Never saw a man so changed," is how the great Carl Perkins described the experience of touring England in 1964 alongside Chuck Berry.
"He had been an easygoing guy before, the kinda guy who'd jam in dressing rooms, sit and swap licks and jokes. [But] in England he was cold, real distant and bitter."
The "before" to which Perkins referred was the four-year period from 1956 to 1959, when Berry established his reputation as one of rock and roll's founding fathers, not only turning out such classic hits as "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode," but also establishing the very template that nearly every rock and roll guitarist after him would follow.
What had changed Chuck Berry, in Perkins' opinion, was partly the long, hard grind of years and years of one-night-only live performances, but, as Perkins also said, "I figure it was mostly jail."