Like a bowl of gumbo from his hometown of New Orleans, Dr. John is an amalgam of different flavors that make up an incredibly tasty dish. He has been known at various times as Malcolm, Dr. John Creaux, Mac, and Dr. John the Night Tripper and his music mixes rock, creole, funk, jazz, R&B and blues. He has played with Johnny Winter, the Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, John Lennon, Sonny and Cher, Van Morrison, The Band, B.B. King, Gregg Allman and Ringo Star. If that’s not enough, the musical festival Bonnaroo took its name from one of his songs.

Dr. John was born Malcolm John Rebennack in the Third Ward of New Orleans today in 1940. His father owned a store that did a little of everything, including selling records and renting and repairing appliances and audio equipment. Young Mac, as folks called him then, was exposed to the local music scene through his father’s store and he started playing guitar before he was ten. In his early teens he became friends with local piano legend Professor Longhair and Mac blossomed under his tutelage.

Mac soon started playing in area clubs which caused some static with the priests at his high school. He ended up dropping out and at 16 he started working as a producer at a local record label while continuing to perform live and play back up on songs he produced. He expanded his range and started playing bass and piano in addition to guitar. Mac also expanded his involvement in area rackets including selling dope and prostitution.

He was sent to prison in Texas on drug charges in the early 1960s and upon release a few years later he returned to New Orleans. In 1965 the local District Attorney started cracking down on the raucous atmosphere in New Orleans so Mac said, "Il faut je fais route", and moved to Los Angeles. It was in LA that Mac turned into Dr. John and went from hustler-musician to rock and roll icon.

Mac joined the legendary session musicians The Wrecking Crew and played on a number of Phil Specter hits. Also at this time he started playing with a number of other New Orleans ex-pats and he fashioned a new persona for himself.  Mac was now a psychedelic voodoo character called Dr. John Creaux or Dr. John the Night Tripper and he released an album under this name called “Gris-Gris”. The music was like nothing else out there and Dr. John cooked up a stage show to match as he took to dressing in elaborate costumes that would make Elton John look like a chimney sweep.

Songs like “Mama Roux”, “I Walk on Gilded Splinters” and “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” took the listener straight to the humid, debauched back alley streets of Dr. John’s hometown. He started attracting an underground following and continued to add fans with albums in 1969, “Babylon”, and 1970, “Remedies”. By the time “The Sun, Moon & Herbs” came in 1971 the underground following had swelled to include Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, both of whom appeared on the album.

Dr. John continued to release an album each year through 1975. “In the Right Place” came in 1973 and was his most successful album and included his only true hit, “Right Place Wrong Time”. In 1974 he teamed up with the renowned funk outfit The Meters for arguably his best album, “Desitively Bonnaroo”. Almost 30 years later the founders of an ambitious new music festival were looking to capture the magic of the New Orleans they knew from their college days and took the name for the festival from Dr. John’s song of the same name.

Since the 1970s Dr. John has reinvented himself many times over without ever forgetting where he came from. He’s battled the scourge of addiction and survived to be an elder statesman of rock with roots in its earliest days. He has played with everyone from Etta James to Frank Zappa and Carly Simon to Carlos Santana. He was the inspiration for Dr. Teeth on the Muppet Show and has appeared on television shows ranging from Starsky and Hutch and NCIS: New Orleans. Dr. John has won six Grammys was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

“Loop Garoo” off the album “Remedies” 1970:

One for the bass players: “Black John the Conqueror” off the album “The Sun, Moon & Herbs” 1971:

“Iko Iko” off the album “Dr. John’s Gumbo” 1972:

“Right Place Wrong Time” off the album “In the Right Place” 1973:

“Desitively Bonnaroo” off the album “Desitively Bonnaroo” 1974: