Carl Perkins left hand

**Lionelsax** · 08-04-2023, 06:32 PM

Hi !

That's a ludicrous question.
I think he was a great guy and musician.
A great singer and entertainer too.
Have you ever noticed he couldn't use his pinky ?
The first time I saw this it was on an old document, he was young...
And I thought to myself but this guy was a really countryman, he lost his finger while he was working in a field with his family or something like that ?

**Lionelsax** · 08-05-2023, 03:35 AM

No, not in a field but a car accident in 1956.

When Perkins came to, he found that his wife had pleaded with the surgeon not to amputate his badly mangled fingers. The doctor left them on but was skeptical that Perkins would be able to use them again.

“It was a horrible time of my life,” Perkins said.

But even before the cast was taken off his hand, he began strumming his guitar, using only his free, unharmed left thumb to hold down the strings. When the cast came off, Perkins’ left little finger was paralyzed.

“I’d go to sleep each night squeezing on a solid rubber ball” to strengthen the remaining fingers. Perkins taught himself to play without the crippled finger, and the accident has had little, if any, impact on his ability to play a hot, stinging rockabilly guitar.

A Blue-Tinged Life for the Silver Screen : Story of Rock Survivor Carl Perkins Could Be a Sobering, Uplifting Movie - Los Angeles Times