Part 1 ~ Johnny Rebel Interview JR-Johnny Rebel MJR-Mrs. Johnny Rebel YTN-Your Trusty Narrator (That's me.) YTN-Alright. How did the whole thing get started? How did Rebel Records come  about? JR-Well, Rebel Records first got started...The first thing on it was Flight  NAACP 105, released by a friend of mine, he was from Mississippi-I believe  he's now deceased-but he came up with the idea for this Flight 105. (This  refers, of course, to the Son of Mississippi.) Have you ever heard it? YTN-Yeah. Yeah, I've got it. JR-Okay. Well, that was just his own idea, I guess. He came up with this  thing, you know, and there was a lot of racial tension at that time. So, that  came out....and we listened to that, you know, and another friend of mine  named Dago ------- asked me to write something about the Cajun Ku Klux  Klan...but he called it Klu, which is a misnomer. It's not the real word.  It's supposed to be Ku Klux Klan, not Klu....I don't know why they ended up  putting K-L-U... YTN-Does it say that? On the record? JR-Yeah. On the record. It's K-L-U... YTN-I'll be damned. I never even noticed. Sure is. So  it's actually  misprinted on every record? JR-Oh yeah...But they spelled it that way. I never did ask them if it was  intentional...but that's the way they spelled it. That's the way Dago pronounced the word. Klu... JR-Anyway, so I went home and wrote something. I brought it back, and gave it  to him and Jay(Miller)... they were both excited about it, but they needed a  flipside. So, I went on back home and I wrote Lookin' For A Handout...Well,  we put that on the other side, and Handout turned out to be the A side. We  put that out, and it started selling so well, that I started to writing some  other stuff... YTN-And what year was that when ya'll(Yes. I say "ya'll") made the first  Rebel Record? JR-That would have been 1966...There were 3 of us who recorded on the Rebel... YTN-And James Crow? JR-I didn't know James Crow, and in the days when I was doing that, I didn't know a thing about James Crow. YTN-So, during what years did you record your records for Rebel Records? JR-That would have been between about 1966, and 68, or 69. YTN-And do you know what year the lp came out in? JR-Oh, the lp?...Mr. Miller put that together later on,uh...I don't really  know what year. YTN-Cause you know, I noticed it's comprised of songs off only the first 7  singles, so I thought it was made after the first seven were made? JR-No, I believe that was done after everything was released. Then he made an album. YTN-Do you know how many of each individual singles were made? MJR-(Laughs at question in background. Apparently, the bookeeping was such, that such a question was laughable.) JR-Well, okay. All I can tell you is this....when this stuff first came out,  it was hot stuff, I mean...hundreds and hundreds of them...sent to each location at the beginning. I know Joe...he got a silver record for it. The Son of Mississippi. Then Happy Fats had that Dear Mr. President, and it sold  good...but in my opinion it mostly sold on the strength of the other  records...they just went along as a group. Then he got a silver record for  it. That's a hundred thousand copies. That was a lot of records back then.  Then mine come along, and it started selling real hot, so...Mr. Miller asked me if I wanted a silver record. I said, "Has it sold a hundred thousand copies?" He said, "Not quite." So I said I didn't want it. YTN-Did it ever sell a hundred thousand copies? JR-Oh yeah. I didn't want mine till it did, though. And, you know I got  another gold record out of Canada up there. (Points to gold record on wall.)  That's a French song. That's a Canadian gold. It sold 250,000. 100,00 is a Canadian gold. I wrote that song for ----------------------. YTN-What year did Mr. Miller die, by the way? JR-I think it would be three years ago, in March. That would be 1997. YTN-And all this other stuff-Filthy McNasty, Johnny Blaine, these are all just sister labels, all made in Crowley? JR-Yeah. Just novelty stuff that he (J.D. Miller) put out on his own labels. YTN-And who produced all these records? JR-Jay. (Miller.) YTN-And did you ever record for any other label as Johnny Rebel, besides  Rebel Records? JR-No. (At this point, he starts showing me copies of all the 45's he's released  over the years,etc.) JR-The Garden Song, this is there. (Filthy McNasty) I don't know if you ever  heard the Garden Song... YTN-Yeah. I got that one. JR-(Laughs.) That's a bad song. My wife don't even like me to pull that out. (MJR scowling down at bar as he speaks.) JR-I grabbed 'em cause I got kids. Maybe some day they'll want them....     Part 2