Role Musician Occupation(s) Singer, Songwriter Nationality American | Instruments Vocalsguitar Name Johnny Rebel Albums The Good Old South | |
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Also known as Tommy ToddJericho JonesJohnny "Pee Wee" BlaineJohnny "Pee Wee" TrayhanJohnny "Pee Wee" TrahanFilthy McNasty Genres Countrywhite power musicrockabillyswamp pop Similar People David Allan Coe, David Stone, Harry James, Les Demerle, Johnny Cash | ||
Birth name Clifford Joseph Trahan | ||
Clifford Joseph "Pee Wee " Trahan (September 25, 1938 – September 3, 2016), best known as Johnny Rebel and Pee Wee Trahan, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Though he wrote and performed mainstream country and Cajun music under a variety of names, Trahan is notorious for a series of explicitly racist singles in the 1960s using the Johnny Rebel name and recorded for J. D. "Jay" Miller's Reb Rebel label in the 1960s, which feature expressive lyrics.
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Early life
Trahan was born in Moss Bluff, Louisiana in 1938 to Homer Trahan and Elizabeth Breaux Taylor.
Career
His songs frequently used the racial epithet nigger and they often voiced sympathy for Jim Crow-era segregation and the Ku Klux Klan.
Trahan first recorded songs under the Johnny Rebel name in the mid-1960s. He employed J. D. "Jay" Miller's recording studio in Crowley, Louisiana. Miller, in fact, produced the sessions and issued the recordings on his own Reb Rebel label.
Trahan's first release—the fifth for the Reb Rebel label—was a 45 RPM single of "Lookin' for a Handout" and "Kajun Ku Klux Klan". He would record many more singles for the label, "Nigger, Nigger", "Coon Town", "Who Likes a Nigger?", "Nigger Hatin' Me", "Still Looking for a Handout", "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)", "Stay Away from Dixie", and "Move Them Niggers North". Few of Trahan's songs concern topics other than race. These exceptions include "Keep a-Workin' Big Jim", about the efforts of Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison to solve the Kennedy assassination, and "(Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us", a song critical of U.S. federal aid programs. Two of these songs were eventually issued in album format by Reb Rebel Records under the title "For Segregationists Only".
In 1976, Trahan's song "Lâche pas la patate" (also known as "The Potato Song"), sung by Jimmy C. Newman earned gold record status in Canada.
Johnny Rebel's songs have been covered by other singers such as Big Reb and the German band Landser.
A CD compilation of his works simply shows a hooded Klansman together with a depiction of the Confederate Battle Flag. The cover of the album "It's the attitude stupid" shows a hooded Klansman, holding what appears to be either a Walkman or an MP3 player with a confederate flag texture, and wearing headphones.
Personal life
Trahan and his wife, Ann, had been married for 56 years prior to his death. They had four children: Raye, Randal, Rhonda, and Rhett.
Trahan rarely allowed himself to be photographed, although he claimed there were genuine images of him on the Internet. He said he had no idea where those photos originated. In 2015, however, he appeared in the Canadian documentary Acadie black et blanc (released in English as Acadie Black and White), in which he defended his recordings and his views on race.
Trahan owned a driving school in Crowley, Louisiana which he handed over to his son in 2008.
He died on September 3, 2016, at the age of 77.
Misattributions
Johnny Rebel is often misidentified as the pseudonym of David Allan Coe, an American outlaw country music singer who achieved popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. The confusion stems in part from the song "Nigger Fucker", which appears on Coe's Underground Album. Coe has been quoted as saying that "anyone that hears [Underground Album] and says I'm a racist is full of shit."
Some of Johnny Rebel songs have also been misattributed to Johnny Horton, an American country music and rockabilly singer who died in 1960. The confusion appears to stem from a song by Horton called "Johnny Reb".
Trahan's version of "Nigger Hatin' Me" has also appeared, wrongly attributed to Buddy Holly, on Holly releases such as "The Apartment Demos".
Popular reception
The website of Resistance Records, a white supremacist label, has listed Johnny Rebel's Klassic Klan Kompositions as its no. 2 seller, second only to the video game Ethnic Cleansing.
In popular culture
The television series The Boondocks parodied Johnny Rebel's music in one of its episodes (entitled The Story of Jimmy Rebel). The episode portrays a recording artist who is ostensibly Johnny Rebel.
In 2005, the Johnny Rebel song "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)" was used in the film What Is It?, directed by Crispin Glover.