Luther Monroe Perkins, Jr. (January 8, 1928 – August 5, 1968) was an American country music guitarist and a member of the Tennessee Three, the backup band for singer Johnny Cash.
His creatively simple, sparsely embellished, rhythmic use of Fender Esquire, Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars is credited for creating Cash's signature "boom-chicka-boom" style.
Grant, Kernodle and Perkins began bringing their guitars to work, and would play together when repair business was slow.
In order to tone down the sustained bottom end so that it would not compete with the other instruments, Perkins began the practice of muting the three bass strings (E, A and D) with the heel of his right hand, much in the style of Merle Travis, and scratching a rhythm pattern (as heard on Sun Records recordings prior to 1958).
This pattern developed into a more defined, varying 1/8-8/5/8-8 picking (with random syncopation) on later Sun recordings and for the rest of Perkins’ career.
In late 1954, when Cash got an audition with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records, he brought Perkins, Grant and Kernodle along to back him instrumentally.
The experience made Kernodle nervous, and he ended up leaving before the session was over, with Perkins and Grant providing the instrumentation.
[14] During the early morning hours of August 3, 1968, Perkins returned from fishing on Old Hickory Lake to his newly constructed home on Riverwood Drive, Hendersonville, Tennessee.
He allegedly went to sleep in the living room while holding a lit cigarette, even though he hadn’t smoked in years by this time, according to family.
His niece, by marriage, awoke around 6:00 am to find the living room aflame and Perkins collapsed near the door, almost dead.
An emergency crew rushed Perkins to Vanderbilt University Hospital, where he was kept under intensive care until he died two days later.
Apart from a brief respite, Wootton stayed with the band for 29 years until Cash finally retired from touring and performing live in 1997.