Eddie Bond - Rockabilly Singer (1933 - 2013)

In the mid-1950s, Eddie Bond recorded for Mercury Records and toured with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Warren Smith and others.

He was known as the "Tennessee Legend Maker" but Eddie Bond was a legendary figure in his own right. A musician, radio deejay and station owner, cult TV star, wrestling promoter, nightclub impresario, record label head — even a police chief — he was an old time showman and promoter in the truest sense: part P.T. Barnum, part hillbilly oracle.

In his more than half century as a Mid-South mover and shaker, Mr. Bond was many things: a slicked-back rockabilly cat with a country heart; a sharp wheeler-dealer with a silver tongue; a canny trend-watcher with a keen eye for talent.

He gave early career boosts to everyone from future guitar greats like Travis Wammack and Reggie Young — who he discovered as kids — to Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, who got their start as the house band at Mr. Bond's Diplomat Club. Mr. Bond earned his legend-making reputation by bringing the story of McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser to light and launching the career of wrestling icon Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Born in South Memphis in 1933, Mr. Bond flashed the moxie that would mark his career early on, winning his first guitar by selling the most garden seed in a local competition.

As a child, Mr. Bond practiced and played until his fingers bled, aping the styles of the country music stars of the day, particularly Hank Williams and George Morgan.

After high school and a stint in the Navy, Mr. Bond worked a variety of jobs in town, eventually joining his father as a paint salesman. It was around this time, in 1952, that Mr. Bond formed his original band, the Stompers, playing hot country swing music in local bars for several years. One tale that persisted from this period was that Mr. Bond had rejected a young Elvis Presley as the singer for his band, telling him to "stick to driving a truck." Mr. Bond would always deny the story.

By the mid-1950s, country music was fading commercially, rock and roll was taking off, and Mr. Bond followed the trends. After failing to win over Sam Phillips at Sun, he got a deal with the tiny Ekko Records label out of Hollywood. His first single did well enough to attract the attention of Mercury Records, who quickly signed him. Mr. Bond's musical reputation would come to rest on the dozen or so blazing rockabilly sides he cut for Mercury between 1956 and 1958, among them genre classics like "Rockin' Daddy," "Slip Slip Slippin' In" and "Bopin' Bonnie." Click Here to hear Rockin’ Daddy

Later in the decade, Mr. Bond would land a job as a disc jockey on Memphis' KWAM. "It was a full-time country station," he recalled in 2007. "They'd just (increased) to 10,000 watts of power so they was blowin' and goin' then." For the next 17 years, Mr. Bond would remain at the station — ultimately becoming its manager — and using the radio gig as the platform for his show business activities.

Into the '60s, Mr. Bond also continued making music, but returned to his first love, country. He recorded for several major labels and larger independents, as well as various labels of his own, among them Stomper Time, Diplomat and Advance. He would also produce dozens of local bands and singers for his own imprints.

During this time, Mr. Bond also became a nightclub entrepreneur. Over the years he ran several notable hot spots in and around Memphis including The Little Black Book, The Eddie Bond Ranch, The Diplomat and the Southern Frontier, the latter of which he co-owned with wrestling promoter Jackie Fargo. Mr. Bond and Fargo set Lawler up with a small sign-painting business next door to their club, and helped midwife his birth as a professional wrestler.

In the early '70s, Mr. Bond made another of his great discoveries in the form of Sheriff Buford Pusser, the former wrestler turned lawman who'd fought an infamous and bloody war against moonshiners and gamblers in McNairy County. Mr. Bond would record an album of Pusser-inspired songs for Stax's Enterprise label. Mr. Bond even served as the police chief of tiny Finger, Tenn., Pusser's birthplace. Pusser's story eventually became a major motion picture hit… “Walking Tall”.

In the mid-to-late-'70s, with Great Britain in the midst of a rockabilly revival, Mr. Bond became a star once again overseas. Promoter Dave Travis began bringing Mr. Bond over to perform and the two men sparked a friendship.

Mr. Bond would eventually sell the entire catalog of Stomper Time and his various labels to Travis. Over the last quarter century, Travis has released a trove of historically important compilations documenting the music of the Mid-South, under the Stomper Time imprimatur, including several Bond retrospectives. Mr. Bond continued to perform into the 2000s — often at events like the Center for Southern Folklore's Music and Heritage festival — until his health began to fail in recent years.

"He passed peacefully," said Gladys Bond, his wife of nearly 60 years. Mr. Bond died from complications of Alzheimer's disease and dementia at his home in Bolivar, Tennessee.