Pichon was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and began playing piano in his childhood.

He first went north about 1922, playing at various venues in New York City and New Jersey before settling in Boston for a few years where he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music.

[2] On visits back to New York he made some recordings, mostly as a vocalist on novelty numbers, with Luis Russell and other New Orleans groups.

[3] In the 1930s, Fats Pichon led what some considered the best big band in New Orleans; it also made Mississippi Riverboat excursions.

In the 1940s he began a long gig as the house pianist at The Old Absinthe House, a popular venue on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, where he remained until about 1960,[3] with occasional tours of other parts of the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean.