O.T. Sykes has the finest nickname this side of Jessco White. The similarities between Sykes and the "Dancing Outlaw" end there, though. Sykes comes from a family of professionals who stress hard-work and education. He's been a successful dentist, serving Memphis' Orange Mound neighborhood for over thirty years. Music, or rather, entertaining have stayed in the background. Sykes cut the LP First Love (pictured at left, just as he displays it in his dental office) in 1981. Though it's a DIY job, he smartly surrounded himself with exceptional musicians like guitarist Michael Toles, trupeter Ben Cauley, and saxophonist Andrew Love. He put out a mostly synthesized CD in 1997 with Ecko Records personnel. These days he can found making folks miserable by day in his dental office, right next door to the former Blue Worm lounge in O-Mound, and making them slide across the dancefloor by night at the Boss Lounge in North Memphis. A bum hit O.T. up for a dollar outside the restaurant where we interviewed. O.T. said we wouldn't have such poverty if people would get off their asses and work. He should know. His story, in his words, begins now.
I'm from Parkin, Arkansas,
that's in Cross County. I've always liked to sing. People have always
told me I could sing. My uncles did spirituals and quartet music and I
did a bit of that when I was a child. During high school we had talent
shows, and I loved that. I was doing rhythm and blues like James Brown, Sam Cooke, or Bobby Bland.
We had a place called "the bottom" in Parkin that had places with
jukeboxes. We didn't have too many places with live music. We had a
place out in the country called Shell Lake near Blackfish. They had
musicians there at a club called the Top Hat Club about halfway between Memphis and Forrest City. That was about the closest I got to live music.
I always wanted to be a professional person. That's something my daddy
wanted me to be also. I thought I wanted to be in the medical field,
and my daddy knew some dentists and he suggested that I become a
dentist. I was pretty good in science, so I thought it was something I
could be.
I always had a passion for music, and I thought I wanted
to pursue music in my future. I thought that being a dentist would
afford me a good income and some time to do business and music. I
thought that a physician wouldn't have the time to pursue other
interests.
I came out of dental school at Howard University in 1970. I moved to Memphis
and started my practice. I got in touch with Harry Winfield [Bar-Kays mentor and general Memphis music booster], who used
to have a TV show on Saturday mornings. We used to practice at his
house, and that was the first opportunity I had to sing with a band.
Later I came in contact with Wayne Douglass, Jr. and went into the
studio to record my First Love album in 1981.
I've gotten into some other businesses - real estate and supermarkets - that pulled me away from music.
I was really a little flurry around Memphis
at one time. People admired the fact that I was a professional person
who had the guts to come out and sing with a band. My first big show at
the Hawaiian Isle on a Thursday night. We had a little radio
advertising, and that place was packed. My name was flying around town.
When my record came out somebody hung the "Singing Dentist" name on me.
I've been performing Thursday nights at the Boss for two or three
years. I've cut back some lately - Ricky Strickland is the main
performer with the Connection band.
I like to do upbeat songs
that hit the audience. I like to express myself, and do my thing the
way the audience can feel it. I want to do my thing and have a fast
show like James Brown. I'm not getting any younger, so if I'm going to do this music thing, I'd better go ahead and do it.
I look at my audience in the eye. I play to my audience, and do things
that I think they'll like. I fall on my knees. I make splits. I do
leaps up in the air, I do the moonwalk. Anything that gets applause.
At one time I really wanted to get big. It doesn't really concern me as
much as it used to. I would take a hit record though. I was really
thrilled by the life of an entertainer - the girls screaming. I've had
people ask me for my autograph. It feels good! I've rode in limousines
and felt like a star. It's a life I really thought I wanted for a
minute.
I feel that I really could have been big in the
business. When Al Green got out, if the right people had gotten behind
me I could have gone somewhere. A lot of people thought I had the magic
to be entertainer. I did too, and I still think I got it. There's two
or three sides to music. The producer and songwriters pay a huge role
in the life of an artist.
I had thought that being an entertainer would be bad for my
profession, but it's actually been good. I'm known as the "Singing
Dentist." I might have heard a couple of times, "That guy been out
singing all night, I don't want him in my mouth." But I haven't gotten
that much. A lot of the musicians and entertainers come to me to get
their teeth fixed. I've worked on Larry Dotson of the Bar-Kays, George
Jackson, the songwriter, Bobby O'Jay.
I expect to record one more album. I'll probably be going gospel pretty
soon. There's a good possibility that I'll quit secular music for good.
Interview by Preston Lauterbach, Images by Justin Fox Burks