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Year of birth: 1937

City of birth: LaGrange, Georgia

HALL OF FAME BIO
As a producer, Chips Moman engineered the sound of seminal soul, pop and country records by artists including Elvis Presley, Wilson Pickett, Neil Diamond and Willie Nelson. As a songwriter, his credits include classics “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” “The Dark End of the Street” and “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love).”

Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman was born June 12, 1937 in LaGrange, Georgia. At age 14, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tenn., where by day, he worked for his aunt’s painting business and by night, he occasionally played guitar with friends, performing at teen dances. He was strumming a guitar one afternoon inside Smart’s Drug Store when a Sun Records employee heard him and hired him to play guitar for up-and-coming rock and rollers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette.

That job took Moman to California, where he also worked as a session guitarist at Gold Star Studio. Eventually returning to Memphis after a car accident, he played on a record for Jim Stewart, a friend who had formed a fledgling label, Satellite Records, with his sister, Estelle Axton. Moman began engineering sessions for the siblings at their tiny studio in Brunswick, Tenn., and soon suggested they move to a vacant theatre on McLemore Avenue in Memphis. They took the advice, soon changed the name to Stax and when Moman produced “Gee Whiz” for young singer Carla Thomas, the label had its first hit. Moman produced subsequent hits for Booker T. and the MGs, William Bell and the Mark-Keys before leaving Stax in 1964.

Across town, Moman then opened his own studio, American Sound, and began to assemble a group of talented studio musicians called the 827 Thomas Street Band. Together, Moman and his rhythm section churned out over 100 hits in the next five years for artists “Sweet Caroline” for Neil Diamond, “Cry Like a Baby” for the Box Tops and “Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head” for B. J. Thomas.

The success of American Sound convinced Elvis Presley to record in his hometown for the first time since being at Sun Records in 19955. Much to the consternation of his entourage, Presley gave Moman unprecedented control over the session and the move yielded the superstar a heralded comeback album From Elvis in Memphis, featuring “Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto” and “Kentucky Rain.”

During this period, Moman also joined forces with fellow Memphis producer Dan Penn to write two soul masterpieces, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” recorded by Aretha Franklin, and “The Dark End of the Street,” which James Carr first recorded. Other

In 1972, Moman sold American Sound and moved to Nashville, where his first project, producing and co-writing the song “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” for B.J. Thomas, earned him a Grammy Award. During his career in country capital, he produced albums for Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette. He was also behind the board for the epic album, Highwayman, featuring Nelson, Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.

In the late 1990s Moman moved back to Georgia where he resides and produces projects at his leisure. He donated the original mixing board from American Studios to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, where it is on permanent display.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE BIO
Memphis producer Chips Moman has been behind the control board of the most successful studios in music, cutting hits by everyone from Carla Thomas to Elvis Presley. Aside from his studio contributions, Moman has also been a successful songwriter, writing hits for James Carr, the Gentrys, and Aretha Franklin, among others.

Born in Georgia, Moman began his professional music career in California as a session guitarist at the Gold Star Studio in Los Angeles. After touring with rockabilly star Gene Vincent, the young guitarist drifted to Memphis in the late '50s where he met Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, two siblings who were in the infancy stage of creating their own label, Satellite. Moman went to work for Stewart and Axton, engineering sessions at their small studio in Brunswick, Tennessee. The first few releases on the label made little waves and it was not until a change in location (Moman had found an old vacated movie theatre on East Mclemore), a change in format (from country to R&B), and a change in name (from Satellite to Stax) that the label first began to achieve its monumental success. The first hit came from the Moman-produced song "Gee Whiz" by Carla Thomas and the success sparked a situation where, for the next several years, Moman became Stax's main man behind the control board, producing hits by Rufus Thomas, the Mar-Keys, William Bell and Booker T. and the MGs.

After the MGs scored a hit with "Green Onions," a dispute over money between Moman and Jim Stewart prompted Moman to leave Stax in 1964. He successfully sued the label for $3,000 and used the money to set up his own studio, American Sound Studios, across town. At American, Moman had what he always desired at Stax: complete control; in late 1965, he assembled a house band that rivaled, in talent and ability, the one he had used at Stax (the MGs). American's new rhythm section, also known as the 827 Thomas Street Band (the studio's address), had originally been formed by Stan Kessler to play on sessions for the Goldwax label. But soon, Reggie Young (guitar), Tommy Cogbill (Bass), Bobby Emmons (organ) and Gene Chrisman (drums) were playing on hit records made at American Studios by the Box Tops, Sandy Posey and Joe Tex.

Near the same time, Moman teamed up with Alabama songwriter Dan Penn, and together, they wrote hits for James Carr ("Dark End of the Street") and Aretha Franklin ("Do Right Woman"). Moman also began traveling to FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, playing guitar on the Aretha sessions that Atlantic head Jerry Wexler had booked there. When Wexler had a falling out with FAME owner Rick Hall, Moman's studio was the obvious next choice; bolstered by the association with Atlantic Records, American Sound Studio became one of the most successful studios in the industry.

Through the late '60s Moman produced hit records by Atlantic acts such as Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield and Herbie Mann. And between November of 1967 and January of 1971, the studio was responsible for 120 hits. At one point, Moman's success was such that during one particular week, over a quarter of Billboard's Hot 100 hits were generated at American.

Riding high, Moman started his own label, American Group Productions, and his own publishing company, Pacemaker. He produced Neil Diamond's Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show and, as a sure signal of his success, Elvis' 1969 album From Elvis in Memphis and his 1970 record Elvis Back in Memphis.

Growing tired of Memphis, Moman and the American rhythm section pulled up stakes and moved, first to Atlanta, then to Nashville where Moman wrote "Luckenbach, Texas" for Waylon Jennings, helping Ol' Waylon become the second-ever platinum country record. Moman stayed in Nashville through the late '70s and '80s, producing and playing on records by Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette, among others. He is still active in various studios, producing younger country acts as well as movie soundtracks. ~ Steve Kurutz, All Music Guide

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