Johnny Otis Blues Band - Get On Up! (Live Chicago '93) (Feat. Shuggie Otis) (2023)

While James Brown was seen as the Godfather of soul music, for many music critics Johnny Otis was considered the Godfather of rhythm and blues. But what his many fans across the U.S.A. did not know was that he was actually a Greek-American.

In his long career, Johnny Otis wore many hats, and he was a pioneer in many ways. He was a bandleader, talent scout, singer, drummer, church minister, journalist, television show host, and radio producer.

Between 1950 and 1952, Johnny and his band recorded fifteen top 40 R&B hits. He discovered, produced, and promoted legends such as Etta James, Little Esther, Big Mama Thornton, and Jackie Wilson.

There is even an unsubstantiated story that he was responsible for coining the new term “rock and roll” as rhythm and blues was transforming into rock and roll during the 1950’s.

He was even briefly dubbed “The King of Rock and Roll” early on in this process before Elvis snatched the crown and took it to his grave.

Johnny Otis was born Ioannis Alexandros Veliotes on December 28, 1921 in Vallejo, California. His Greek-immigrant parents were Alexander Veliotes, a grocery store owner, and painter Irene Kiskakes. He grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood, and early in life, he decided that was where he belonged.

“As a kid, I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black,” he stated.

At the age of 19, and despite the disapproval of his mother, the Greek-American musician married his childhood sweetheart, 18-year-old Phyllis Walker, who was African-American and Filipino. The couple was forced to elope and marry in Reno, Nevada.

Johnny Otis began his music career as a drummer and became a bandleader in the late 1940’s. He released a string of successful records as The Johnny Otis Orchestra (1948-1957) and he headlined “The Johnny Otis Show” from 1958 to 1969.

In the late 1960’s, early Rock and Roll and R&B were becoming passe, and Otis made less and less music every year, both in the studio and on stage. In the early 1970’s, he started a Blues record label called Blues Spectrum.

He reinvented himself once more in the 1980s, becoming a radio show host in California. Through the 1990’s and 2000’s, he continued touring and sporadically releasing albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.