Dependable foil to “unhappy” Chris Bell and “unpredictable” Alex Chilton, mainstay of multiple incarnations of BIG STAR, JODY STEPHENS has kept the band’s torch alight with poise and positivity, alongside roles as Ardent Studio CEO and one half of Those Pretty Wrongs. All this and nearly the drummer in Wings? “Fm a cup-half-full guy,” he tells BILL DEMAIN.

JODY STEPHENS IS TELLING MOJO about the time he could conceivably have joined Wings.

It was 1978, four years after the break-up of Big Star, and the drummer was on a visit to England, home of the pop music inspirations that had fuelled his now famously luckless band. Browsing in an antique shop in Rye, East Sussex, he found himself suddenly face to face with one of them: Beatle Paul McCartney, resident of nearby Peasmarsh, out shopping with wife and bandmate Linda.

As Stephens’s shock and awe subsided, he told the couple he was looking for work. Later, he dropped off a Big Star record at the McCartneys’ MPL offices in London, along with the phone number of his local friend, NME scribe Andrew Tyler. The next day, Tyler’s phone was disconnected.

“So, we’ll never know if Paul called!” Stephens says. “But I hadn’t really played much drums for two years at that point, so I could’ve never passed anybody’s audition.”

We’re standing on the front porch of a Craftsman-era bungalow, in Memphis’s trendy Cooper-Young neighbourhood, on an unseasonably warm January day. Discarded Christmas trees line the kerb and a few lingering inflatables bob in front yards. Our plan to meet at Ardent Studio, where Stephens has risen through the ranks from an assistant to executive over the last 35 years, was upended by renovations. So we’re doing our interview at MOJO’s Airbnb rental. Stephens, with his still Wings-worthy hair, cuffed jeans and Ardent T-shirt, looks remarkably like he did in the ’70s. A bit more grey, a few extra crow’s feet. But it’s difficult to believe he’s just turned 70.

The Big Star in our eyes: Jody Stephens in 2012.

Maude Schuyler Clay, Getty

Just weeks before, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of Big Star’s #1 Record with a sold-out, seven-city tour, leading a starry band of believers – Jon Auer, Mike Mills, Chris Stamey and Patrick Sansone – through note-perfect renditions of its powerpop classics. “The reason I keep going is because of this community,” Stephens says, with a slight Southern lilt. “Not only the fans, but the players. When we’re on-stage, we’re all standing on each other’s shoulders.”

Wilco multi-instrumentalist Sansone says, “Being on-stage with Jody, hearing those drum parts and doing those songs is like playing Beatles tunes with Ringo. And the audience just want to celebrate this music and Jody.”

Hair apparent: Jody Stephens (left) shows Big Star bandmates Alex Chilton (middle) and Andy Hummel who’s boss, 1974.

Photograph: MAUDE

Stephens is the last living member of the original Big Star. Chris Bell died in a car crash in 1978, Andy Hummel and Alex Chilton both passed in 2010. We’re lucky to have him.

“It’s good that we made #1 Record when I was a teenager,” says Stephens, “or I might not have been around to celebrate its 50th anniversary.”