William Bell – Ace Venturer

You may not know William Bell, but you'll know his co-writes - You Don't Miss Your Water, Born Under A Bad Sign, his hit duet with Judy Clay, Private Number - his samples (hello, Kanye), or his covers: his songs have been performed by everyone from The Byrds to Billy Idol. Garth Cartwright meets the Stax legend, now in the seventh decade of his career

- By Garth Cartwright

"Otis Redding was such a down-to-earth guy," recalls William Bell. "I met him at his first session for Stax in 1962 when he turned up as Johnny Jenkins' driver and we hit it off immediately. He was from Macon, Georgia, and was really down-home, a country guy. Once I got out of the military, we hung out and toured together and just became really good friends. He loved to hang out and have a beer. He'd go in a bar - what you call a pub - and buy everyone a beer. That was Otis."

Bell is a repository of stories about legendary Memphis musicians. As a teenager he sang on Beale Street when it was the blues Mecca, while at the same time he was part of a radio quartet alongside Isaac Hayes and Carla Thomas, both of whom would join him in achieving fame at Stax Records. B.B. King hosted his show on the same station and became a close friend. A young Al Green - long before he enjoyed a hit single worked alongside Bell on the chitlin' circuit in the early 60s. Elvis? Yes, William knew him. "Nice guy," he says of Presley. "If he had a racist bone in his body, he never showed it to me.'

Bell is not only a font of Memphis music lore but one of that fabled city of kings' greatest singers and songwriters. Aged 82, he has been in the music industry since his early teens and continues to record and perform today. While never a huge star - the likes of Redding, Hayes and Green would experience far greater success - Bell has consistently made strong original music and written several songs that have become standards: