Read Online A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren - Free Book Online Page B

regarded as weirdos. Alex was failing and had to go to the principal’s office because of his grades.” Though he palled around with Pat, Dixie, and Carole, Alex’s attentions were focused on Kokie Bechtold.
    Adopted as an infant by a Central Gardens family, Kokie was just as pretty as his previous girlfriends, Carole and Louise, and wore her dark hair in a trendy pageboy parted on the side. Kokie also had a wild streak; she’d already discovered pot, much to Alex’s delight. Soon she was sneaking into Alex’s room at night, or he was slipping out to meet her. It wasn’t long into their romance that Alex lost his virginity. He would fondly remember his time with Kokie—“I was getting laid, and she was the first one, and that was pretty cool”—and a decade later still compare other girlfriends to her.
    At home Alex’s increasingly dark moods and aggression began to cause problems and concern. In December, when Howard returned from college, he and Alex got into a fight over who had the most Christmas spirit, according to Dale Tuttle. Alex shoved the chubby, somewhat effete Howard, who fell and broke his arm. The Devilles had discovered that Alex had “an explosive temper,” says Danny Smythe. “He could really get bent out of shape about something, but we just kind of treated it like a joke.”
    The venues where the Devilles performed were much larger than any stage on which he’d previously appeared, but he adapted quickly, occasionally getting stoned before going onstage. To differentiate themselves from their previous incarnation, Russ, Danny, John, and Richard wanted to rename the group the New Devilles. Alex wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. “We told Alex, ‘When we open the show, you introduce us as the New Devilles.’ He didn’t want to do that, but we convinced him to,” says Russ, “so he walked up to the microphone, looked right at me, pulled the mic close to his mouth, and said, ‘Hello, everybody, we’re the
NEW
Devilles.’” That was the last time that name was ever used. And it marked the beginning of Alex’s onstage sarcasm.
    From the outset Alex took to the stage like a natural. “He was a great front man, a great performer, very active and mobile,” Russ says. “He had a strut to his walk when he was onstage. He would pick out the three or four girls who were closest to the front and perform for them, and everybody else was superfluous. He later told me, ‘I’ll pick the three or four that are diggin’ on me the most, and I’ll work them, and everybody else gets the show for free.’”
    By early April ’67, Roy Mack had determined that the band was ready to return to American with their new lead singer. “Let’s see how you sound on a recording,” he told Alex before booking time with Chips Moman. Georgia native Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman had hitchhiked to Memphis as a fifteen-year-old guitar prodigy and connected with rockabilly pioneers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette (“Train Kept a-Rollin’”), with whom he played lead on a tour to California. He then took over guitar duties for former child star Brenda Lee, followed by a stint with teen idol Ricky Nelson, replacing James Burton (who would go on to play with Elvis Presley and Gram Parsons). After some ups and downs Chips returned to Memphis and began working with Jim Stewart, for whom he discovered the defunct movie theater on McLemore that became Stax Records’ home. There he worked as house producer on the Mar-Keys’ “Last Night” and other recordings. Following the success of “Gee Whiz,” Chips fell out with Stewart over money and eventually founded American Recording Studios, taking on a new business partner, Don Crews. A boxlike, one-story brick building painted white, the studio was located at 827 Thomas Street, at the corner of Chelsea. American was one of only a few businesses in a run-down, primarily black neighborhood in North Memphis.
    Moman was nicknamed Chips “due to his talent for