09/28/2025
"I never liked front men," Dr. John recalled in 2011. "I never felt any different after I became one. The idea of what front men become is kinda obnoxious."
Neither was he convinced that his voice was suited for singing. "I said, 'Whaddya mean me? I can't sing.' And (Harold Battiste) said, 'Look, if Bob Dylan and Sonny and Cher can sing, you can sing.' I thought it would be a one-off deal and then I'd go back to producing records. It didn't happen."
In January 1968, Atco Records released his debut album, “Gris-Gris.” On the album cover, Rebennack was billed as “Dr. John, the Night Tripper”; his songwriter credits inside identified him as “Dr. John Creaux.”
Recorded in Los Angeles with Battiste producing, “Gris-Gris” was a spooky synthesis of New Orleans music and psychedelic rock. It concluded with “I Walk on Guilded Splinters,” one of his signature songs. Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name “Gris-Gris” one of the 500 best albums of all time.
In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Rebennack fully embraced the voodoo trappings of his Night Tripper persona. Onstage, he wore elaborate headdresses and was sometimes accompanied by a live snake. He s**ttered glitter from a pouch, much to the chagrin of Gregg Allman, who once recalled having to clean the "magic dust" from his keyboards after sharing a bill with Dr. John.
Rebennack wrote and recorded essential chapters in the New Orleans music canon. Over the years, he became one of the city's most enduring, respected and iconoclastic musicians and cultural figures. He was a prominent member of the pantheon of New Orleans piano legends, part of a direct lineage that included Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Huey “Piano” Smith, Allen Toussaint and Art Neville.
Source: Keith Spera / The Advocate
Photo: Kevin Mazur
