Rockabilly queen follows her heart

In the 1950s, Wanda Jackson toured with (and dated) Elvis Presley, wore sexy outfits to the Grand Ol' Opry and sang rockabilly music when no other self-respecting woman would. But according to her, she was no hellraiser.

“Daddy wouldn't let me,” she said with a Southern twang from her home in Oklahoma. On Thursday, Jackson returns to Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, a venue she remembers as “that little place where Robert Plant got up to sing with me (in 2006).”

Throughout her career, Jackson — who performed last spring at the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio — has straddled the fence between country and rock 'n' roll. “I had to,” she said. “I started out in country music, and I didn't want to lose those fans.”

Mixing the two genres wasn't much of stretch, she said. “They're kissin' cousins, you might say.”

But finding the right material early on in her career was a challenge, so Jackson wrote her own, like “Mean, Mean Man.” She also recorded songs other artists had picked over, like “Fujiyama Mama” (a big hit for her in Japan), “Let's Have a Party,” “Hard Headed Woman” and “Riot In Cell Block Number 9.”

Jackson kept at it through the late '60s, but she said there was something missing. On June 6, 1971, she had an epiphany: What was lacking in her life was deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

“I had always gone to church,” she said. “But on that day I became Born Again and I received Him into my heart.”

Her record label, Capitol, agreed to release a disc of gospel music that year. “I'd always sung gospel music for myself, but I wanted to do an album because that's what was in my heart,” she said.

But Capitol balked at a second gospel disc.

“They told me my contract wasn't for a gospel record every year and they graciously ended our relationship.”

For the next decade, Jackson recorded gospel records on the smaller Word label and played churches across the country. “We lived on love offerings we got from the concerts,” she said.

Plugging her albums in church wasn't something she was comfortable with. “I just didn't think it was right,” she said. “(But then), the preacher told me that selling my records at concerts wasn't like anything like the moneychangers in the temple.”

And somewhere along the way, singing rockabilly turned out to be OK, too.

“It started in Scandinavia, of all places,” Jackson recalled. In the early '80s, she was asked to do a three-week tour and given the freedom to sing and say what she pleased. “I could give my testimony and no one was upset by it,” she recalled.

Back in America, other artists were starting to talk about Jackson's influence. “I never knew that girls like Pam Tillis and Tanya Tucker liked my music,” she said. “They're so much younger and their music's nothing like mine, but apparently they listened to my records when they were youngsters.”

In 2003, Jackson released “Heart Trouble,” which included updated versions of old hits, a duet of “Crying Time” with Elvis Costello and a couple tracks with the garage rock group The Cramps, which introduced her to a whole new audience.

“I had been praying and fretting over singing all this rockabilly for years, hoping I was on the right path,” she said. “I began to understand that I was successful again because that was what God had in mind for me to do.”

Jackson's latest album was a collaboration with Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes. “He had 11 songs all picked out for me to do,” she recalled. “So I guessed he gave up on the idea of duets.”

“The Party Ain't Over,” released earlier this year, features rollicking versions of “Shakin' All Over” and “Rip It Up,” along with rockabilly interpretations of the Andrews Sisters' “Rum and Coca-Cola” and Bob Dylan's “Thunder On the Mountain.”

 Wanda Jackson in the 1950s.

Wanda Jackson in concert

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Pappy and Harriet's, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown

Tickets: $20

Additional details: Opening act is The Country, featuring members of Gram Rabbit.

Information: (760) 365-5956; pappyandharriets.com

Looking ahead, Jackson said retirement isn't in the cards.

“The thought of it frightens me,” she said. “What would I do? Singing has been my whole life. I have no hobbies, and I'm too old to start one now.”

Judith Salkin is a features writer. She can be reached at (760) 778-4771 or judith.salkin@thedesertsun.com.