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Rock 'n' roll 'n' roux

A musical chef treats the homeless to a show and a pot of gumbo.

By Anne Lindberg, Times Staff Writer
Published February 16, 2008

Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton belts out a high note while playing for residents of the Pinellas Hope homeless shelter Friday. As he and his band played the blues, a vat of chicken and seafood gumbo simmered onstage with them.
	[Edmund D. Fountain | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Edmund D. Fountain | Times] "It's a big soup kitchen wherever I am, and I bring the kitchen," says Bill Wharton, left. Wharton and his bandmates Jim Jenness, center, and John Jones played a blues concert and shared gumbo at the Pinellas Hope homeless shelter Friday.

PINELLAS PARK

The pungent smell of sliced onions permeated the air as a man in a crisp, white chef's coat and hat stirred a vat of boiling salted water and chicken stock with an oarlike wooden paddle.

He stepped from behind the vat and turned his attention to the guitar slung around his neck. The twang of the guitar heralded the start of a song, enthusiastically belted out: "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SON, LOOK OUT! LET THE BIG DOG EAT!"

The thumping beat of the music attracted people from all corners of Pinellas Hope, the temporary homeless shelter at 5726 126th Ave. N on the edge of Pinellas Park. Soon, the camp's residents were tapping their feet, swaying their bodies and nodding their heads in time to the music of Bill Wharton, who goes by the name "Sauce Boss."

Wharton, who is in town to perform today and Sunday at the Florida State Fair in Tampa, had stopped by Pinellas Hope on Friday to cook gumbo and entertain the homeless. It's a labor of love he's been performing for the past five years. He's become so well known for his championship of the homeless that Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about him called I Will Play for Gumbo.

"It's a big soup kitchen wherever I am, and I bring the kitchen," Wharton said. "I like sharing (and) I'm doing my own thing - totally."

Wharton, 60, who is soft-spoken when he's not belting out a song, is an Orlando native who has been playing professionally since he was 14. He spent years traveling around the United States, Canada and Europe playing original music and some blues written by others.

Somewhere along the way, he invented a hot sauce, Liquid Summer, made with the datil pepper, a Florida product.

The sauce "just kind of wormed its way into my act," he said. The gumbo came later after he spent an evening watching Shirley Neal, the wife of fellow entertainer Raful Neal, make the soup.

"I watched her like a hawk," he said. He started cooking gumbo while performing his music on New Year's Eve 1989, and "150,000 bowls later, here we are."

Five years ago, he was invited to bring his song-and-gumbo act to the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in Orlando. Wharton's life was changed. Not only was he energized by the reaction of the homeless, the television coverage of his act highlighted the plight of a population that many forget exists. Wharton formed a charitable corporation called Planet Gumbo, and he's been cooking soup and playing free for the homeless ever since, in addition to his paid gigs.

"I thought I was pretty cool before this ever happened, but I didn't have a clue," Wharton said.

Wharton said his message for the homeless is that "if I can do this, you can do this." He also has a message for the more fortunate: "tolerance of all people."

Wharton said he believes he's one of many who herald a "change in the air."

"I think people are over the things that happened in the '90s: corporate greed and the lack of concern for our brothers and our sisters."

IF YOU GO

The Sauce Boss

Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton is scheduled to play at 1 and 3 p.m. today and Sunday at the Florida State Fair. Gates open at 9 a.m.; parking is free, and so is the Sauce Boss' concert with fair admission. The Florida State Fairgrounds is 7miles east of downtown Tampa, with easy access via Interstate 75, Interstate 4, U.S. 301, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Orient Road. To learn more about Wharton, visit www.sauceboss.com or www.planetgumbo.org.

[Last modified February 16, 2008, 00:01:03]