In 1998, Sam Phillips talked with me about the events that had such a radical impact on the first century of recorded sound, as well as a life that began on January 5, 1923, in Florence, Alabama. In the process, and not without design, he paved the way for so much that was to follow, and he achieved this in less than a decade while running the aforementioned label and studio located at 706 Union Avenue, close to the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips attained only moderate results with discoveries such as Howlin'' Wolf, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and BB King, but he hit the jackpot with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.
A man who redefined the cultural landscape by producing and engineering local talent in his modest Southern studio and distributing the results on his own Sun Records label, he was one of the main people responsible for breaking down the barriers between white and black music, melding country with blues, and creating the genre that we now refer to as rock & roll. Sam Phillips, who died on Jat the age of 80, was one of the true musical pioneers of the 20th century. That not only affected this nation, it affected people around the world, and it absolutely had a lot to do with encouraging communication between people of different races." I'm taking nothing away from all of the other great independent labels, but what we did managed to cut through the segregation to such an extent that it was way beyond what I had even hoped we could do. "It changed the world, what we did at that little studio.
In an interview given towards the end of his life, he looked back on his work with greats like Elvis Presley, Howlin'' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, most of whom were unknowns before they signed to his Sun Records label. With the death of producer Sam Phillips the pop music industry has lost one of its greatest pioneers. Sam Phillips (far right) at the console in Sun Studios with (left to right) Elvis Presley, Bill Black and Scotty Moore.
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