On this day (September 23) in 2020, longtime Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland died at his home in Jackson, Tennessee at the age of 85.
Holland, the original drummer in Cash’s well-known Tennessee Three backing band, spent more than four decades playing for the “Man in Black”. He was also part of Cash’s other less popular backing groups, the Great Eighties Eight and the Johnny Cash Show Band.
Today, we’re examining his life and career on the sixth anniversary of his passing.
How Did W.S. “Fluke” Holland Get His Nickname
Born April 22, 1935 in Saltillo, Tennessee, W.S. “Fluke” Holland played an integral part in the last six decades of music history. In fact, Johnny Cash often introduced him onstage as the “Father of the Drums.”
However, there are no childhood stories of Holland receiving his first drum set at just four years old. “Music never crossed my mind,” he told the Jackson Sun in 2016. Instead, he worked for an air conditioning company in Jackson, Tennessee, after graduating from high school in 1953.
In his off hours, however, Holland became a regular at the same Memphis taverns where Carl Perkins and his band played. He often positioned himself beside the bass player during the more up-tempo numbers, keeping time on the instrument with his hand.
“When I told him I didn’t know how to play, he told me that ‘keeping time on the bass like you do, you could play drums,’” Holland recalled.
In the earliest example of his nickname “Fluke,” he borrowed a drum set from Perkins and met the band at Sun Studios to record — despite never having picked up a musical instrument before in his life.
Eventually — being left-handed and completely inexperienced — Holland would patent the “train-like” rhythm that came to define Johnny Cash’s earliest work.
“I set up everything in reverse order,” he explained. “Most drummers have a cross-arm style of playing. I don’t. After I became aware of what I’d done, I didn’t want to change because it seemed to work for me.”
He Played on Some Iconic Recordings
Spending six years with the Carl Perkins Brothers Band, W.S. “Fluke” Holland played on Perkins’ original recording of “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1955.
However, with things slowing down near the close of the decade, he considered retiring from the music business and move back to Jackson with his wife, Joyce. But Holland would put those plans on hold after receiving a phone call from Johnny Cash, who wanted him to play drums at two upcoming shows.
Two weeks turned into 37 years. And in 1997, Holland officially retired as the Man in Black’s drummer and road manager. Indeed, he was the only drummer that Cash ever had. That’s Holland you hear on most of Cash’s records with the Tennessee Three, including ”Folsom Prison Blues,” “Walk the Line,” “Ring of Fire,” and “Boy Named Sue”.
“Country and hillbilly music had only had guitars, bass and piano for all these years,” Holland said in 2012, per Rolling Stone. “When I added the drums, people started calling it rock n’ roll.”
Following his retirement from Cash’s band, he continued touring for some time with his own W.S. Holland Band.
Featured image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
The post 6 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Legendary “Father of the Drums” Who Played With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins appeared first on American Songwriter.
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