Swamp Dogg, outsider artist who found his sound in Alabama, at center of new documentary playing in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — In 1969, Jerry Williams Jr. was working with a group called C & The Shells, writing a song for them called 'You are the Circus.'
Williams, who had been singing and writing music professionally since he was 12 years old, had been a producer at Atlantic Records for several years at that point and had gone back and forth through Muscle Shoals to work with different artists, from Doris Duke to Duane Allman and many others.
With C & The Shells, 'You are the Circus' became a hit pretty quickly, selling 30,000 copies in Chicago in its first week. That's when a local DJ called the record label about an issue with one of the original lyrics: 'You don't seem to give a damn about me at all.'
'Somebody in Chicago started complaining, saying they didn't like that word,' Williams said from his home in Los Angeles. 'They didn't like damn. Atlantic called me back.'
Williams said the disc jockey, whom he didn't name but said pulled a lot of weight in the music business, got his way, with Atlantic telling Williams to take 'damn' out of the lyrics. Williams then tweaked it to 'You don't seem to care about me at all.'
'We didn't sell 30,000 more,' he said.
For Williams, that moment was one of several where he felt burnt out by the music business, constantly trying to compromise himself. The way he describes it, he had had enough.
Before long, Williams decided he needed a change. Taking what he learned from Muscle Shoals, he took on a new name, Swamp Dogg, and set out to make the music he wanted, no matter how raunchy or noncommercial it seemed.
Williams is the focus of a new documentary, 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,' which will premiere at the Sidewalk Film Center this Friday and play through the weekend. The documentary tells the story of Williams, his career, and how he found an audience through his uncompromising music.
For Williams, his time in Muscle Shoals informed his sense of self to the point that many critics would later describe his sound, as heard on his debut album 'Total Destruction of Your Mind,' as a 'post-apocalyptic take on the Muscle Shoals' sound.'
'That's where I got my Phd for soul and country music,' he said. 'I learned more about what I was doing and started understanding where I was going and had visions of how I would get there.'
As Swamp Dogg, Williams' muse often orbits around the subjects of sex and scatological humor, with a litany of racial epithets and swear words peppered through.
At 82, Williams said there were times in his career where he questioned whether or not he was doing the right thing, whether he was putting himself out of work by not doing what others were. So far, it seems to be paying off.
'I'm not going to let anybody dictate what I have to say in my songs because that's what they are: my songs,' he said.
With the gamble, Williams' work has received critical praise over the years, receiving glowing reviews in Rolling Stone and NPR. Many of his songs have been covered by mainstream artists, such as the Grateful Dead, Kid Rock, the Isley Brothers and Santana. Contemporary entertainers such as Johnny Knoxville of 'Jackass,' who is seen in the documentary, credit Williams as an influence as well.
Williams' last album, 'Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St.,' is more of a country album, but has been received well in that community, too.
'As music changed, I changed with it, but on my own terms,' he said. 'I don't copy people.'
So what keeps Williams going all these years later?
'My mortgage,' Williams jokes. All these damn bills.'
Click here for showtimes 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' will be playing at Sidewalk.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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