Gary James' Interview With
Screamin' Jay Hawkins



Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a true Rock 'n' Roll original. He was into Theatrical Rock way back in the '50s, before anybody even knew what it was. Screamin' Jay was wearing the outrageous costumes and utilizing stage props, all as part of his act. Probably best known for his song, "I Put A Spell On You", Hawkins would sing that song, and then be carried offstage in a flaming coffin. Screamin' Jay has got some new product on the market. Titled "Black Music For White People", the CD is the first release on the just revived Bizarre label, distributed by Rhino Records.

Q - Mr. Hawkins - "Black Music For White People," where did you come up with a title like that?

A - Correction: that was not my idea. It was not my decision. It was mentioned to me in the office and I gave my opinion then. " I don't like it, I'm not crusading. I'm not campaigning any particular cause. I'm not prejudiced, nor am I bigoted. I judge people by what they say and do, and not by the color of their skin. Please don't bring that old, ancient b.s. prejudice that has happened in this country back in the '30s and '40s to my attention now. This is the '90s. I don't want to hear it."

Q - After telling the record company all that, who then would turn around and put the album out with that title?

A - On the album it says, "Executive Producer, Under Duress, Herb Cohen." Herb Cohen's idea was to have it printed like that, and have the front of the cover, "Black Music For Whites Only". They attacked me in Japan last year about this. I said, "Did you put any money into Herb Cohen's office or Bizarre Records'?" They said, yeah, we put $10,000. I said, "Then change the title. Change it to Screamin' Jay in '91."

Q - I consulted my Rolling Stone Rock 'n' Roll Encyclopedia about you. Have you ever seen a copy of it?

A - No, I haven't, sir. I wish I had a copy of that book. I don't know anybody that's written anything about me that's been accurate or correct.

Q - Rolling Stone writes, "Screamin' Jay Hawkins was known more for his flamboyant dress and onstage shenanigans than for his singing or piano and sax playing."

A - That's exactly correct.

Q - So you were the guy who introduced theatrics into Rock 'n' Roll?

A - In the '40s, when people thought it was stupid and unheard of, I was the guy walking the streets in yellow suits with blue striped polka dots. It was unheard of to wear these kinds of clothes. I was the guy that David Bowie and Alice Cooper concocted their weird macabre act. I was the guy a lot of people stole from. And people ask me, "How do you feel when people are stealing part of your act?" To me, that's the highest form of flattery. The most tragic thing about this is what happens when I die? Those fools ain't got nobody to think for 'em..

Q - You were just ahead of your time.

A - That's what they told me. I walked out of this business for twenty years, and I went to Hawaii and stayed from '58 to '78. I traveled back and forth, but I was living in Hawaii. I would never sing in Hawaii. I was a master of ceremonies at a strip tease show. I would go away from Hawaii to sing. But, I went there in order to get my head together, until I thought the world was ready for me. And it was while I was still in Hawaii that my record residuals came in so thick because of Arthur Brown, Manfred Mann, Alan Price, Nina Simone, Creedence Clearwater Revivial. Everybody started singing, "I Put A Spell On You", and I said maybe they're ready for me. Let me go back.

Q - Why do you think there is still interest in both your career and music after all these years?

A - Because I chose to be different, and I stuck by my guns even if it meant I lost work. I went through the ridicule of being called a clown, a fool, an exaggerated idiot. In France, they called me the fiance of Frankenstein. In Germany, they called me the lover of demons. I said they've got their nerve. Transylvania is in their country. That's where the vampires came out of. That's where they made Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula. And, they are extremely prejudiced and they're scared to death of me when I walk down the street with Henry, my skull. So, I said, hey Jay, use it. It'll help you go to the bank.

Q - You were quite a boxer in your day. Was that your first career?

A - That was my first money-making career. I had 217 fights, and I never lost a fight. But on my last fight, number 217, when I was fighting for the middleweight championship of Alaska, it was a 15-round fight, and the guy never laid a glove on me until the very last round, and that was because I knew the fight was in the pocket. I had won the championship. I made $64,000 that night. I was in the corner, when the bell rang. I stood up, I stuck my finger between the ropes and I pointed at the girl, and said, wait for me, it's only a 3-minute round. The girl said, "Ya better watch him, he's comin' across the ring". When I turned to look, he was on me. When I went to pull my hand, it was between the ropes and the ropes kept me from defending my right side of my body. The man damn near killed me. I was almost on one knee, when the bell rang. I did not want to go down and the ropes kept me from going down. That's the way it ended, and I walked away with the belt, and the money.

Q - In all the years you were boxing, did you ever hurt your hands?"

A - Never.

Q - You were featured on the Alan Freed shows. What kind of a guy was Alan Freed?

A - Freed, to me, and I talked to Chuck Berry about this, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Big Joe Turner, and we all tried to figure out Freed. When I came home from leave in the Army to Cleveland, there was this guy who we thought was a Black man. And in those days, the only way you heard Black artists was on a Black radio station, and every city, in every state had their own black radio station. And here we hear this man's voice playin' Black music on a White radio station. So, we thought it was a Black man who had gotten a job as a disc jockey, calling himself Moondog, with a bunch of wolves howling. To us in the business, when I finally got in the business, we looked at Alan Freed as though he was the second coming of Jesus Christ, the coming of Messiah to those of us who were Black in show business. The one thing he did, that all of the police forces in the world couldn't do, he brought Blacks and Whites together, not fighting, but dancing. And, that's what started American Bandstand, with this clean-cut looking Pat Boone-like dude named Dick Clark. But, he didn't want Blacks to come on the show and dance with the White kids. But Alan Freed started it when he started his Rock 'n' Roll show called 'Rock 'n' Roll.' And, because of that, riots broke out, and that's because of the police brutality. There was no fighting. They were dancing. The only place they had to dance was in the aisle ways because we were in theaters now. They were having fun, and the police came in swinging their billy clubs and that's how the riots began. I know. I saw the very first show that Alan Freed ever put on. I was one of the very fortunate Black artists who ever met the man.

Q - When did you get the idea to use a coffin in your act?

A - That coffin idea was Alan Freed's, not mine. He decided that I should come on the stage, come out of the coffin, singing "I Put A Spell On You". He made sure I was on all his shows, his TV show and motion picture.

Q - Weren't you scared of being in a coffin?

A - Frightened to death, because a Black man don't get into a coffin unless he's got nothing to say about it. In other words, he's dead. That's why, it's in my will today, cremate me, not once, but twice. I have two coffins here, and wherever I go, people want me to do the coffin act, and I say no. Now, if you want to add $4,000 - $5,000 to it, maybe I'll do it, 'cause that's putting my life on the line.

Q - Were you ever locked in the coffin, because the lid wouldn't open?

A - Sir, I have been locked in the coffin in 1956, on the Apollo stage, by the original Drifters, that Clyde McPhatter had. The Charlie Thomas Drifters, that's the name of them now. I spent close to half an hour going around that theater punching out every one of 'em once I did get free of that coffin. When the coffin wouldn't open, I thought maybe I was drunk or wrong. I turned right, left. I stomped, I banged my head, then I said, "My God, I'm locked in here." Next thing I knew I was actually shedding tears. I had my bladder busted. I had on a white tuxedo, my bowels gave loose. I was kicking and moving and the thing fell off the display stand. When it hit the floor, it automatically just broke open. And everybody was dying laughing, thinking it was part of the act. Charlie and them thought it was such a funny thing. My fist went right into his mouth, trying to knock out every tooth in his mouth. The audience to this day still thinks it was part of the act.

Q - When you use the coffin today, do you have a way out?

A - I own my coffins now. I've had the locks soldered where they can't lock.

Q - Where did the Screamin' part of your name come from?

A - A woman in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1949, when I came home from a furlough. I had joined this show and they wanted an emcee and a Blues singer. I was singin' the Blues one night doin' "Sixty Minute Man" by Billy Ward And The Dominoes, and this woman was sitting at a table all by herself. She must've weighed at least 500 pounds. She kept bangin' on the table, and this bottle of J and B went up in the air, and came right back down and not one eye dropper of alcohol came out of that bottle. She kept hollering, "Scream Jay, scream." My name was just Jay Hawkins then. So I liked it, Screamin' Jay Hawkins. That's it, why should I try to be a singer, why don't I just scream, and that's the way the whole thing was born. And Alan Freed came along and put the coffin into it. After that, I started sticking bones in my nose, wearing all different types of colored shoes, socks, and everything else. The rest is history.

Q - Do you consider your music Rock 'n' Roll?

A - I consider my music entertainment, comedy. I consider it weird. I consider myself a little bit different.

Q - What year did "I Put A Spell On You" come out, and how high did it get on the charts?

A - Well, you're gonna run across a lot of doubters here and a lot of argumentative people. The first version came out in 1949, and it was a version where there were no screams, grunts or groans. It was just a sweet, little old ballad. When it came out again in 1952, on Columbia Records, then that's when they put it out on a subsiding label of theirs called Okay. On my session, they got everybody drunk. It was a picnic; I had to do something different with the song. I like it, but I don't like the way it was first made. We were gonna make a version that would make people forget the first version. The first version was only out two weeks and they junked that sucker. I don't know what they did with the master. I kept a copy, and then I made a tape cassette out of it, so it would last, 'cause in those days it was only 78 records. I don't remember making the original, the second version of "Spell", that I was actually drunk on. I don't remember going home. I understand the sucker sold 2 1/2 million. Then I understand the NAACP jumped in and said the song was making fun of Black people. The minute they banned it, it sold another 2 1/2 million. That's a total of 5 million records. I don't get the credit for it, but it damn sure was in the charts.

Q - You toured with Fats Domino in the mid-'50s. What was he like?

A - He was a pompous, conceited, self-centered ass. Fats was mad 'cause I was getting as much applause as him.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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