Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins’ jacket on the block
‘One of the greatest kings of rock and roll’
John Lennon and Yoko Ono were his houseguests. Bob Dylan called him his “idol”. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a huge self-proclaimed fan, invited him to perform at his Arkansas mansion and his 1992 presidential inaugural ball. He’s played for every Canadian prime minister since John Diefenbaker and is a legend among his peers, known for an uncanny ability to recruit and influence the finest musicians.
But what Canadian rock legend Ronnie Hawkins is most famous for is his signature high-energy, pull out all the stops performances.
“Ronnie Hawkins, I would say, is beyond a shadow of a doubt in my mind, one of the greatest kings of rock and roll,” says Jerry Lee Lewis, a pioneer rock and roller himself.
Hawkins, now 85, was born in Huntsville, Arkansas on January 10, 1935 – two days after Elvis Presley. In the ‘50s he put together his first band, known as The Hawks. Ronnie Hawkins left the United States for Canada in 1958, bringing with him a group of musicians who at one time became Bob Dylan’s back-up band and later on would break away to form their own group, known simply as ‘The Band’, which Rolling Stone magazine named one of the top 50 bands of all time.
Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. Source.
Ronnie Hawkins, also known as ‘The Hawk,’ ‘Rompin’ Ronnie’ and ‘the King of Rockabilly,’ fell in love with Canada and became a citizen in 1964, eventually settling in the Peterborough area in a 6,800-square-foot mansion situated on 77 hectares of lakefront property. He was so popular he had his own CTV television show in 1981 and ‘82, called Honky Tonk.
A jacket he wore at the time, a genuine piece of Canadian rock memorabilia, is now slated to be sold at Miller & Miller’s September 19th auction of Music Machines, Advertising & Historic Objects.
This Ronnie Hawkins television-worn jacket is offered as lot 75 in Miller & Miller’s September 19th auction of Music Machines, Coin-Op & Advertising. View it here.
According to Joy Samanski, who was Honky Tonk’s costume designer for both seasons, Ronnie had the white sheepskin jacket custom made at Barnstorm Leathers of Toronto, then commissioned an artist in The Beaches area of the city to add the hand-tooled leather hawk on the back of it.
The current owner of the jacket, consignor Warren Bechard, was a big Hawkins fan who used to see him perform in the early ‘60s at the famed Summer Gardens dance hall in Port Dover, Ontario.
Years later, Joy Samanski opened a high-end costume rental shop in Toronto and it was during that time that the jacket found its way into Warren’s hands. “I helped Joy with a big moving job and she gave me the coat as a thank-you,” he explains. “It’s been hanging in my closet in a suit bag for 20 years now and I’ve never worn it. In fact, I’ve only ever shown it to a few people. It’s a work of art. One day a friend of mine said, ‘there‘s probably a Hawk fan out there who should wear it if you’re not going to’. And who knows, somebody might even donate it to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.”
Photo credit Hawk Enterprises Inc.]
It’s hard to know which stories to tell about the Hawk, there are so many. When John and Yoko stayed with him and his wife Wanda at their home in 1969, they started to run a bath then fell asleep and the tub overflowed, eventually causing the Hawkins’ ceiling to collapse. Then there’s an earlier time when The Hawks were performing in Arkansas and a redneck motel owner refused to rent to rock and rollers so a local friend of Hawkins captured and bagged up more than 100 water snakes and released them into the motel pool.
Hawkins earned his reputation as a rowdy partier and a larger-than-life personality, but he was also a hard-working and gifted performer who in his heyday could do a backflip in the middle of a song. He’s a Juno award winner, a recipient of the Order of Canada and has received a Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, one of the most esteemed honors in the Canadian music industry. He has recorded 25 albums, is a member of the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, Canada’s Walk of Fame, the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
In 2002, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer but miraculously beat it with a combination of conventional medicine, spiritual healing and other alternative therapies. At the time, he told a journalist he was willing to try almost anything, "except goin' to Australia and lickin' one of them frogs on the ass. I wasn't going to do that, at least not until I French-kissed him first.”
The musicians Hawkins hand-picked to back him up, which later became The Band, were the subject of a film called The Last Waltz. It was the group’s farewell concert, held on American Thanksgiving Day in 1976 in San Francisco. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it features such special guests as none other than Ronnie Hawkins himself, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Ringo Starr and others. It has been heralded as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever produced.
‘The Last Waltz’ movie poster. Source.
Owning Ronnie Hawkins’ jacket has been an honour and a privilege for Warren and for 20 years he’s never considered selling it. Now he’s decided it’s time. He just wants it “to go to someone who will be really excited to own it – to own a piece of Canada’s rock and roll history.”
(Warren plans to donate a portion of the auction proceeds to the Institute for Advancements in Mental Health, formerly the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, in honor of Ronnie Hawkins’ son, who has the mental illness.)
By Diane Sewell
Lot 75: Ronnie Hawkins’ Television-Worn Jacket
Estimate: $2000/3000
Auction Details:
Music Machines, Coin-Op & Advertising
Online Bidding: August 31 - September 19
Lots close via online webcast on September 19, 9am.
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