Johnnie Frierson

In 1970, Frierson was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army. The experience left him with post-traumatic stress disorder that would haunt him throughout his life.^[10][11]

After returning to Memphis, Frierson largely stayed out of the music business, only releasing one song, the 1975 gospel single "Can You Lose by Following God," as part of the band Whole Truth.^[3] Instead, he worked as a mechanic, carpenter, and teacher.^[1][12]

Another blow came in 1986, when his son died at only 16 years old. A few years later, in 1990, Frierson witnessed a brutal shooting that also scarred him.^[1]

But in the early 1990s, Frierson returned to music. He began hosting a gospel radio show on WEVL, a local freeform radio station.^[3] He also began writing and performing songs, some under the name Khafele Ajanaku; "Khafele" is a name used by the Chewa people that means "Worth Dying For," and "Ajanaku" was a spiritual name for an elephant in Yoruba poetry.^[8][7]

He recorded his new songs himself on a tape recorder at home, selling cassettes at corner stores and gospel music festivals around Memphis. These songs were religious, informed by his gospel beginnings, and the direct-to-tape recordings of Frierson singing and playing guitar have an intimate sound.^[10][13][14]

Meanwhile, his early co-written soul tune "After Laughter (Comes Tears)" was given a second life. It was remixed by the Wu-Tang Clan as "Tearz" in 1993, and Alicia Keys also sampled the song for "Where Do We Go From Here" in 2007.^[6][15][4]

Frierson died in April 2010, at age 64.^[16]

In 2012, his cassette tapes Real Education and Have You Been Good to Yourself were discovered at a thrift store by a local music collector, who recommended them to Light in the Attic Records, a label that specializes in reissues.^[12] Light in the Attic re-released the seven-song collection Have You Been Good to Yourself with the involvement of Frierson's daughter, Keesha, in 2016.^[3][8][10]

Commercial Appeal music critic Bob Mehr described the songs on Have You Been Good to Yourself as both "more melancholy and more meaningful" than Frierson's Stax recordings.^[12] The Memphis newspaper cited the reissue as part of its list of "The Best of Memphis Music" in 2016.^[17]

The song "Miracles" from the album was covered by Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bill Callahan on their 2021 collaborative album Blind Date Party, featuring multi-instrumentalist Ty Segall.^[18] The song "Heavenly Father, You've Been Good" is sampled in Kanye West's 2026 song "Father" featuring Travis Scott.^[19][20]