This legendary Fayetteville musician being inducted into N.C. Music Hall of Fame
North Carolina has had many artists rise through the music industry: J. Cole, who hails from Fayetteville, is one of the best representatives of the modern era of rap with words that touch souls. Others from the Tar Heel State include legendary singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist Nina Simone; jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer, John Coltrane; and country star Ronnie Milsap.
But right here in our own backyard was born the grandfather of rap, music pioneer and Fayetteville's own, Bill “Fatback” Curtis.
Curtis is one of six musicians being inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame this year. The ceremony is Oct. 19 at the Mooresville Performing Arts Center in Iredell County. Tickets for the event start at $60, or $90 for VIP packages, and are being sold at NorthCarolinaMusicHallofFame.org.
The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, located in Kannapolis, inducted its first artists in 1999. The Hall of Fame states its mission is to "unite the past, present and future of North Carolina's musical heritage, serve as a clearinghouse for information about North Carolina musicians and build and curate a museum of artifacts and memorabilia from North Carolina musicians."
Other North Carolina artists being celebrated are:
Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, originally from Chapel Hill.
Country music and American Idol star, Scotty McCreery, originally from Garner.
Charlotte punk rock band Fetchin Bones.
Leader of Billy Graham Crusades, George Beverly Shea, lived in his wife's hometown of Montreat.
“The Queen of Funk", Betty Davis, originally from Durham.
The life of Bill Curtis
Born and raised on Ann Street near the First Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville in the late 1930s and 'early '40s, Curtis is the son of a model/beautician and shoemaker.
After first learning the piano, he switched to drums in 1943. Curtis became a member of the high school band at E.E. Smith. The program is credited with producing a string of top-notch drummers during the middle of the century, with Curtis, Belton Evans, Herbert Drake and Ernest Moore at the top of the class.
More: Bill Curtis speaking to reporters from the Fayetteville Observer, 2020.
After serving a stint in the Army, Curtis studied percussion at the Mannes School of Music in New York and at the New York College of Music.
He formed The Fatback Band in 1970, and their first song, “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”, was one of the first-ever commercial rap singles. Based out of New York City, the Fatback Band started as a jazz-funk outfit before finding most of its success in the ’70s and ’80s with a string of rhythm-and-blues hits like “(Do The) Spanish Hustle”, “I Like Girls,” “Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money),” “Backstrokin'” and “I Found Lovin.”
Curtis, who lives in Fayetteville, estimated in 2020 that his band’s music has been sampled by contemporary artists more than 35 times over the years.
Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Local music icon to be inducted into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame
