The first time I heard Carl Perkins I was 15 years old. It was his Sun Sessions recording from 1956. I was playing music, mainly in my folks' garage in our suburban home in Massapequa, New York. It was a long way from Memphis and a long, long way from 1956, but the music moved me, it hit me right between the eyes. Up to that point I had only heard Carl Perkins' music secondhand, from the Beatles and Elvis. The energy, joy and sheer happiness of the sound spoke to me, I was inspired and I have to say that Carl's music changed my life.

Over the next few months, I hooked up with two friends who were also discovering rockabilly music. We played Carl's records until we wore the black off the vinyl and we based some of our sound on the foundation that Perkins had built. We eventually became the Stray Cats, and throughout our career together we played some of Carl's songs at hundreds of our concerts. While on tour in 1983, the Cats had a show at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, which was a dream come true in itself, but the real dream that came true that night was when we finished our concert and ran back onstage to play an encore. Mr. Carl Perkins came walking out onto the stage, smiling, holding his guitar. He came up to us and introduced himself and launched into a blistering version of "Blue Suede Shoes." I was playing with my idol onstage at the Grand Ole Opry!

Over the next 15 years Carl and I would play together many times, and I was always happy as a kid on Christmas morning when the phone would ring with an invitation to play a concert or session with him. One of those calls came in 1986, to fly to London to play a TV show called "Carl Perkins And Friends, A Rockabilly Session." Carl also called George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Dave Edmunds, Roseanne Cash and Slim Jim Phantom. We spent about a week rehearsing for the show and I remember Harrison standing next to me, peeking through a window into the studio, looking at Perkins and saying, "Oh my God, it's Carl Perkins!"

He was the ultimate in cool. Carl included me in these concerts not just musically but spiritually and he told me, "This is our music." This is something he repeated to me many times over the years. He had a way with people that made them feel great. The dignity, the class, the charisma he possessed as a person was the equal to the greatness of the music he played. I developed a stock answer to for the press and critics who would occasionally say, "You're from New York--do you play real rockabilly music?" or "You're not from the South--you can't be the real thing." My stock response was, "Carl Perkins thinks we are." They would never be able to answer that.

In the last 12 months, I was able to get a few more of those calls from the man. I was asked to play on Go Cat Go, Carl's last recording. John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and others guested with Carl on these sessions. We spent days working at Sun Studios in Memphis, where rock 'n' roll was born and everything began. We also recorded in LA as well as doing "The Tonight Show" together and a gig at House Of Blues. I hold these memories close and think about them often. After these shows, Carl asked me to be his musical director and record producer for a TV special and CD he was planning. I guess I had graduated from Carl's rock 'n' roll school. We spent a lot of time talking about the show and how we should do it. Carl spoke about the early days, playing in the honky tonks with his brothers. He talked about the fights, the dancing and the fun of the
music before rock had become an industry run by businessmen. Carl wanted to recapture that feeling of joy and innocence.

Tragically, that show would never take place, but Perkins captured that feeling every time he would pick up a guitar and walk onstage. Friday, January 23 I attended my friend's funeral. The entire town of Jackson, Tennessee was in mourning. People lined the streets and cried as the procession drove by. Flags were flown at half mast and the sky was slate gray. Thousands of people converged on the chapel where tribute music was being played by Wynona Judd, Ricky Skaggs and George Harrison. Sam Phillips, Rufus Thomas, the governor of Tennessee and all the rest of us cried, sang and laughed and shared our memories of Carl Perkins. Millions of people have been touched by Carl Perkins, from the children at The Perkins Center For The Prevention Of Child Abuse to his family, friends and fans.

Carl Perkins will live forever. He is part of the fabric of America. The King is dead but he's not gone. I will miss you, Carl. Go cat go!