FIVE THINGS ABOUT CHUCK BERRY

1 HE STUDIED HAIRDRESSING

Rock and roll legend Chuck Berry, known for his perfectly pomaded hair, once studied hairdressing. After a threeyear stint in reform school for his part in a bungled robbery, Berry worked for his father and on an auto assembly line while also pursuing his interest in coiffures.

2 HE WALKED LIKE A DUCK

Berry once told The Washington Post that he initiated his signature, rubber-legged “duck walk” at the Brooklyn Paramount theatre in 1956, based on a pose he sometimes struck as a child. “I had nothing else to do during the instrumental part of the song,” he said. “I did it, and here comes the applause.”

3 HE WAS JAILED TWICE

In 1959, Berry was arrested on a federal charge of taking a 14-year-old girl across state lines for immoral purposes. He claimed he didn’t know the girl’s age. He was convicted but granted an appeal on the basis of racist remarks made by the judge. A second trial also ended in a conviction. He eventually served 18 months of a three-year sentence. In 1979, he served four months for tax evasion.

4 JOHNNY B. GOODE WAS BLACK

Perhaps the most famous of all of Berry’s songs is Johnny B. Goode. “The gateway from freedom, I was told, was somewhere near New Orleans where most Africans were sorted through and sold” into slavery, Berry wrote in his self-titled 1987 memoir. “I’d been told my grandfather lived ‘back up in the woods among the evergreens’ in a log cabin. I revived the era with a story about a ‘coloured boy named Johnny B. Goode.’ ” However, “I thought it would seem biased to my white fans to say ‘coloured boy’ so I changed it to ‘country boy.’ ”

5 HIS MUSIC WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD

A recording of “Johnny B. Goode” was included on a disc launched into space on the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977.