Our Own 'Rolling Stone': Musician Cuz Covington

By: Jim Hannaford

You never know who you’ll run into along the Alabama coast—maybe even a member of the Rolling Stones.

Not THE Rolling Stones that are famous around the world, but the ones that came before them and were a regional rock ‘n’ roll sensation starting in the late 1950s. While Mick Jagger was still a schoolboy, William “Cuz” Covington was tearing it up on concert stages around the Southeast with his four rockin’ bandmates, all of them students at Mississippi State. He was the group’s lively bassist, and he delighted in standing on the side of his big, custom-painted upright bass, giving it a spin and even playing it behind his head.

Cuz loves reliving his memories from that trailblazing era. If you’ve got the time, he’s got some really cool first-hand stories from the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll.

“I was in the ORIGINAL Rolling Stones,” he’ll say casually, and you’ve got to admit that’s one heck of a conversation starter. It sometimes makes for some puzzled reactions as he and his wife, Debbi, make the rounds in and around Orange Beach, their home base for the last four years. It’s an intriguing claim, and the polite and friendly Cuz has plenty of priceless remembrances to back it up—along with photos, recordings, and newspaper clippings that bring them to life.

It’s pretty well known that the English version of the Stones got their name from a song by bluesman Muddy Waters, but Cuz’s outfit had a more local inspiration.

“Our guitar player, ‘Little Joe’ Tubb, came up with that,” he says. “Some guys he knew had robbed a bank in Canton, Miss., and afterward they said, ‘We’re nothing but a bunch of Rolling Stones.’ They were students at Hinds Junior College and probably got drunk one night and decided to go rob a bank. They did go to prison for it.”

Cuz first started playing music as a teenager at informal get-togethers in his hometown of Meridian, Miss., some of which were hosted by a lady who was a songwriter and a cousin to legendary country artist Jimmie Rodgers. Off at college, he and four other fledgling musicians (Tubb, singer “Andy” Anderson, pianist Roy Estes, and drummer Bobby Lyons) honed their skills further.

“We all met at Mississippi State and started jamming together in a room at the Old Main dormitory,” he says. “It wasn’t just rock ‘n’ roll. We also played some country and some crooning music. Our first gig was a street dance on the campus of Mississippi State College for Women, in Columbus, Miss.”

Before long, they recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, the same place where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others would make musical history. Their own breakthrough recording, of a song called “Johnny Valentine,” happened later at Owen Bradley’s famous studio in Nashville. Today the catchy tune is mostly forgotten, but it caused a commotion back in the day. It was popular enough to sell around a half-million copies, according to Cuz, most of them in England. Back home in Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson, Cuz and his cohorts were celebrated as rock stars.

“Our record came out in January of ‘58,” Cuz remembers. “They had a parade down Capitol Street and the whole town turned out for it. I don’t think Elvis would have drawn a bigger crowd at that time. It was a big thing—it was the world premiere of our record.”

He never met Elvis, but they were close in age and moved in some of the same circles early on. He did get to know everyone else in Elvis’ band because the (original) Rolling Stones opened for them when they were performing as The Scotty Moore Trio. He even let Elvis’ bass player, Bill Black, use his bass and amp for one particular show. Cuz also points out that his band’s hit single featured harmonies from The Jordanaires, the vocal quartet that sang on many Elvis classics.

Cuz also clearly recalls performing on the same bill with high-profile artists such as Carl Perkins, Brenda Lee, Johnny Horton, and Ferlin Husky.

“We started playing all around Mississippi at first, and then we started playing all around everywhere. We played a lot in Jackson at the Legion Hut, and we played at the University of Alabama probably twice a month. We played some in Biloxi, too, but not a lot, and when the record came out we toured up north, doing shows in places like Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and Minnesota.”

Their heyday as the original Stones lasted for about five years. He says they took it in stride when the younger upstarts from across the pond took their band name to a much bigger level.

“We just kind of rolled with it,” Cuz says. “We were happy for them.”

He gets satisfaction from his own legacy, too. Through various other careers and several moves around Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, he continued playing music on the side until around 2020. That’s about the time he and Debbi moved from Mobile to the Romar Beach area, where they enjoy stunning gulf views from their high-rise condominium.

A crowning moment happened 12 years ago when the original Rolling Stones were warmly welcomed into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. The band reunited for a performance that night and had a blast.

“I’ve always been real pleased with what we accomplished, starting with nothing and not having too many big promoters pushing us,” he says. “We did it on our own. I’m happy with how far it went, especially with us having hardly any musical background when we first got together.”