Page 27 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2016

The story goes like this: a young, pre-fame Elvis Presley used to
visit the Coast from Tupelo to play music. “He was just in high school. We’d go down to Rosetti’s Grocery store. Vincent Rosetti, the owner, would give us root beer and bologna sandwiches. We’d play music there and at the Airman’s Club at Keesler. We got paid $7.50 each.”
One day, while Elvis was staying
at the Stafford home, the two got into a water fight in the bathroom, and when Stafford’s mother saw,
she spanked both of them. Later, she would say that if she had known who Elvis would become, she only would have spanked her son. The friends kept in touch as time passed. “He never did get a big head,” Stafford says. “Never.”
It’s a fun story, and one that Stafford gets asked about a lot, though it’s Stafford’s other stories that are more intriguing. Stafford found music at a young age. “I was born in 1930. The population of Gulfport was 331. We didn’t have a radio, but one day, when I was eight years old, I heard something I had never heard before.” He overheard someone playing Hawaiian music, and he was hooked. His parents eventually bought guitar lessons
— but for Stafford’s older brother. When the brother proved to have little talent, Bill Stafford took over the lessons. And he hasn’t put down the guitar since.
His love for music led to what he calls a “hobby,” but what others would call a life’s passion. He began to play the steel guitar, eventually designing his own 14-string
model for the Sierra Company, appropriately named the “Stafford Eleganté.” In fact, it was his steel guitar that launched him into the unlikely presence of Hollywood film director Gus Van Sant. Stafford was in Portland, Oregon, working with the Sierra Company, when Van Sant came in looking for an instrument
to rent for his new movie. When he heard Stafford play, he hired him to
TOP: A Sierra model Stafford Eleganté pedal steel guitar designed by Bill Stafford. MIDDLE: Pedal steel guitar designer and player Bill Stafford with the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame Jerry Byrd Lifetime Achievement Award at his home in Harrison County. BOTTOM: Pedal steel guitar designer Bill Stafford plays a song on a 14-string Excel Fuzzy Steel Guitar Co. Superb model at his home.
do the soundtrack for My Own Private Idaho.
In the film, River Phoenix plays a homeless youth, living on the streets with narcolepsy (a neurological disorder caused by the brain’s inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally), all while searching for his father. “It’s a hard knock movie,” Stafford says, “but it’s true to life.” After filming, scenes were delivered to Stafford, then he was asked to come into the studio to lay down the musical track. Stafford tells the story of how he made the soundtrack in the studio, with Van Sant laying on the floor in front of him, listening to Stafford play his steel guitar while the movie played on a big screen in front of them.
“We did this one scene where
River Phoenix’s character finds his father, and I’m playing ‘Home on
the Range.’ We did that scene over seven times.” Stafford was convinced that Van Sant didn’t like what he
was doing. “Then [Van Sant] said, ‘Play it back all at the same time.’ It turned out the director loved what Stafford was doing. He used all the cuts to layer the song to show the character’s inner turmoil. “He’s a genius,” Stafford says of Van Sant. The film went on to win Stafford an Independent Spirit Film Award for best film music in 1992. The film
also won Van Sant best director and Phoenix best actor.
Most people would think these are enough stories to fill up a life. Again, they would be underestimating Stafford. His ear for music led to a career in the United States Navy, where his talent for hearing notes enabled him to work with sonar.
He’s also won several Lifetime Achievement awards, but even with all of the excitement, Stafford remains humble, focused on his family. He is a doting husband to Betty, a nurse and a teacher, and a proud father.
“It’s been an interesting life,” Stafford says, with a laugh.
Yes, it has.
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July 2016 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 27