"A crowning moment came when Dr. John shared a bill with bebop’s high priest Thelonious Monk – a devotee of hip chapeaus – at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco. Monk was quoted as digging Mac’s piano playing and saying of the DJTNT sobriquet: “That name is a motherf*cker!”
“He came up to the band room,” remembers Mac, “and put a hat on my head. It was a hat from Africa. And I thought, Wow, I’m honoured, ’cos it was from Monk and I loved that cat! [As part of the show] I walked through the audience – same thing every night – and it was took off my head. Somebody just snatched it. They musta recognised Monk had that brim on. I went and apologised to Monk after the gig.”
Monk wasn’t the only jazz giant Mac met, although one time he was greeted with more than a hat. “I met Art Blakey back in the game, sneakin’ through his pad. I kicked over a metal wastebasket and he cocked a gun. It was a 9mm Walther. I remember his daughter sayin’, ‘You gonna shoot him, Daddy?’ He said, ‘Not yet.’” [sic!]
Rebennack was in Blakey’s apartment with a couple of other junkie musicians, looking to score from a neighbour. Years later he made an album, Bluesiana Triangle, with Blakey and David ‘Fathead’ Newman. Blakey was kind enough not to mention the incident. And 24 years ago Mac Rebennack got clean and has remained clean ever since.
Interview by Michael Simmons / Mojo, 2013