I met Chuck a few different times. His reputation for being ornery and thorny was well deserved, as was his reputation for merely phoning many of those gigs in.
That being said, I discovered that showing the guy even the merest bit of real respect (I would call him Mr. Berry) allowed me to share a couple of lengthy, and really remarkable and fun conversations about everything from his own love of the roots music that inspired him, to the actual inspiration of the legendary souped up jitney.
I was also quite fortunate enough to see him on a few occasions with his own band featuring the truly legendary Johnny Johnson on piano. With his own band, Chuck would simply tear the house down.
Yeah, I saw plenty if the not so great shows as well, but to quote Lord Buckley here, when he laid it down, it STAID down.
