Sunglasses

SUNGLASSES
Question: Sunglasses are your trademark, how did that happen?

Answer: “I was on my way to Dothan, Alabama to play a concert. I chartered a private plane and it was a low winged plane, I remember, and the sun was very bright. So I put on the sunshades and put the clear pair to the side. When I got to Dothan, got off the plane and left the clear pair on the airplane and didn’t realize it until the sun went down. I was busy rehearsing and everything. All of a sudden, there I was going to perform at night in sunglasses. I felt very embarrassed. I got through the night and then the next day flew to Atlanta, New York, London and opened the Beatle tour that evening with the same pair of sunglasses, and I was still worried about that, but no one sort of minded. That tour, well it made the Beatles and myself in Europe, and internationally I guess. It was a really important tour. And with all of these photographs around the world with the sunshades, I was sort of stuck with instant image with that. So it wasn’t something I designed or thought of, ‘I’ll just do this and be cool.’ It was a mistake.”