Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1523410
June/July 2024 | maconmagazine.com 53 Kirkland; Percy Welch; and all the rest. Even in this firmament, the reticent guitar player – an otherwise shy kid who let his instrument do the talking – stood out. "Robert is a lick man," says Collier. "A first-rate rhythm guitarist." Adds rocker and sound technician Joey Stuckey, "Ain't nobody can play a fat and greasy lick quite like Robert Coleman." But there was another element that a trained ear could note, something irresistibly dulcet, indelibly warm. "Robert puts the sweetness in the sugar," Collier says. "Watch Robert when he plays. There will come a moment when he looks up from his guitar and looks like he's looking around the room. He's figuring out where the music should go. Then he pushes it in the direction he wants, which is usually in some way that might not be easy to predict, some unexpected, offbeat way. He has a unique voice of his own, which he expresses through his guitar. That's what everybody noticed." This inviting artistry created just the right vibe to catch the ear of Percy Sledge, who had what Coleman considers, even today, the "ultimate song:" "When a Man Loves a Woman." It was the first in history to top both the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart and its R&B chart and is considered the original "deep soul" sound. "That song says all there is to say, and it just doesn't get any better than that," the guitarist says. So, in 1964, Coleman, still a teenager, went on the road with Sledge for an eye-opening, worldwide tour that took him far from the throbbing bass sounds of south Macon. Coleman recalls one especially crazy experience during his five-year stint with Sledge: "I remember going to Africa with Percy. We got on boats and went way up a river, where we were picked up in Jeeps for a two- or three-hour trip through the jungle on roads that weren't much more than muddy trails. When we got to the village where we were going to play, our other guitarist stepped out of the Jeep. Well, the people in that village mistakenly thought he was Percy Sledge and commenced to tearing his clothes right off! He had to jump back in the Jeep real fast to keep from getting stripped naked. While all this was going on, Percy just walked right by and on in the building, cool as you please. That's how popular Percy was." Shortly after he left Sledge's tour, "I was playing a little club on lower Broadway – the Red Rooster, with Calvin Arline, when a young white guy with long hair walked in and asked if he could sit in for a few numbers. Of course, I said yes. Well, if you can't ABOVE LEFT Brought from Back Porch Lounge specially for his video interview at Third Street Studios, local artist Angela Henigman hand-painted the throne from which Coleman pours forth the blues, funk, and rock and roll each Monday night. ABOVE RIGHT RLC's drink of choice. Buy him one when you are graced by his music.