"We finally heard from a Memphis police sergeant who'd bought the
car at auction 20 years earlier and was willing to sell it to us
for $20,000," he says. "So I made the arrangements, picked up the
car from him, and started driving it back to our storage unit. That
was great - everyone was honking and waving at me. But it started
overheating and smoking, and that was pretty much my worst
nightmare: A white boy in south Memphis having to get towed in the
Shaftmobile."
Fortunately, the car just made it. Today, it's a centerpiece
attraction at the Stax Museum of
American Soul Music, which opened
in 2003. The museum is a wonderful, state-of-the-art facility, as
fun as it is educational, and it's the culmination of Willmott's
love affair with his hometown's music scene.
"No matter what else happens to me," he says, "I can always say I
got to give something back to Memphis."
WILLMOTT LEFT the Stax project once the museum opened, took a
little time off, and then set his sights on a new project.
"As I researched the museum, I learned all sorts of new things
about Memphis music, things most other people didn't know about,"
he explains. "Plus, we had all these other new attractions in town
- the Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange, the Gibson
Beale Street Showcase. I realized there was a story to be told that
could tie all these things together."
That's how the tour operation started. You want Elvis? Willmott can
give you an Elvis-centric tour. You want Stax? He can show you
where all the artists lived and tell you endless stories about
them. "But most people want the broad spectrum," he says.
And that's what they get - and not just in terms of music history.
"I know where the good food is, which bands are playing, where to
avoid traffic tie-ups, all of it," says Willmott. "Basically, I'm
going to show you the kinds of things I'd want you to show me if I
were visiting your city."