Andre Williams, the Detroit singer whose edgy R&B songs made him a cult favorite in the 1950s and propelled a late-life career resurgence, died…
Andre Williams, the Detroit singer whose edgy R&B songs made him a cult favorite in the 1950s and propelled a late-life career resurgence, died Sunday in Chicago. He was 82.
Williams, a longtime Chicago resident, had been in hospice care and was with family when he passed, manager Kenn Goodman told the Detroit Free Press.
During his lengthy career, Williams wore many hats — recording artist, stage performer, producer, songwriter, author. He was a colorful character with the nickname “Mr. Rhythm,” and while drug and alcohol issues derailed him for much of the 1980s, he cleaned up and remained proudly sober during his latter years.
“I just wanted to be a force in show business,” he told the Free Press in 2010. “A Cab Calloway — that’s what I was after. That’s why I was bouncing around to different categories — a little rhythm-and-blues, a little gospel.”
The Alabama-born Williams was a maverick from his earliest days: His releases for Detroit’s Fortune Records and others — including the 1957 singles “Jail Bait” and “Bacon Fat” — were gritty and often raunchy, and while the latter track reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s R&B chart, Williams never did land the right breaks for sustained mainstream success.
He spent the ’60s cutting records for Detroit labels such as Ric-Tic and Wingate, along with Chicago’s Chess Records, but never scaled the heights reached by “Bacon Fat” the previous decade.
“A lot of people considered it my downfall, doing what I wanted to do,” Williams said.
