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"Let Me Put It In," "Sling It, Bang It, and Give It Cabfare Back Home," "Pussy Stank." Not exactly song titles you'd expect to come from a sixty-nine-year-old crooner. But while most of Andre Williams' peers are putting down their guitars, he's in the middle of a musical and sexual second coming.
Born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1936, Williams started his singing
career in a Baptist church choir. In the years that followed, he landed in Detroit,
where he was introduced to Motown Records founder Barry Gordy and worked alongside
The Contours, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder and The Chi-Lites, and penned "Shake
a Tail Feather," the booty-shaking tune for which he's best-known. But while
collaborating with Ike Turner in the '70s, Williams developed a cocaine addiction
that left him panhandling on the streets for nearly two decades. Then, in 1996,
Williams began his comeback and started making some of the raunchiest, rockin'
R&B ever recorded. Since then, he's toured with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
and The Sadies, garnering newfound popularity with his albums Greasy, Silky and The
Black Godfather. Nerve found him living in Chicago. When we asked him if
he'd like to talk about music and sex, he said, "Absolutely!" — Susannah
Breslin
How did you start in music?
It was really an accident. I went to Detroit, and I was broke. I walked by a theater, and the sign said "Twenty-five dollars for the winner of the midnight talent show." I said, "I'm going to win this one." So, I went in the theater, sat through two movies and wrote me a song. When the talent show started, I sang the song and danced. I wasn't really no accomplished vocalist. And I won. It was mind-boggling. I didn't really know nothing else to do.
Did you get groupies?
They started after the first win. I walked out the theater, met this one girl, and she took me home. Every time I won, I met a different girl, or two girls. I looked around, and I had about eight girls then.
You went on to Motown and wrote "Shake a Tail Feather." How did that song happen?
At that time, they censored your songs. You had to be very careful what you said, otherwise they wouldn't say it on the radio. So they would write about walking in the park holding hands. I noticed the DJs would say, "Shake that thang!", so I say, well, I'm not going to be able to use shake that thang, I'm not going to be able to use shake your moneymaker, so I was associating ass with tail, and I say, shake your tail, maybe shake your tail feather. I say, yeah! That's how I came up on it, and it slipped through.
What was it like for you at Motown?
I got hired and fired about five times. I hold the record. Barry [Gordy], he was such a dictator. Most people married someone in his family or his clan. So, I got hooked up with the vice president of Motown. I didn't marry her, so Barry got mad, and I left the company. I didn't like him, but I respected him.
What happened when you met up with Ike Turner?
I didn't respect Ike, but I liked him. They sent for me, and I went to down to California, and I got onto his staff. And that was eighteen months of the worst period of my life. It was horrible. I went down there, I was weighing about 180 pounds. When I left there, I was weighing about ninety pounds. It was a bad experience — that's how I would like to put it. It was not a nice time. I had the keys and everything. I was his confidant. But I got sick down there, so I had to leave or die.
How did you get by living on the streets?
I was panhandling. The music had fell apart, and I had fell apart. I was living in a shelter. One of the guys was a professional panhandler, so he took me down to a spot where he worked, and we just did the job. I didn't think about music one way or another. I was adjusting to the conditions, waiting on another opportunity.
How'd you get back into music?
We did my first CD, and then it just started springing up from there. I started doing things again. I was introduced to Jon Spencer, who introduced me to In the Red Records. Larry [Hardy] recorded me, and he said, "I want to cut you some raw stuff, I don't care how raw it is." That's when I started on my sexual venture.
Where do you get the ideas for songs like "Pussy Stank"?
Because it's like, it's real. Pussy do stank. All of my songs are songs that I have ran across or came in contact with in my lifespan. All those things are thoughts that had come to my mind that at one time or another I had experienced, and once I seen it was working, I just stayed with it. That's why having sex is so important to me. Let's face it, food and sex is the main ingredients of life. You can't use it, you lose it, and if you don't eat, you die. You need those two things more than you need anything in the world. Sex is wonderful. Sex is like air. You have to have it. That's the reason why I'm still out there doing what I do. That's why I'm so active as I am. I guess my longevity is attributed to a lot of sex.
Do you use Viagra?
I haven't resorted to none of those yet. I'm still pretty healthy in that area.
What's the relationship between sex and music, as you see it?
Both of them demand your attention. That's the common goal. Both of them are closely knit, because you have to give it your full attention in order to make it work for you. Sex is capturing and music is capturing.
As the Black Godfather, what's your mission?
I try and tell 'em what life is all about. I like the category I'm in. I'm the only one. I don't have any competition. I'm in a category all by myself. And I like it like that. I'm just a dirty old man.
© 2005 Susannah Breslin and Nerve.com.
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