You know, being an entertainer is partly being on the road, and a lot of your songs come from the road.
Mel Tillis
And they turned around and leased it to The Assembly Of God Churches - their headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri. They leased it to them for the first year. Then, after the first year, they will donate it to the church.
You have to insulate yourself - I'm talking about from everything, people can be talking to you and you won't hear 'em - that's how you write a song. And I haven't been able to do that over here 'cause I'm so busy and then, when I am off, I want to get away from music.
I remember li'l ol' Hank Jr. - he was just a baby back in them days, you know - but he used to hang around. His mama would bring him around. He was just a natural.
And you know, we'd go to church. We were Baptists. And every now and then there'd be a tent would set up, and it was the Holiness folks. And we liked their music.
I didn't get to meet Hank Williams. I was in the Air Force on Okinawa when he passed away.
I'm not retiring.
No, my son's a songwriter and he does that.
I'm gonna do between 75 and 100 dates. A lot of it will be in Laughlin, Nevada; I'll be there for two weeks. And I'll work some casinos here and there, and the fair dates.
And then, when I started to school, I found out I couldn't talk.
And I had to take care of a little dog too named Suzy. It was the promoter's wife's - Judy Lynn's - it was her dog. And one of my duties going on the tour was to take care of it.
Or in the early days we didn't have the bus, we had a station wagon.
Well, no, you can prepare it all you want, but I'd still stutter.
But if you put a script up in front of me to read, or a cue card, I couldn't do it without stuttering.
And I began to tell little anecdotes that had happened to me, and people would laugh. And I began to like that, you know. But I knew that, 'cause I'd do that in school, but I wouldn't do it out there in front of all them people.
And I got to know Red Foley well. And I got to know Lefty really well, he was a great guy.
And my daddy could play a harmonica and also the guitar, so I guess I got a little bit from both of 'em, but I think mostly from my mother's side of the family.
But I've got a lot of ideas, I bought me a ranch in Florida and I still have my farm in Ashland City, Tennessee so I'm gonna spend a little time at each one of those places and you'll probably hear some more songs out of me.
But in those days - in the mid-'50s, early '60s - there was less than 300 radio stations that were playing country music and a lot of that wasn't full time.
But now I've been in the arena for 47 years and I stutter less today than I did in those days.
But Patsy, she was a great, great girl. And Brenda Lee is a wonderful person, and her mama Grace. I've known those folks for years and years and years.
I'll do about 13 shows in Branson next year, and I'll be performing at the Grand Palace.
Well, you know, back then there wasn't many albums, it was the singles. You sold singles.
You know, it comes from my mother's side of the family. She had seven sisters and one brother, and all of them could play instruments. I suppose I picked it up from that.
