“American Bandstand” host and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” founder Dick Clark once said, “The three most important things that ever happened in the music industry are Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Chubby Checker.”

Considering the latter legend had the Billboard Hot 100’s very first number one song ever, took home the inaugural Grammy Award for “Best Rock And Roll Recording,” became the only artist to ever have a non-holiday single top the charts twice thanks to “The Twist,” landed a whopping five albums in the Top 12 at the same time and was even the earliest to perform a televised Super Bowl halftime show, the statement more than speaks for itself.

Even at 82-years-old, Checker’s been going strong since 1960 and gearing up for the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles on Sunday, July 14, which was the subject of a friendly phone call with Chicago Concert Reviews where he also weighed in on playing a Mount Rushmore-level role in not only shaping music history, but igniting all the dance crazes that continue resonating today.

Can you recall any previous performances around Chicago?

Chubby Checker: It’s very nice to be in the Chicago area. The most important show that I do is the one that I’m doing (laughs). Someone says, “What is your favorite place to play?” I say, “the place that I’m playing” because it took all my life to get there and it’s gonna happen. That’s the most important event. It’s coming up and I’m excited about it.

What exactly do you have planned for the upcoming Arcada Theatre concert?

Checker: I’m gonna be Chubby Checker (laughs). We’re gonna do what Chubby does cause no one else does that but me and it’s just gonna be the kind of show that we do. What’s kept me around all these years is that show that we do, cause it’s like when someone buys chocolate. They don’t come back for the chocolate. They come back for the taste of the chocolate. People come back because of the show that we do and they want to see it again. Some people in Chicago, I knew way back then and their grandchildren are coming to see my show.

What do you see when you look out into the crowd?

Checker: It’s the dance floor. No artist can talk about him having anything to do with the dance floor, except, “I have a song with a beat and people can dance to it.” Chubby can say that the songs that I put out gave us and is giving us the dance floor that we now enjoy because the style of dance that we put out there, before we came along, it wasn’t here. It was “The Twist,” “The Pony,” “The Fly,” “The Shake” and that old dance from 1949 where Paul Williams made a song called “The Hucklebuck.” Frank Sinatra sang it and it wasn’t a hit for him and Ray Anthony did it, it wasn’t a hit for him. Chubby Checker did “The Hucklebuck” and it was a big hit for Chubby Checker. So these five dances, even now, you go out there and you look at your girl, and she’s looking at you, and you’re doing something…Before Chubby Checker put it on the dance floor, it wasn’t there. That’s why Chubby’s music is multi-generational because we put it out there and it’s still out there. Before we were here, it wasn’t out there.

Where do you feel like you fit in the early origins of rock and roll?

Checker: Rock and roll, let’s say it’s a car, and rock and roll has wheels. Chubby Checker put the wheels on there and it’s still going on right now. Somebody who’s the biggest performer right now is still dancing on Chubby Checker’s wheels…Without Chubby Checker, your rock and roll does not have the dance. That’s what we did and it’s still going on.

What role did programs such as “American Bandstand” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” have in helping you get going all those years ago?

Checker: It was really great. Dick Clark and I were pretty close cause his wife gave me my name. His “Bandstand” show was a really great show. It was such a big show [that] when “Bandstand” was coming on TV and “The Ed Sullivan Show” was on, people didn’t go out. The streets were empty because it was the dawn of this music, but when Chubby Checker came along, he put gas on the fire that was already hot, because without the dance that we gave these shows, they wouldn’t have had the same impact as they gave me. It was amazing. I said, “Dick, you gave me my start, but what did I do to you?” After I came on “American Bandstand,” dancing changed right in front of the people’s faces. I mean Chubby Checker changed the dance floor. I once said that, and they didn’t like me for me saying this, I think it was 2001, I said, “I want a statue of Chubby Checker in the courtyard of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because anyone in that building is benefiting from the dances that Chubby Checker put on the dance floor.”

It’s a travesty it’s taken you this long to have been inducted, although I believe the Rock Hall board just recently changed. What is your take on that situation and the status of where it all stands right now?

Checker: That statement I made, I did say to them, “and don’t put me in the building” (laughs). I mean it was back in the day when all this was going on and the fire was just starting to burn. I said, “don’t put me in the building,” not that I’m better than anybody cause I’m not, but I’m giving them something that they’re making a lot of money on. I want to be recognized for that because we did something, but being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I mean, it’s okay to be in there, but the real prize is that I’m still out here performing. That’s better than being in the building, you got me?

You might have the most longevity on the road at this point. What do you think?

Checker: I don’t know, but I just know that if you’re out here performing and people are watching your show and you’re not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you don’t need to be there. I mean it would be nice to be there, but you know, the only thing that’s gonna happen is I’m gonna get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I’m gonna die (laughs). There’s a lot of people in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they’re not with us anymore. I hear their records on the radio, and I know them, and they’re not here anymore. Believe me, when I go and play in that theatre that’s coming up and Chubby Checker’s gonna be there, that is the best award I could ever have. Like I said, when I play there, for Chubby Checker, it’s the most important place on earth.

The amount of records “The Twist” in particular has broken is unprecedented. What one makes you the most proud?

Checker: You know, I think being George Washington of all the music is the most important thing to me. Being George Washington, he was the first President of the United States, and no matter who becomes the President of the United States, George Washington is just there. Would you agree?

Absolutely.

Checker: Well, “The Twist” is the first number one song of all-time. It was number one [as Billboard’s “Greatest Hot 100 Song”] for almost 62 or 61 years. How do you do better than that? The song is not a holiday song now, but it is the only [non-holiday] song to be number one twice. How do you do that and how do we get five albums in the top twelve all at the same time? That’s 60 songs on the hit parade at one time. They don’t have double-sided hits anymore, but I have nine of them. I mean, I’m bringing all that to Chicago. I’m bringing it all to the Arcada Theatre. I don’t want anyone to miss that. I want them to come see what we do. We have an amazing show. It’s just amazing. In fact, we just played a show in a little town in Texas. We were on the bus coming home and I was thinking about this show, how exciting it was. I want to go out, and sit in the audience, and watch Chubby (laughs.) I was excited about it (laughs).

Do you consider having so many huge hits in a row throughout the 1960s to be a blessing or a source of expectations for having to keep on delivering that certain type of sound?

Checker: It just is what it is and I’m able to deliver. I still sing in the same key, how’s that? There you go. It is what it is and I deliver the goods. It sounds as good or better than it did back then. I wouldn’t want to be a person in Chicago that said, “Chubby Checker came to town and I didn’t see his show.” I wouldn’t want to be one of those people. I really wouldn’t want to be cause, maybe in four or five years, or ten years from now, Chubby will be gone, and I came to Chicago, and you missed me. How stupid.

You’re not only singing in the same key, but you look great. What is the secret to this fountain of youth that you hold?

Checker: I just try to hold on to it, you know? And I ask God to take care of me because I can’t do it myself. I just pray. I try to keep it together. I try not to eat too much. I don’t try to overdo anything. I just try to keep it real and I live for the next performance, I really do…I have to say this before it’s all over, I am living my dream. When I was four-years-old, my mother took me to a concert in South Carolina, where we lived, where I was born, and Ernest Tubb was singing on the stage. When I saw Ernest Tubb, that’s all I wanted to do and from the time I was four-years-old…and I’m still living my dream. It’s gonna happen when I come to Chicago. That’s the greatest thing. Who gets a chance to live their dream?

From then until now, you’ve done many different styles of music. We’ve already talked about rock and dance, but can you talk a bit about exploring some disco directions throughout 1970s and hip-hop in the ‘80s?

Checker: I’m glad you asked that (laughs). You know the song called “The Pony”? Well, “The Pony” is a dance and that dance is a dance that hip-hop is doing. In fact, what does a pony do? I think he hips and he hops. I think that the whole hip-hop generation copied Chubby Checker, his style, his dance, not the rap because the rap is frustration from the kids not getting what they want, an injustice in this society, but the style of dance and the way they do it is all about Chubby Checker. They took that, and by the way if you “throw your hands in the air and you wave ‘em like you just don’t care,” you’ve heard about that right?

Of course!

Checker: They must be doing “The Fly” by Chubby Checker, because before that, that never happened! Let’s talk about disco. Let’s go back to “The Pony” again. Now if you took a camera, and went on “American Bandstand,” and you saw them doing “The Pony,” and you slow down the beat, you’re in disco land. People say, “Who does he think he is?” I’m just telling it the way it is. If you slow “The Pony,” “The Fly,” “The Shake,” “The Hucklebuck,” that’s Chubby Checker. All they did was slow down the beat and they didn’t call it anything. They just called it “the boogie.” That’s me! They slowed down the beat, and disco began, but that’s Chubby Checker.

One more thing, I love country music. That’s what got me in the business because I was born before rock and roll. We have an album out there that no one has discovered yet called “The Texas Twist.” Every song on it is the original song and I hope somebody will go to it and discover Chubby Checker in the country world because we do it very well, and we do it on stage when we play.

What collaborations with other artists have stood out to you?

Checker: You know, I have only sang with [Bobby] Rydell and he’s no longer with us anymore. I did a song with Dee Dee Sharp, which was “Slow Twistin’.” I always told her that if she wasn’t there, it wouldn’t have been a hit because she did a great job. But Rydell and I, we did something together and it was very successful, and “Slow Twistin’” with De De turned out very well.

What do you consider to be the most meaningful aspects of your more than six decades in show business?

Checker: Being able to do it. Just being able to do it and look good doing it. That’s the best thing of it all. That’s the prize, like I said, that’s living the dream.

Is there anything you wish would have gone differently?

Checker: I would’ve liked for the industry to have given me more respect by playing my music.

I feel like we still hear a lot of your songs.

Checker: I differ. I don’t think they play my music enough at all, not like I hear other people who have done much less and their music is played much, much more. They don’t have a number one song in the world, the first number one song. I hear their music more than I hear mine.

Even if the radio stations aren’t playing it as much as you’d like, at least it’s all online for people to make it part of their personal playlists. What do you think about the online world and the ability to discover music in that way?

Checker: Yes, it’s amazing! Hey, nobody minds their business anymore, but I’ve got news for you, everything’s better. I love the music. I love the way, if I want something, this telephone that we have right now, that’s the jukebox. I’ve got a thousand songs on my jukebox and my phone is front of me. I can just buy what I want when I hear it on the radio and I can listen to it all I want in my car, wherever I want to. I have the jukebox. Everything’s in my hand. What a great generation.

Are you still recording? Do you have any upcoming projects?

Checker: No I don’t. How do you invent the wheel twice? (Laughs). The first president of the United States, how do you get him back again? (Laughs). The first number one song of all time since God put us on the planet, how am I gonna do that again? I’m just living in the dream (laughs). I am. I’m living it. Hey, there’s a whirlwind going on and I’m right in the whirlwind, still looking at it after all these years. No one can make it better than what I’ve done. No one’s done it yet. I’m waiting for the number one song to become number one twice in 18 months. I’m still waiting. Maybe two thousand years from now, but not right now. Hey, my desire, “play Chubby’s music.” Thank you! That’s my desire. All the people in the music industry, “play Chubby’s music.” It’s not old cause everything I put out here is still out here and it’s still number one. The dance floor is still number one and Chubby put it there. You can’t say I didn’t cause I did.

Do you have any favorite artists that have followed in your footsteps or that you’re supporting right now?

Checker: Actually, I kinda love ‘em all and back in the day I kind of loved ‘em all. “Who do love the most Chubby?” Well, the only people that I can talk about in the music industry that changed everything, that gave me the opportunity to be in rock and roll was Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Everything else were just little fragments that fell off the volcano.

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Chubby Checker performs at the Arcada Theatre on Sunday, July 14. For additional details, visit ChubbyChecker.com and ArcadaLive.com.