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Legendary and notorious music producer Huey P. Meaux, “the Crazy Cajun,” died this morning at age 82, according to his nephew Larry Meaux Jr., after several months of poor health.
Meaux was created his own music industry in Houston by producing a mountain of hit singles between the late ‘50s and early ‘70s. He helped launch Doug Sahm’s career, and he resurrected Freddy Fender’s. There also existed a dark side to the larger-than-life character. In the 1990s a raid on the SugarHill Recording Studio where he kept an office turned up evidence that would result in his conviction for sex crimes.
photo by Nick de la Torre
Meaux was born in 1929 in Wright, La., and grew up poor in Kaplan, La. When he was 12 his father moved the family to Winnie where he found work shucking rice. After a short stint in the Army Meaux went to barber school at 19 and opened a barber shop in Winnie. He was drawn to music since he was a kid, listening to his father play accordion as well as local blues players. Meaux drummed some behind his father, but he lacked the patience to learn an instrument. He also tried singing, but “I wasn’t worth a damn,” Meaux said when we talked in 2009. So he found work as a disc jockey for KPAC, a format that nicely made use of his patois-flavored motor mouth and wild persona.
Because of Meaux’s radio show, swamp-pop singer Gene Bourgeois asked if the barber would record him. Meaux had no real background in producing music, but he set up the band in the barbershop. Under the name Jivin’ Gene, Bourgeois recorded Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, which became a regional hit.
Meaux’s breakthrough discovery was Barbara Lynn Ozen from Beaumont. As Barbara Lynn she released You’ll Lose a Good Thing, a No. 8 pop single that topped the R&B charts in 1962. Meaux said the first royalty check, $48,000, drew the attention of law enforcement, who thought he was doing something illegal. He left Winnie and opened a studio in Pasadena. Though Meaux lacked technical skill he had an ear for a hit. “I’ll say this about Huey, he could take the absolute worst song you’d ever heard, something completely schmaltzy and ridiculous and find the right singer to make a hit,” said producer/composer Steve Tyrell, who worked with Meaux in the ‘60s. Meaux strung together a remarkable run of Top 40 songs by one-hit wonders like Joe Barry (I’m a Fool to Care) and Rod Bernard (This Should Go on Forever).
Singer Roy Head called him “a metal detector in the business. If it weren’t for Huey Meaux, you wouldn’t have heard of many of the Texas singers you know. . . . If you had any talent at all he’d find you.”
Meaux took credit for guiding the sound of the Sir Douglas Quintet, who scored a big hit in 1965 with She’s About a Mover. He had seen his style of pop fall out of favor with the emergence of the Beatles. So Meaux told Sahm to pattern a song after a Beatles hit.
After recording several big songs at the legendary Goldstar Studio in the ’60s, Meaux bought it in 1972 and renamed it SugarHill. There he helped Freddy Fender resurrect his career with the ballad Before the Last Teardrop Falls, which became a No. 1 pop single in 1975.
Meaux’s golden ear began to fail him by the late ‘70s. He landed one last hit in 1985 with Rockin’ Sidney Simien’s novelty (Don’t Mess With) My Toot-Toot. He sold SugarHill in 1986 but kept an office there. Ten years later a police raid of that office turned up turned up thousands of Polaroids and videos of girls, mostly underage, in sexual situations. An investigator told the Chronicle Meaux was a “classic example of a child molester.”
Meaux skipped bail and was arrested in Juarez. He plead guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child, a drug possession charge, a child pornography charge and another for jumping bail. In exchange for his plea all evidence was to be destroyed, according to a Chronicle report from June 1996. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Four years ago Meaux was released and lived quietly in a double-wide in Winnie.
Both genius and notorious, Meaux’s dual legacy is fairly secured. As one local musician told me, “There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad, but you can’t talk about Houston music without talking about Huey Meaux.”
So....you are praising this man for his music which we all loved (I know I still do) but, make it a point that everyone know that he also was a sexual predator which NO ONE condones, especially of children. There is good and bad. Keep them separate. You have confused everybody that has read this.
He used to say that he wanted it put on his tombstone,
"That's it, there's no Meaux"
RIP Mr. Meaux
Huey told me in the last year of his life that his epitaph should simply say "NO REGRETS"
An investigator told the Chronicle Meaux was a “classic example of a child molester.” I'm pretty sure that's clear, outsidelookingin.
Andrew,
What has not been mentioned here is that one of the teenaged girls Huey was using in his child-porn videos was his step-daughter, and he was allegedly feeding her cocaine before putting her in front of the camera.
I wrote the feature story in the Chronicle that accompanied the news story on Huey's arrest, and subsequent run for the border. Of course, I reported the facts of the case and quoted the police that this appeared to be a classic case of child molestation.
But I also talked to musicians, including Little Joe, Augie Meyers and Roy Head, on what Huey had meant to their careers. One of them said something like, "He may have done a bad thing but that is not the Huey I knew..."
After the story ran, I got a phone call from a woman in tears, asking me how I could print anyone saying anything nice about such a monster. It was the girl's mother, Huey's ex. Needless to say, it was not an easy question to answer. I mostly just let her cry and vent.
Huey must have thought my story was balanced, because he kept in touch with me after he was caught and sent to prison. He wrote me letters to the Chronicle and once he called me when I was on the air at KPFT. I never knew quite how to respond. My wife was appalled.
One year, Huey sent me a Christmas card. I sent him back a book on how to meditate, figuring he must have some time on his hands and looking inward might do his soul some good.
He wrote back thanking me, and telling me he would give it a try "next year..."
I wonder if he ever did. I kinda doubt it...
There was a reason he fled to Juarez. He was paying off the Federales and local law enforcement to protect him after jumping bail. Good thing they opened the door to being payed off and made more money giving him up than he payed to protect him. They found thousands of photos of underage girls and videos on his Gyno-Chair in the back office of the building he did business for decades. Somehow all the lawyers, musicians, doctors, and friends and no one saw anything or suspected something. Funny how money makes people blind. Timothy McVeigh was a kewl soldier, yet all that can be thrown out the window for his horrendous act. This sicco has no right to be referred to as a great man in any way after the theft of funds, drug profiteering, child pornography, and sexual assaults he was a part of. I can't even believe Jimmy Carter Pardoned him of the rest of his Sex Crimes charges.
He recorded another hit that never made it. It was a group from Conroe, called "Johnnie and the Nightshades". The song "Would it Matter to You", great song, but couldn't get any air time back then without "payola".
Sorry to hear that - had'nt heard from him in a couple of years. I don't think he was a child molester - and if he did anything wrong his judgment day is here.
What you think is irrelevant. Read these 2 articles (if you have the stomach to hear the gory sick perverted details) and see what he was. He molested girls as young as 6 years old and that is just the beginning. Read for yourself, this article from 1996- don't take my word for it. And he screwed musicians right and left in their contracts. He was not a good man.
http://www.houstonpress.com/1996-02-22/news/wasted-days-wasted-lives-par...
http://www.houstonpress.com/1996-02-22/news/wasted-days-wasted-lives-par...
HE was a classic music man. To bad he got involved on the dark side!! Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton
HE was a classic music man. To bad he got involved on the dark side!! Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton
HE was a classic music man. To bad he got involved on the dark side!! Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton
QUE PASO BRUCE? LAST TIME I HEARD FROM YOU WAS AT KNUZ, AND LATER IN A COUNTRY STATION IN CORPUS. NOW ABOUT HUEY! IN MID 1975 HUEY ASKED ME ABOUT PRODUCING & M.C. A TOUR OF SEVERAL TOWNS, FOR FREDDY FENDER, CATERING TO MOSTLY CHICANOS. AT THAT TIME I WAS PRODUCER AND HOST OF THE POPULAR "MI LINDA RAZA SHOW", SYNDICATED FROM CH. 39 HERE IN HOUSTON, FEATURING EXCLUSIVELY CHICANO ARTISTS. I WANTED TO BUILT MYSELF AS A CHICANO STAND UP COMIC. THE TOUR WAS CHAOS, AS FREDDY WAS ALWAYS STONE RIGHT BEFORE "SHOW TIME", AND I HAD TO CALM SOME ROWDY RED NECKS, BOTH CHICANO AND ANGLOS, AND KEEP THEM FROM PHYSICALLY ATTACKING THE GREAT FREDDY FENDER. OF COURSE, HUEY WAS HIDING & COUNTING THE $$$ IN THE WINEBEGAGO, LEAVING ALL THE CRAP TO ME. WHEN PAYDAY CAME, THAT S.O.B. HUEY THREW ME A BONE OF ONLY $200.,WHEN i WAS PROMISED $2,000. IT WAS NOT THAT THE CONCERTS DID NOT RAKED ANY PROFITS, IT WAS ONLY THAT HUEY MEAUX WAS NOT HUEY MEAUX UNLESS HE RIP OFF HIS ARTISTS i.e. SUNNY OZUNA OF THE SUNLINERS i.e. SUNGLOWS "TALK TO ME"; AND ROY HEAD OF "TREAT HER RIGHT" FAME, AMONG MANY OTHER ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS, & THEY ALL WARNED ME ABOUT HUEY NASTY WAYS OF TREATING HIS TALENT. HUEY WAS A RIP OFF ARTIST ASIDE OF BEING A CHILD MOLESTER, THAT MY FRIENDS IS THE FINAL VERDICT.
___he also recorded many tejano artists back in the sixties, on Teardrop Records and Crazy Cajun music, en Conroe
RIP Huey.....
Everyone that cares about Texas/Louisiana roots music knows who Huey Meaux is and has respect for his musical legacy.
It's about the music.
The rest is about something else.
Legendary Music Producer Huey P. Meaux ( "The Crazy Cajun" ) Died This Morning At The Age Of 89. I Was Going To Write A Tribute To Him And His Early Work But In 1996 The World Discovered That He Was A Child Molester And I Just Can't Honor Someone Who Has Done That.
I met this man and he was a pedophile. Also knocked up his underage first cousin. There should be no praise for this monster.
I still remember the music, and know that he was brilliant. And I'll always remember the day I walked him down the corridor to D-11 block and placed him in his cell at Ellis. He said something in Cajun-French when he saw my name. Saw him many years later at Goree, and I didn't ask why he was there after he stated that he'd "messed up". Violation of some sort. Pappy was the real deal.
Dead child molesters are a good thing. He had a gynecologists chair in his room at the studio, had many, many underage kids going thru there and no one at the studio knew what was going on ? Sure, you bet.
People are complex. I'm not going to disregard the man who brought the world the Sir Douglas Quintet because of his personal fetishes. What he did stands.
Alas, poor Huey. I knew him well. I thought.
I attended a music business seminar in the 80's at Rice University where Huey Meaux was on a panel. A question from the audience was, "With all the jazz talent in Houston, why haven't you recorded any jazz?" Huey leaned back in his chair, squinted his eyes, and replied, "Lemme tell ya about ya JAZZ fans. They love they JAZZ.............but they don't buy any recudds!" My first recording session was in his Pasadena studio one night in 1966; after about 30 unsuccessful takes, we gave up. We were just too intimidated looking through the glass at him watching from behind the board. And he was just visiting! Ezra Charles
I attended a music business seminar in the 80's at Rice University where Huey Meaux was on a panel. A question from the audience was, "With all the jazz talent in Houston, why haven't you recorded any jazz?" Huey leaned back in his chair, squinted his eyes, and replied, "Lemme tell ya about ya JAZZ fans. They love they JAZZ.............but they don't buy any recudds!" My first recording session was in his Pasadena studio one night in 1966; after about 30 unsuccessful takes, we gave up. We were just too intimidated looking through the glass at him watching from behind the board. And he was just visiting! Ezra Charles
The world is a better place with Huey gone. I am the mother and the aunt of three of his victims (molested as very young girls by this man). I have lived with the devastation his actions have caused. I have seen lives ruined and one ended by the sinister acts of Huey Meaux. I am glad he is gone.
The world is a better place with Huey gone. I am the mother and the aunt of three of his victims (molested as very young girls by this man). I have lived with the devastation his actions have caused. I have seen lives ruined and one ended by the sinister acts of Huey Meaux. I am glad he is gone.
Huey recorded several of the records i wrote."In this Letter,"Have you ever watched ateardrop", "Just you wait and see," And "Traveling Mood"written by Wee Willie Wayne. Rode with him to many a rock and roll show but never saw the dark side of the man. Never saw any royalties either, but Huey would tell you to your face how he learned how to,as he would say, "hoodwinked you," He would say, "I was screwed so many times that I learned from the best shay".We had many a good time together but it was a long time ago.
Personal fetishes?!?! This isn't about feet or latex...it's about children. Somehow I think you would take a different stance if one of your daughters was plied with cocaine and strapped into a gynecological table by this "complex" pervert. The mountains of evidence removed from Sugar Hill leave little doubt that Meaux ruined hundreds of lives and his musical legacy does nothing to redeem him.
I met Huey in 1981 at KPFT, during a funding drive. He was the kind of person who would let you talk without interupting (so he could hear the sound of his own voice). He wanted to know what you think and have to say. He was a great record producer (not the best), who is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and that ain't hay.
As for his dark side, I was saddened,and even pissed off at him for that, but I didn't judge him. All humans are weak, and have our devils inside. I just wish that Huey's didn't involve children. Peace, Huey
The Photodawg
A note to STELLA (SAT APR 23 2011 9:04PM POST):
I, too, enjoyed the music growing up in Winnie that Meaux produced.
BUT, you refer to his molestation of children as "fetishes". Stella, the enormous emotional and psychological damage he did to children is a lot more than a mere "fetish": and the story should be about THEM and their right to a safe normal childhood, away from twisted predators like Meaux--and not about his right to his own "fetish". He had NO right to any of the innocent people he damaged and corrupted by his life style and actions.
You stated "What he did stands." You are correct: what he did stands: it was dark and twisted and evil, and you and no one can explain it away as a "fetish".
I agree with others who have posted here: I cannot honor a man who did so much damage to innocent people. I am glad he's been exposed and prosecuted, and think we are all better off now that he is gone.
As he stands before his Creator, God have mercy on his soul.
RIP, Huey! You made some great music that we all enjoyed.
Something was very wrong in that family from Louisiana that produced 2 men with severe sexual addictions....or is it just the water in Louisiana?
Just an FYI
I grew up in Winnie and know where all the bodies are buried!
R.I.P. Huey..
Dear people who overlook Huey Meaux's talent and vision because of poor choices in his personal life: I have two words for you -- Michael Jackson.
Meaux was caught red-handed with a huge cache of child porn, drugs, sex devices, etc. and pled guilty when charged, Jackson was acquitted and never had any physical evidence presented against him. While I personally think MJ was strange and possibly guilty of something criminal, there's no doubt when it comes to Meaux that he was a child molester. Piss on his talent and vision - he ruined innocent lives to feed his perverted lust. Would you call his crimes "poor choices in his personal life" if it was your daughter strapped to his gynecological table being plied with cocaine and photographed?
sorry guys his horrible, intolerable & selfish actions he bestowed upon the innocent far out weigh any good he did in the music business. He should've died in prison where he belonged. Think about how you and your children would feel if it were them being drugged & forced to do such acts. Would you still tell Mr. Meaux RIP?
Psssffffffft … Give me a break!
i was the contractor who repaired the doors and such back in 1996 at Sugar Hill when the police kicked them all in. The good ole HPD wrecked that place, destroyed equipment and i know for a fact one policeman stole a framed gold record of Freddy Fenders. HPD is crooked and i would not be surprised if they set Huey up. I saw no evidence of fowl play when i was there.