About Wayne Perkins
Wayne Perkins is a blues and rock lead and studio guitar player and singer-songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama, who played on some of the most iconic records in the heyday of rock 'n' roll. He was called on in studios all over the country and the world in the late 1960s and '70s in a whirlwind of demand and travel to write, create and play that key chord, lead, riff or fill that could help a song become a hit, most notably Bob Marley and the Wailers. He recorded with them in London in the early '70s, where Perkins also got to try out for the Rolling Stones and record with them in Germany in 1974 and '75. He became friends with Keith Richards and Ron Wood, and his guitar work appears on two of the band's gold records.
In the early days, Perkins met Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd in Muscle Shoals. They became fast friends, and Van Zant tried to get him to join the band. He later appeared with Skynyrd on stage at Rickwood Field, and he is credited for guitar parts on two songs on the "First and Last" album, when the tracks recorded in Muscle Shoals Sound studio finally saw the light and were released.
He toured with Leon Russell longer than anyone else, with the possible exception of rock guitar pioneer Lonnie Mack, who mentored Perkins early in his career as a Swamper. The Swampers was a nickname coined by producer Denny Cordell during recording sessions for Leon Russell, reportedly due to the rhythm section's "funky, soulful Southern 'swamp' sound". Leon Russell picked up on it and used it to describe all the support studio musicians "cooking up the music" like a cook on a cattle drive, Perkins says.
Wayne also met and dated Joni Mitchell in the early 1970s in California, and appears on her iconic album "Court and Spark."
For more information, bios and stories about Wayne and those days, see the press-media and documentary film pages by clicking on the Hamburger Icon, top right.
Featured below is the first and only published version of the theme song for the upcoming film by the same name, Nobody Really Knows Me. Below that is a rare video indeed, an hour and a half set of Wayne Perkins at his best and his prime at the turn of the century in the year 2000 in a song writers jam in the Shoals.
In the early days, Perkins met Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd in Muscle Shoals. They became fast friends, and Van Zant tried to get him to join the band. He later appeared with Skynyrd on stage at Rickwood Field, and he is credited for guitar parts on two songs on the "First and Last" album, when the tracks recorded in Muscle Shoals Sound studio finally saw the light and were released.
He toured with Leon Russell longer than anyone else, with the possible exception of rock guitar pioneer Lonnie Mack, who mentored Perkins early in his career as a Swamper. The Swampers was a nickname coined by producer Denny Cordell during recording sessions for Leon Russell, reportedly due to the rhythm section's "funky, soulful Southern 'swamp' sound". Leon Russell picked up on it and used it to describe all the support studio musicians "cooking up the music" like a cook on a cattle drive, Perkins says.
Wayne also met and dated Joni Mitchell in the early 1970s in California, and appears on her iconic album "Court and Spark."
For more information, bios and stories about Wayne and those days, see the press-media and documentary film pages by clicking on the Hamburger Icon, top right.
Featured below is the first and only published version of the theme song for the upcoming film by the same name, Nobody Really Knows Me. Below that is a rare video indeed, an hour and a half set of Wayne Perkins at his best and his prime at the turn of the century in the year 2000 in a song writers jam in the Shoals.
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