ♪ ♪ Your arms armor the world ♪ ♪ Murphy's Law ♪ ♪ Changes all the rules ♪ ♪ Yeah you must be overdue ♪ ♪ For the blues ♪ [Narrator] In 1995, Wayne recorded a solo album, "Mendo Hotel."

He began to play fewer live dates, concentrating on his music.

"A musician never retires, he just takes a break," said Wayne.

He settled in Argo, Alabama, writing songs and playing guitar.

This Alabama boy went on a wild, worldwide rock and roll ride.

This is his story and he's sticking to it.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) Well, Wayne Perkins was one guy I already knew about before I started the research.

He's well known and well respected.

So I knew about him.

So he was on my list early on.

And then the second one I have is him in Smith Perkins Smith up here.

So I could not find a picture of Smith Perkins Smith from which to paint.

So I started casting some of them against iconic record cover albums.

So if you get the image of Crosby, Stills, Nash up there, that's where that comes from.

I'm not really a good portrait artist.

I'm really better at the background and I can paint the instruments and the buildings better than the artist.

It's amazing that you, you know, you leave a little bit of a mark in the business and you never know how it's gonna affect somebody, you know?

And I've been one of those fortunate people to be a professional side man.

And I played on a few hit records, but how many records I've been on, I don't even know.

-(Akiko laughs) -I have no idea.

A lot.

[Akiko] You worked very hard on the '70s.

-Oh.

-'60s, '70s, '80s.

[Wayne] Yes.

Lynyrd Skynyrd.

-Oh yeah.

-Some of the first Lynyrd Skynyrd stuff we did there.

-Yeah.

-And I almost joined that band.

Ronnie offered me the job two or three times and I said, "Man, I've got this gig here and I play with a ton of people.

I just, I like the job I got."

He courted me for a while, for about two years, and wanted me to join up.

And I loved those guys.

They were my brothers.

We played a show, I remember, (laughs) we played Rickwood Field in Birmingham -and they did it- -Part of that?

We did a show and everything and right in the middle of it, the guy that had a curfew on the stadium, he pulled a plug on us twice.

-(Akiko laughs) -He pulled the plug right in the middle of like "Sweet Home Alabama" or something and Ronnie got, he got so mad and went over and threatened the guy with the power box and said, "You know, there's gonna be a riot here if you don't, if you don't cool this thing and let us finish the show."

We went back on and did "Free Bird" and we were doing it on the way out and they pulled the plug again.

And it was just, Ronnie said, "We better get the hell outta here."

There he is.

Hey, brother.

Wayne, so good to see you again.

-You too man.

You too.

-Welcome back to Bates Brothers.

-Thank you, brother.

-Dale.

-I appreciate it.

-Yeah, Dale, nice to meet you, Eric Bates.

Yeah.

Good to see you, brother.

It's been a long time.

It's been a little while.

Since Roy (indistinct) sessions.

What was that album we did out here?

That solo singer, Scott.

You know, it's been so long.

-Yeah, it has.

-I'm sitting on a blank.

Too long, brother.

So you got it set up in there?

I do, yeah.

We've been transferring some reels.

[Wayne] I hadn't heard this stuff -from here in years, brother.

-Okay.

[Wayne] It's been that long since we did it.

So far, everything's transferred really clean.

-Did it go over though?

-Yeah.

-How's it sound?

-Well, we'll listen and see.

Oh, you got just the high string.

(indistinct chatter) Nice.

That's the record you're talking about?

(indistinct chatter) (upbeat rock music) ♪ Tell 'em to look down ♪ ♪ You ask yourself ♪ [Eric] Then after that is "Desiree."

Desiree, yeah.

(upbeat rock music) [Eric] Rocking out on that one.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ Sometimes it's hard to believe ♪ [Eric] Is that you?

♪ She got everything I need ♪ ♪ Got a smile a mile wide ♪ ♪ When we go for a ride ♪ ♪ Desiree ♪ ♪ Both my dos and my donts ♪ ♪ Leave it all up to me ♪ ♪ 'Cause she knows all the time ♪ (bright piano music) (bright piano music continues) (gentle guitar music) ♪ Do you think that would be enough ♪ (Wayne vocalizes) My god, that's "20 Crossroads."

I wrote that with Tim Smith in 1970, '71.

-(upbeat music) -(indistinct chatter) Yeah, that's real cool.

God, just brings back some freaking memories.

-That's.

-Jasper Tea.

Got somebody who wants to say hey to you right here.

His name's Wayne Perkins.

-All right.

-Hey bubba.

-Hey Wayne.

-Quality, what you doing man?

I gotta come see you, Jasper.

Man.

This has been too long, buddy.

[Jasper] I hear you man.

I'd like to see you too, Wayne.

Well, I'm gonna get on back to this thing.

I love you brother and I'll be calling you soon.

-I love you too, Wayne.

-Take care buddy.

-All right, you too.

-Bye-bye.

Well, I didn't know where it was going to go, but I knew it was good.

I knew it was a possibility Wayne could play with anybody.

I knew that much.

He could play with anybody.

♪ I've been ♪ ♪ I could tell you that I've been ♪ ♪ Without you ♪ Is this, where is it.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music continues) When did you decide to retire?

Well, it's been kind of like, a desire, I guess, not so much to do the road again, but just create, it's not so much retiring, it's just sit and work on original tunes and stuff and I've been writing all kinds of songs.

As a writer, that's what you do.

You try to find the right things to pitch your songs, the right artists to picture your songs to.

So, you know, that makes me happy.

So I'm kind of retired, but I haven't retired from writing and stuff.

So it's just, it's- Well usually musicians would never retire.

Yeah.

-Never announce it.

-They just take a break.

-Yeah, yeah!

-I'd like to write one and be able to hang a gold record on the wall that I didn't just play on but wrote.

You are still a musician.

Oh, it's something that's gonna be with me till the day I drop.

I mean, you can't, it is not something you can just give up.

It's not that easy to do.

(bright guitar music) (bright guitar music continues) Oh boy.

Some of the stuff keeps coming back to me.

I don't know.

Just all my stuff and there lord God.

(laughs) Send him a (indistinct).

(bluesy guitar music) (bluesy guitar music continues) (bluesy guitar music continues) (bluesy guitar music continues) (bluesy guitar music continues) [Jerry] Special thanks to Mr. Wayne Perkins tonight.

-(crowd cheers) -Thank you.

This is Scott Boyer.

Oh man.

Yeah, thanks for having me guys.

I really enjoyed it.

♪ Nobody really knows me ♪ ♪ Like you do ♪ ♪ Nobody really knows me ♪ ♪ Like you, Lord ♪ ♪ Like you do ♪ (upbeat bluesy rock music) (upbeat bluesy rock music continues)