Johnny Rebel (musician)

Clifford Joseph Trahan was born in Moss Bluff, Louisiana, on September 25, 1938, the son of Elizabeth Breaux Taylor and Homer Trahan. Following his parents' divorce, he moved with his mother to Crowley, Louisiana, where he picked up an interest in music and received his first guitar as a gift at the age of 12. He graduated from Crowley High School in 1956. ==Career==

Trahan became close with record producer J. D. "Jay" Miller, a cousin of his, and recorded several country songs under the alias of Tommy Todd. Those songs never became commercial successes and Trahan moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to record with newly founded Todd Records. He became close with Murray Nash, a songwriter for country singer George Morgan, and in 1959 recorded four songs (as 'Jericho Jones') with Todd Records, but the label folded in 1964. Two of these songs were eventually issued in album format by Reb Rebel Records under the title For Segregationists Only. Johnny Rebel's songs found some popularity in some Southern juke joints, but never received radio airplay, and in time Trahan largely forgot about the venture. With the emergence of the Internet, Johnny Rebel gained newfound fame, and Trahan hired fan Brad Herman as his new manager in 2001. He then recorded and released a new song titled "Infidel Anthem", describing the "whipping" America should lay on Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks. Herman booked him on The Howard Stern Show, where he promoted the song. This led to increased interest in his music. Trahan eventually cut ties with Herman, but released two records in 2003. Performances According to Trahan, he only performed a Johnny Rebel song once. He said that he was performing in Kaplan, Louisiana, when someone in the crowd requested a Rebel song, and he obliged after making sure there were no black people in the audience. ==Later comments and views==

In a 2003 interview, Trahan claimed that he "[just made the music] for the money" and that he "didn't set out to spread hate or start trouble". He said, "At that time, there was a lot of resentment – whites toward blacks and blacks toward whites. So, everybody had their own feelings. Lots of people changed their feelings over the years. I basically changed my feelings over the years up to a point." However, he did have an issue with reparations for slavery and said, "Blacks develop an attitude towards the whites, and they won't let it go. They won't let go of what happened. Why should we pay reparations for things that happened 200 years ago? I was run out of my country. [...] My ancestors were run out of Nova Scotia." ==Death==

Trahan died in Rayne, Louisiana, on September 3, 2016, at the age of 77 years old. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in nearby Crowley. ==Misattributions==

Johnny Rebel is often misidentified as the pseudonym of country singer David Allan Coe, who achieved popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. The confusion stems in part from the song "Nigger Fucker", which appears on Coe's Underground Album. Some of Johnny Rebel's songs have also been misattributed to Johnny Horton, an American country singer who died in 1960. The confusion appears to stem from a song by Horton titled "Johnny Reb". ==Legacy==

An Anti-Defamation League report noted that "since the 1960s, when racist country singer Johnny Rebel recorded songs such as 'N-- Hatin' Me,' more than 500 hate rock bands have formed worldwide". In 2010, the television series The Boondocks lampooned the music of Johnny Rebel in the episode "The Story of Jimmy Rebel." ==Discography==

Studio albums Singles ==References==