Chuck Berry Chuck

Chuck Berry didn't hang up his rock & roll shoes after releasing Rock It in 1979, but he did stop writing and recording new songs. The next few decades were filled with performances as he traveled across the country with guitar in hand, settling down in his hometown of St. Louis for a residency at the local restaurant Blueberry Hill in 1996. He wasn't a recluse but he was indifferent to a recording career, consenting to be the subject of Taylor Hackford's 1987 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (and proceeding to drive the director mad) but adding no new songs to the film. By all indications, Berry had lost interest in composing, but in a December 2001 profile in Rolling Stone he mentioned that he had started writing songs again. He admitted he had been "reluctant to make new songs" and worried that it might be "ill-mannered to try and top myself, adding, "You see, I'm not an oldies act. The music I play, it is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I would