CritterBlog

Johnny Otis and the Yorkshire Terrier

Back in the late 1980′s I worked at an art studio in Oakland, California. We had just completed a limited edition lithograph entitled Jazz, by the legendary rhythm and blues musician Johnny Otis.

Johnny had a couple of Yorkshire Terriers, and had just recently gotten another puppy. He brought the puppy with him on this visit, and asked me to attend to it in the gallery while he went back into the studio to sign his prints.

This little dog could not have weighed more than a pound and a half. We had mice in the building that were bigger! I spent the next half hour making tiny wads of paper and throwing them about three feet away for the puppy to retrieve. She had a great time, and so did I.

When Johnny emerged from the studio, he gave me one of the signed prints, and sang a little song to me (to the tune of Little Brown Jug):

The shirt and pants do all the work,
but the vest gets all the gravy!

Johnny Otis was born in 1921 in Vallejo, California. In addition to being inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Johnny Otis blessed the world of music by discovering rhythm and blues greats Esther Phillips, Willie Mae “Big Momma” Thornton, and Etta James. He is best known for “Willie and the Hand Jive,” which has sold more than 1.5 million copies.