Juju Child has had a full and happy life from singing the blues.
Born Roosevelt Williams in New Orleans and raised in Liberty, where he attended Central High School, he was a farmer’s son who rose from plowing mules and chopping cotton to singing and playing blues guitar around the world with his own bands; in bands of the blues’ “first cousin,” zydeco; and with acts as big as Earth, Wind & Fire.
He told the McComb Lions Club Tuesday that he dreamed of a life singing the blues, even though his family frowned on that idea.
“I had an uncle who was a really good singer. He sang gospel music,” Juju Child said. “My family was all into gospel music, and they didn’t want me singing the blues.”
He played with various bands that were opening acts and main attractions in concerts around the world.
It was a nightly gig at a club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that might have led to the most momentous change in his life.
A woman kept returning to the venue night after night.
“She was there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday, she came up and talked to me and said she was from France,” he said. “I don’t normally give out my number at gigs, but I gave her my number and said maybe she could call sometime.”
She did. Before too long he had moved to France, and they later married.
He lived for 20 years in Paris, and said he had learned something important from living in a “structured” society like France as well as the more individualistic United States.
“We all want the same things,” he said. “The path we take to get there is the variation. With communication and love and respect, we can see we’re all mutually beneficial to each other.
“Love busts down every door.”
Juju Child closed by singing and playing selections by John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
