Back in the Game

Johnson says he hated rap music in the late 1980s, but his attitude changed when he heard "Different Strokes" being sampled. "Because, what does it tell me?" he says. "'Okay, Pops, your music was great, we got to take it into the year 2000'--even if I die tomorrow. Rap music is great. Young white kids love it, and they're using all the old music again."

In 1993, Johnson returned to the recording studio, using the Hodges Brothers and his daughter, Syleena Thompson, to cover some old Hi ground. The resulting album, Back in the Game (Delmark), was a surprisingly solid, soulful collection. On most of the cuts, Johnson sounds like a man who hasn't been away for more than a week--his voice is still high, burred and supple.

"I'm even better now," he says. "I know how to do it better: I get my rest, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I don't chase women, and I don't chase men. . . . My soul is coming out much better now, because there's no pressure no more. I've got to have money, but I've got the rap stuff and I'm not looking to make a killing."

There's a Zen message in all of this, perhaps: Now, when Johnson has ostensibly renounced striving, there's a flurry of activity around him the likes of which he hasn't seen in more than two decades. He recently played the opening night of the Chicago branch of the nightclub chain House of Blues. On the just-released tribute album Songs of Janis Joplin: Blues Down Deep (House of Blues), he covers Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee." And on the forthcoming Blues Brothers album, he joins Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd with his new composition "Groove With Me Tonight."

"I'm playing for whites," he says. "I never played for them that much before; it was always the chitlin' circuit. It's like, if you got a 1965 Buick and the car's sitting in the garage, and an old guy just drives it now and then to loosen it up--that car is better than a 1997 Buick. The metal was harder, if it's been maintained.

"My father used to have these hunting dogs; he'd tie 'em up for two days before he went hunting, and they'd be full of fire. I'm that hunting dog. Don't you ever think I didn't have it hard. I lost everything, but--I say this to my ex-wife--how do you like me now? I got a new life."

Syl Johnson is scheduled to perform on Wednesday, May 14, at the Rhythm Room. Showtime is 9 p.m.