At 82-years-old, the musical force known as Swamp Dogg – real name Jerry Williams – reflects upon a lifetime spent in the music industry as a singer, songwriter, A&R man, performer, record producer…and subject of a new documentary.
Just 12 years old when his first song, HTD Blues, was played on the radio, he has been described as “one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music”. Today he gets his dues in Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson’s documentary, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, says he still has much more to achieve:
Q: As Little Jerry Williams you had many hit songs. Why did you change your name to Swamp Dogg in 1970?
SWAMP: I became Swamp Dogg in order to have an alter-ego and someone to occupy the body while the search party was out looking for Jerry Williams, who was mentally missing in action due to certain pressures and failure to get paid royalties on over fifty single records!
I was also tired of being a jukebox and being an R’n’B second banana. I wanted to sing about everything and anything and not be pigeonholed. So I came up with the name Dogg because a dog can do anything, and anything a dog does never comes as a real surprise. If he sleeps on the sofa, shits on the rug, chews up your slippers, humps your mother-in-law’s leg, jumps on your new clothes and licks your face, he’s never gotten out of character. You understand what he did and make allowances for him but your love for him never diminishes.
Q: What’s with you and rats? The cover of your 1971 Rat On! album, featured you on the back of a giant white rat – and now you have a giant rat painted on the bottom of your swimming pool!
SWAMP: It was supposed to be that the Black man had finally gotten his deserves – which was the white rat. And you might not notice that the rat has a smile on his face? And it’s because he’s saying to the Black man who’s on top: Hey, let him have his fun. Ain’t nothing to it. He’s not gonna be up there long. That was the whole concept.
Q: You also got sued over the album?
SWAMP: Yeah, I stuck a song in there, “God Bless America for What?” and got sued by the Irving Berlin foundation. So that one has followed me around my entire career as Swamp Dogg.
Q: And the rat brought you further notoriety?
SWAMP: The rat has made that album live on, because, from the very beginning, it started getting ranked as the worst album cover ever made – and every year since then, I’ve been in the top five of the worst album covers ever – which is great.
Q: We learn about your extraordinary life and famous friends in the documentary. But, for you, what is your fondest memory?
SWAMP: It has to be hearing my first record on the radio, HTD Blues – which stood for Heartsick, Troublesome, Down out Blues. I was 12 years old, and DJ Jack Holmes at W.R.A.P in Norfolk, Virginia, started playing it every night on his show. And then when I’d go to school, there’d be so many students saying, “I heard your record last night!” I think that would be the highlight.
Want to know more about Swamp Dogg? Check out this trailer:
Q: Did you always want to be in the music business?
SWAMP: I believe so. When I was growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia, the main thing everybody wanted to do was graduate and get a job at the Navy Yard. And my mother had set me up at the Navy Yard to be a pipe fitter. I didn’t even know what the hell a pipe fitter does – but it sounds dirty – so I knew I didn’t want to do that.
Q: They say that behind every successful man is a strong woman – and that would be your wife Yvonne who was also your business manager until her death. How did you meet?
SWAMP: I was working at a club called The Postal Card in Philadelphia. I cleaned up the club when it closed and I was also singing there. I was holding an audition when Yvonne came in. She had studied opera, and couldn’t pull off the type of stuff I was doing. But I felt a magnetism to her. She just got my juices flowing and I think I fell in love with her when we first met. So we hooked up, and that was it.
She had been married before, a real abusive marriage, and had four girls. And I thought it was great. I raised those girls, and I loved them. I still love them. Of course, people said: You got a ready-made family blah blah blah, and I said: Hey, go to hell. I loved her and therefore, I love these children. And they were all under six, right on down to one year old. We got married in 1962.
Q: And you had a daughter together, neurologist Dr Jeri Williams whom we meet in the movie?
SWAMP: Yeah, right. Yvonne kept saying: I want to have a boy for you. But I didn’t need a boy because, being raised by strong women, I wasn’t trying to play football and baseball. I was in the kitchen, learning how to cook and do housework. I even knew how to iron so it was easy ironing their dresses and stuff.
Q: You have friends of all ages and we see your pals Johnny Knoxville and Snoop Dogg in the documentary. Does surrounding yourself with younger folk help keep you young at heart?
SWAMP: There’s a lot of old people around me also, and I like that because we can relate to each other.
Q: You’ve enjoyed a lot of success – at one point living in a Long Island mansion with nine cars and a private plane. But it didn’t bring you happiness?
SWAMP: Well, success really doesn’t mean a thing. It can be swept away before nightfall. It just gave me a whole lot more to worry about. And I’m a person that if I start worrying, it just goes on and on and on. There’s no end to it. I’ll say: I bet this is going to happen. Or: I don’t think that’s gonna happen and all that kind of stuff. It ages you.
Q: What’s your secret to aging with attitude?
SWAMP: I’ve learned not to worry too much, and that helps me a lot. I can just about laugh at anything, or smile at least, and keep going. Now I got this heavy belief in God but I don’t push God on folks, just like I don’t like people pushing their religions on me. God and I have got our own relationship.
But still, worry has a way of coming from all directions that you don’t expect. So be ready for it and just have your mind on what you want to do…I’ve learned to take that ‘worrying energy’ and put it someplace else that can do you some good. And work on whatever I feel I want to accomplish instead.
SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED is now playing in LA at the Nuart & in NY at IFC Center.
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Gill Pringle began her career as a rock columnist for popular British newspapers, traveling the world with Madonna, U2 and Michael Jackson. Moving to Los Angeles 27 years ago, she interviews film and TV personalities for prestigious UK outlets, The Independent, The i-paper and The Sunday Times – and, of course, Senior Planet. A member of Critics Choice Association, BAFTA and AWFJ, she wrote the screenplay for 2016 Netflix family film, The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure. An award-winning writer, in 2021 she was honored by the Los Angeles Press Club with 1st prize at the NAEJ Awards.
