After discovering a love for rock 'n' roll, musician and filmmaker Chan Maurice Evans started playing it himself, gravitating toward the genre’s melodic tones and raw expression. Evans honed his craft, eventually playing in rock bands around St. Louis.
As he grew as an artist, he reflected on being called a “sellout” by his peers in the past, what that meant and how it affected him.
“They'd ask, why [do] you talk so plain? Why are you listening to that white boy music? The term sellout was thrown around a lot,” Evans said. “They feel that I was abandoning Black culture by playing this music, but they couldn’t be more wrong.”
The feeling inspired him to create a documentary about his experiences as a Black rock musician. In 2018, Evans enlisted the help of a local filmmaker to independently produce “They Called Me a Sellout: Being Black in the ‘White’ Rock & Roll Industry,” a Youtube docuseries centering the stories of Black rock artists like St. Louis music and radio legends Bernie and Uvee Hayes.
In Episode 2 of the series, the Hayeses spoke candidly about their time creating music in the 1960s and how Black artists were only allowed to perform in certain venues across the country on the “chitlin circuit.”
Black artists like Tina Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Chuck Berry were at the forefront of the rock 'n' roll movement in their time, inspiring generations of musicians – including white performers who mimicked their style.
“Bands like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones [and the] Beach Boys would mimic songs almost exactly and change the lyrics up,” Evans explained. “They could be photographed and talked about on the radio, [but] the Black artists had no mention or legal teams to fight to take their music back.”
The series also features contemporary artists like Steve Ewing of the Urge, Ben Kenny of Incubus and Syrhea Conaway. They all share their stories of how it feels to be a Black artist making rock music.
Although Evans looked to his past to inspire the series, he said he now hopes to broaden its scope of interviews to include artists of all backgrounds who are inspired by Black rock artists. Still, at its core, the goal of the series is to challenge the viewer’s perspective of “sellouts” and teach them a bit of history as well.
“It is a harsh word, and I think it raises lots of questions, and people may have used the word and not exactly known what they were saying to people,” Evans said. “And I hope that those people that would use that term against me would see this series and realize where they were wrong.”
To learn more about the future of the series, the “chitlin circuit” and Evan’s history as an artist, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
