Clarence Sims, best known by his stage name, Fillmore Slim, is a blues vocalist and guitarist with five albums to his credit. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was also a known pimp in San Francisco, referred to several times as "The West Coast Godfather of the Game" and "The Pope of Pimping".
Early life
Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, Fillmore began learning about the blues at an early age. "I done lived the blues," he once said in an interview. "The blues is about picking cotton, working in the fields, living in the streets, and you know I did all these things." In 1955, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, playing by himself in the street and later starting a band called Eddy N and The Blues Slayers. During this time he had a relationship with Etta James before she achieved her fame as a blues singer and recorded a few 45 rpm records himself. His most successful record from this time was titled "You Got the Nerve of a Brass Monkey".
Pimping
Fillmore's life took a dramatic turn when one night, while playing a blues bar in Midland, Texas, he noticed a young woman who kept coming in and out of the bar. As he tells it, "Finally, she came up to me and said, "I like you. I want you to have this money." I asked her how she got all that money. She finally told me she was a hooker. I asked her what a hooker did, and she broke it on down for me." Upon returning to California, he relocated to San Francisco, bringing the girl along with him for extra income. He continued working as a musician, playing in Fillmore District clubs like the Trees Pool Hall and the old Fillmore Theater. He even scored gigs opening for B.B. King and Dinah Washington. Eventually, however, Fillmore found the lure of pimping too strong and effectively left music behind. He built up a stable of prostitutes and had anywhere from ten to twenty two women working Fillmore Street every day. His wardrobe consisted of sharkskin suits, alligator shoes and diamond watches, and he could often be seen cruising up and down Fillmore Street in a new Cadillac. In the documentary American Pimp, Fillmore estimates that, in his entire career as a pimp, he had over 9,000+ prostitutes.
Return to music
Fillmore Slim became friends with Eli's owner Troyce Key, who admired Slim's musical stylings and eventually recorded his first album called Born to Sing the Blues, released in 1987. In 1996 Fillmore Slim updated/re-released, Born to Sing the Blues, on the Mountain Top label. Several years of touring and playing gigs followed, which led to a record deal in 1999 with Fedora Records and an album called Other Side of the Road, released in 2000. Fillmore has released more albums/CDs in the years since with a trilogy of CDs on Mountain Top Records: The Game, The Legend of Fillmore Slim, and The Blues Playa's Ball; that tell his story in his own words and music. Fillmore Slim's song writing talents, and musicianship have garnered several awards including being inducted into the Bay Area's West Coast Blues Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Lowell Fulson "Jus' Blues" Award in Memphis in 2011. Since his musical resurgence, Fillmore has found his largest fanbase to be in Europe, where he's played the Zurich Blues Festival and the Blues Estafette in Utrecht, Holland, and France, among others.
