Dr John (Mac Rebenack) on becoming a musician | HK Magazine

Tom Sheehan

Was it always your dream to become a musician?

Dr. John: I have no idea. That’s about as far as my brain could operate as far as what I wanted to do. I was failing in school so bad that my father told me to go on the road. My dad said, “Kid, my advice to you is to take a job on the road.” It made me feel okay to do that.

You’ve learned music from some of the greatest musicians. What are the most important things that they taught you?

DJ: I learned from piano players like Huey "Piano Smith," Allen Toussaint, Professor Longhair and James Booker. It would be hard to say what was the most important, but I’ll say this much: Huey Smith taught me how to write songs—more than just play piano—which helped me later in life. They all gave me ideas about writing songs and that’s all so important—a lot more than just playing the piano. I studied guitar originally and if I hadn’t gotten my finger shot off I would probably still be playing guitar.

What was it like to work in the music industry back in the 50s and 60s? And how does it compare to today?

DJ: You can’t compare, because we were making records one track at a time. The recording techniques were way different. Today you can record 16, 32 tracks—whatever you want to do. The other thing is that today nobody plays the music live together. Back then you had to because when you left the studio it was a finished record. No mixing or all that.

HK Magazine