Johnny Cash had ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ idea

Several recording artists were raised on a farm and were forced to quit school to work in the fields in order to help support their family.

Tiptonville, Tennessee is the home of one such artist who remembers picking cotton at age 11 on his family farm to support his family when his dad could not work after having a lung removed.

The young man was Carl Perkins – who years later – in 1956 – would write and record a song that would place near the top of the country – pop – and rhythm & blues music charts.

According to Carl, he and his brothers played music whenever they could find the time while working on the family dairy farm. The three brothers also worked in a bakery and a battery manufacturing plant – any job they could get to help support the family.

The brothers called themselves The Perkins Brothers and began performing at local functions with Carl’s brothers Jay playing rhythm guitar and Clayton playing drums.

The brothers recorded a home demo tape and mailed it to Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, who granted the trio an audition and signed them to a recording contract. Phillips released two singles on Sun Records which which became popular locally but nothing more.

They began playing shows with Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

According to Carl, “During a show in Parkins, Arkansas, we were backstage with Johnny Cash and John told me that I should write a song about “Blue Suede Shoes.”

According to Cash he got the idea as a joke in the army when soldiers in the chow line would tell other guys “don’t step on my blue suede shoes” even though everybody was wearing combat boots.

During a dance a few weeks later Carl overheard a guy tell his dance partner “Hey - don’t step on my blue suede shoes.” And that time the idea hit him to write the song and just how to put it together.

Carl commented “I didn’t have any paper or a pencil and all I could find was a brown potato sack with three potatoes in it. I dumped those three potatoes in a corner – borrowed a pen and wrote “Blue Suede Shoes” on the back of that brown tater sack.”

Perkins’ Sun Records single “Blue Suede Shoes” was released New Years Day in 1956 and by March it was near the top of all three music charts – pop, country and rhythm & blues – and had sold more than one million copies.

While enroute to New York to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, Carl and his brothers were involved in a serious auto accident which killed Carl’s manager and left Carl unconscious for three days plus a fractured shoulder and broken ribs. One of Carl’s brothers later died from injury complications.

After a bout with depression, Carl recovered to place 15 songs on the country music charts between 1956 and 1987, six of which also placed on the pop charts.

Carl Perkins died in 1998.