Photographer: Rick Olivier

Chief Al Morris, if I recall, [Bruce] Sunpie [Barnes] was going to bring him over to my studio, but Bruce couldn’t find him. He was AWOL. But Bruce was able to bring him over on a later night and Al brought all his gear, including this giant cow pelvis mask/headpiece.

Later on I gave Bruce a few prints to give to Al, which he probably did straightaway, but the next time I run into Al, he says: “Man, where my pictures at?” I told him “I’ll get you some prints” since he’d probably mislaid them already. So I make some large prints and mount them on foam-core, but they sat around the studio forever. “I gotta get these to Al.” “I gotta get these to Al.”

Then, a few months ago, I got this total wild-hair and decided I would get them to Al. I brought a print over to the Backstreet Museum and a local guy told me he was in the Good Samaritan Nursing Home out by Morrison Road. So I call them: “Yeah, he’s here.” So I go, and the lady at the desk says “No, no Albert Morris, you got the wrong place.” I’m like, WTF? This is nuts. I’m walking back to my truck and she comes running after me: “Oh, you mean Mister Al!”

So I get the freakin’ prints to Al. He put them up on the headboard of his bed. His room smelled a bit stale (he was almost bed-ridden) but it was great to shoot the shit with him. He was full of a bunch of baloney, talking about people he was “gonna get” and laughing about it at the same time. Whatever brought me out there was a powerful force, even if that sounds hokey.

A couple weeks later, me and my boy Johnny J drove out there and busted up a few dozen New Orleans classics on ‘em with the acoustic guitars. Those wheelchairs were rockin’! One lady tried to heckle us, but J has 30-plus bandstand years in, and he shut her down with jokes without ever offending her. I did half a dozen shout-outs to “Big Chief Al Morris, of the Northside Bone Gang” and he was in hog-heaven, like “I told y’all I was a big shot!” He was glowing.

Then it freaked me out big-time when, about two weeks later, Al died.