1/19/07, 6:15 pm EST

Assignment Two Finalist: Yancy Berns - 10 Questions for Chuck Berry

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Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

by Yancy Berns
Age: 33

1. Forget whether it was you, Elvis, or Ike Turner. Did ANYONE ‘invent’ rock and roll?

2. Your early lyrics, for many rock fans, serve as the bedrock of the music’s ethos. Were you expressing something you felt personally in those days, or were you just telling young people what they wanted to hear?

3. Who among the songwriters that followed in your footsteps did you admire the most?

4. What are you feelings concerning hip-hop and rap? Is that sound - and all that imagery - in any way connected to yours?

5. What do you think The Beatles added to the rock ethos? What about Bob Dylan?

6. Pete Townshend, another of your “children” (as Bob Seger called all those inspired by your licks), famously wrote “I hope I die before I get old.” What do you think about that sentiment? What would a younger Chuck Berry have thought?

7. You were lucky enough to ride the crest of the mid-century youth-culture revolution. Do you think that sort of major shift can happen again, or can that Pandora’s Box only be opened once per culture?

8. Do you still get the itch to write new songs? If not, at what point in your life did the urge leave you?

9. Even though your songs ARE rock and roll, you sat out much of the socio-political tumult of the 50s and 60s that rock was very much a part of. Why?

10. What, if any, are the differences between being an African-American in 1955 and in 2007? In what ways can rock and rull be credited with those changes?