Band of Legends performing at Delta State

He wore a black t-shirt, black jeans and black boots every day. He had a scruffy beard and a head full of unkempt hair.

He was the janitor at Columbia recording studios in Nashville in the late 1960s, but like most folks in Nashville he had a notebook full of songs.

“I played sessions there every day,” says Norbert Putnam, who also played bass for Elvis Presley and was on his way to a prominent career as a producer. “The janitor said he had been given two hours of studio time and asked me about helping him cut a demo tape to pass around to people.”

Putnam, a former resident of Grenada, got a couple of other musicians to play on it with him.

“We weren’t using headphones, and he kind of mumbled when he sang, and we really couldn’t hear it until we got in the control room and started playing things back,” Putnam recalls. “Once his voice came through, (keyboard player) David Briggs looked at me and said, ‘This guy’s voice is worth a million dollars.”

It was Kris Kristofferson, who went on to a legendary career as a songwriter, performer and actor.

Putnam, 73, has dozens of stories like that.

He is part of “The Band of Legends” that will perform Monday at 7 p.m. at the Bologna Performing Arts Center at Delta State University in Cleveland. Tickets are $35. VIP tickets, which include a meet-and-greet afterward, are $50.

Proceeds will go to the soon-to-open GRAMMY Museum education program in Cleveland.

This may be the best $50 or $35 you could spend all year if you’re a music lover. Playing and sharing stories along with Putnam will be guitarist James Burton, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who inspired George Harrison and got his start as the guitarist on Ricky Nelson’s early hits; and keyboard player Bobby Wood and drummer Gene Chrisman — members of the Memphis Boys session team that played on hundreds of chart-topping hits in the ’60s and ’70s.

Among those hits: The Box Tops’ “Cry Like A Baby” and Dusty Springfield’s “Son Of A Preacher Man.”

The common thread among the four musicians: All were a member of Elvis’ studio and stage band at one time or another.

“We did this program out at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles back in January, and it was fabulous,” says Charly Abraham, who enjoyed success as a musician in Los Angeles in the 1980s and now works as instructor of Entertainment Industry Studies at DSU.

“We all went to this bar across the street from the GRAMMY Museum after the show, and there was a piano player in there playing random hits. Every time he started playing one, one of those guys would pop up and say ‘I played on that record.’ It was like the guy couldn’t play anything that one of them hadn’t played on.

“Then we started talking about how cool it would be to do the same thing back in Mississippi. I think people are going to really enjoy listening to them play and hearing their stories.”

Putnam is a walking, talking music library.

He was a member of the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

He helped Jimmy Buffett and Dan Fogelberg launch their careers as a producer. He knew Michael Jackson when the iconic singer/dancer was 12 years old.

He played on sessions with Tony Joe White, The Monkees, Tommy Roe, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Roy Orbison, Dave Loggins, Linda Rondstadt and dozens of others.

In addition to Buffett and Fogelberg, he produced Donovan, Joan Baez, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Brewer & Shipley.

It all started with a challenge from his dad.

“I don’t think he meant it to be, but that’s the way my ears heard it,” Putnam says, laughing. “My dad worked in the insurance business and played bass in a band part time. He actually had the opportunity to join a band with Autry Inman in Nashville that had just signed a record deal. But my dad told him, ‘I’ve got two young sons. I can’t do it.’

“So when I came along and started inquiring about playing the bass in a little group we were putting together among friends, he said ‘Oh, I don’t want you getting involved with music. We’re going to start our own insurance company and you can make a good living that way.’ That was my future, all plotted out.

“He said, ‘I’ll show you how to tune it, but you will never make any money with it.’ And I heard those words for years. They drove me.”

Putnam never said, “I told you so” to his dad. “He thought the rock and roll I was playing on was nothing but noise, anyway,” he says. “But one day I called him and said, ‘Hey, Dad. Tomorrow night, your son will be playing with Chet Atkins and I’ll be arranging all the orchestral parts.’ He blurted out, ‘You’re not!’ I finally impressed him by playing with someone he thought was great.”

Putnam recently moved back home to Florence, Alabama, with his wife of 25 years, Sheryl. I’ve known Norbert for 15 years now, and he seems to never have a bad day. He never brags. He enjoys helping others. He truly is one of the good guys.

“I’m just glad we can all get together and play and reminisce and maybe inspire a new generation of youngsters,” he says. “It’s something I enjoy doing — especially in Mississippi, which has such a rich history.”

One more thing about that janitor story: By agreeing to help Kristofferson record his demo at no charge, it led to Putnam producing Joan Baez’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” It sold nearly 2 million copies and instantly made Putnam an in-demand producer.

“That’s just kind of the way my life has worked,” he says. “I couldn’t have dreamed all this.”

Contact Billy Watkins at (769) 257-3079 or bwatkins@jackson.gannett.com. Follow BillyWatkins11 on Twitter.