Born at 6:59am-CST. He owns a warehouse full of old Cadillacs, one from every three or four model-years, all the way back to the mid-1950s, which he claims to be trying to get rid of, but says that nobody will give him a fair price, so he just stores them away. He served 3 jail terms: Armed robbery in the 1940s; The Mann Act in the 1950s and tax evasion in the 1970s. Chuck Berry received a John F. Kennedy Center Honor in 2000. Charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He originally wanted to be a professional photographer and started singing and playing in a band to buy cameras and photography equipment. Some of his photographs of the famous and near-famous are hanging in galleries around the world today. He worked as a janitor, carpenter and hairdresser. He was arguably the most important figure in rock in the 1950s, besides Elvis Presley. Although Presley had much more explosive record sales and greater commercial longevity, Berry was equally influential and had the satisfaction of knowing that he, unlike Presley, had written all of his own classics. He was voted the 5th Greatest Rock & Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Ironically, the four artists/groups ahead of him on the list all considered him an influence: The Rolling Stones; Bob Dylan; The Beatles and even Elvis Presley. One of his daughters, Aloha, went to the same high school (University City Senior High school) as actor Edgar L. Davis and rapper Nelly. His only #1 hit was his controversial novelty song, "My Ding A Ling". Whenever he performs live he always picks a venue which is near an Indian restaurant, so he can have a meal straight after the show. When he was at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall in the 1990s, the stage door was directly opposite the front door of the Mogul-E-Azam, so he was able to sneak out the stage door, across the alley and have his meal without travelling too far! (One of the roadies on duty that night let slip about the restaurant information.). Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986.
