He may have written ‘The Letter’ and be one of New Orleans’ favorite reclusive musicians, but Alex Chilton will forever be remembered as the man who made Big Star shine.

Alex really isn’t interested in doing interviews … ."

  Big Star drummer Jody Stephens is amiably doing his part to promote the upcoming New Orleans appearance, answering questions via telephone from Memphis, but the band’s enigmatic leader remains, perhaps predictably, indifferent if not elusive. Alex Chilton may be better known locally for his idiosyncratic, charmingly offhanded solo career, but to a legion of disciples around the world, the now-reclusive New Orleans resident will always be the patron saint of power pop, the man behind Big Star.

  On New Year’s Eve, Chilton joins Stephens for a rare Big Star reunion show at the Howlin’ Wolf. Accompanying Chilton and Stephens, as they have since the first Big Star reunion in 1993, are Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Seattle band the Posies. Auer and Stringfellow will open the show with an acoustic set. In recent years, Chilton downplays such gigs; he appreciates their attraction for fans, and enjoys doing them, but is unassuming about his role in one the 1970s’ most important bands.

  In an era of ponderous, overblown rock, Big Star emerged from Memphis with songs about girls and a sound that combined a Byrds-and-Beatles-inspired melange of jangling guitars, soaring harmonies and sparkling melodies with raw, stripped-down garage rock. Years later, Big Star became a touchstone for a generation of acts that tried to combined shimmering guitar pop with punk-rock ferocity, only then it had a name – power pop.

  Big Star’s influence continues to be felt today. When the Fox television series That ’70s Show debuted in 1998, the producers chose "In the Street," a song from Big Star’s 1972 album, #1 Record (Ardent), as the show’s theme song. "It’s one of those things that started people talking about Big Star again," Stephens says of the show, which features a re-recording of "In the Street" by none other than Cheap Trick. "The press has been really nice to us in that regard. It keeps the name in front of everybody, like it’s done since the band began."

  They didn’t sell many records in their day, but it seems as though everyone who bought one started a band.  

  That oft-cited rock criticism about the Velvet Underground could apply equally well to Big Star. Robyn Hitchcock, the Bangles, R.E.M., the dB’s, Matthew Sweet, Teenage Fanclub, the Afghan Whigs, Garbage and Elliot Smith are a few of the artists who have paid tribute to Big Star on record or in print. In 1987, the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg went so far as to write a song called "Alex Chilton" (on Pleased to Meet Me) to express his reverence for Big Star’s leader. "I never travel far," Westerberg sings, "without a little Big Star."

  Alex Chilton first attracted attention as the gravelly voiced teenager who sang the Box Tops’ 1967 hit "The Letter." He dropped out of that band in 1969 to concentrate on writing his own material. In 1971, Chilton hooked up with high school friend Chris Bell, a talented songwriter who shared Chilton’s passion for mid-60s rock. The guitarist and vocalist Bell had recently started a band with Stephens and bass player Andy Hummel. When Chilton joined, the band changed its name from Ice Water to that of a local grocery store chain that happened to be located across the street from their recording studio. Big Star signed a deal with Ardent Records, a new label affiliated with Ardent Studios in Memphis, and their debut album, #1 Record, was released in September 1972.

  The record, a sparkling collection of melodic pop and adrenaline-fueled rock, earned unanimous raves from critics, but glitches in the record company’s distribution doomed the record to failure.

  Stephens says that from the start, he knew Big Star was different. "While I thought we had made a wonderful record and something that I was excited about, I just didn’t know how excited the rest of the world would be," Stephens says. "We weren’t playing anything that was keeping with what was popular. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I didn’t expect successful records."

  Bell quit the band shortly after the release of #1 Record, reportedly upset that his contributions were being overshadowed by the better-known Chilton. Bell died in a car accident in 1978. A number of songs he recorded after leaving Big Star were eventually issued by Rykodisc in 1992, earning him posthumous praise and proving that #1 Record was a collaborative effort between the two.

  The band’s next record, 1974’s Radio City, reached even greater heights than its predecessor. Chilton’s luminous "September Gurls" and the Chilton-Hummel collaboration "Back of a Car" became instant classics on a strange, captivating album without a weak track to be found. Again, the record earned nothing but stellar reviews and, again, it disappeared without a trace. Hummel soon left the fold, leaving Chilton and Stephens as a duo.

  It was against the backdrop of his band falling apart and his relationship with his then-girlfriend disintegrating that Chilton began work on the record that would eventually come be called Third or Sister Lovers. Working with producer Jim Dickinson, Chilton created a compulsively dark, gloomy, haunting album. Songs like "Kangaroo," "Holocaust" and "Big Black Car" are pop music equivalents to German expressionism, with arrangements that splinter into haunting noise. It was the sound of a nervous breakdown, and it didn’t see the light of day until 1978, long after Big Star had dissolved.

  "I don’t know if I thought of what was going on in a real positive light at the time," Stephens says of the record. "In one respect, I thought there were some great songs. In another respect, I thought it was too emotionally honest in songs like "Kangaroo" and "Downs." I thought those songs were possibly too effective at relating what Alex was going through at the time. But in retrospect, after having people tell me that they were going through some rough times and the album helped them to get through those times, I’ve come to realize that it was just a brilliant effort at capturing Alex’s emotional state at the time."

  Big Star broke up in 1974, and Chilton began a long, meandering period. He recorded occasionally, releasing scattershot, occasionally brilliant albums like Bach’s Bottom, Like Flies on Sherbert and Live in London, and playing drums with Memphis rockabilly band Panther Burns and producing Songs the Lord Taught Us and Gravest Hits for the Cramps.

  In the early ’80s, Chilton relocated to New Orleans and sobered up. Since then, he’s pursued his own eccentric course over a series of records that showcase his wildly eclectic tastes. He’s performed everything from vintage R&B to jazz standards to kitschy pop songs. His most recent record, Set (Bar/None Records), is a mostly R&B collection of songs recorded live in the studio, including versions of "Lipstick Traces," "You’s a Viper" and Brenton Wood’s "Oogum Boogum."

  Over the years, Chilton has at times embraced his work with Big Star and at other times disclaimed it. While fans might hope otherwise, Chilton has made it clear that Big Star gigs, like the oldies-circuit Box Tops tours he occasionally participates in, are first and foremost paychecks.  "If people offer us good money and it’s not too much trouble, then why not?" Chilton told New Musical Express in 1993, answering the question of whether future Big Star performances were in the cards. The money evidently good and the drive across town evidently not too much trouble, Alex Chilton will happily indulge fans in the pleasures of Big Star’s pop.

  He is happy, isn’t he?

  "He wouldn’t do it in a million years if he didn’t have fun," Stephens says. "I’ve never seen Alex do anything he didn’t want to do." .