J D SUMNER STORY

foreign [Music] foreign born November 19 1924 in Lakeland Florida to Leela Lee and John Sumner a baby boy was christened John Daniel Sumner the youngest of four children he would soon be known as JD when I was a kid I was raised up in a Pentecostal Church in June we had a big camp meeting in while I'm on the Florida and Frank stamps was my idol when I was four years old he came to the Church of God camp meeting in Florida and some stand by me to 10 000 people without a microphone and my mother said that I said that night that me four years old I was going to be a bass singer just like Mr Frank stamps times were hard and JD spent most of his time farming with his father his mother worked in a canning Factory and this is where he met the love of his life Mary JD and Mary were wet on June 14 1941. JD was just 16 years old and his bride the tender age of 17. in 1943 the sumners adopted a little girl named Francis and shortly thereafter JD was drafted into the army while in basic training Mary learned she was expecting another baby shortly before um his unit was to be shipped overseas daddy received word from the family that mother was giving birth you know prematurely and that because you know she was so small and it was so early that they weren't expecting made to live and you know somewhat dangerous for mother too [Music] of course they they had you know they had previously adopted my sister Francis and she at that time was somewhere between three and four and so the army gave daddy leave to to come home but while he was at home with the family going through this crisis his company was shipped out so instead of him going overseas he served stateside soon after his discharge JD's professional singing career would have humble beginnings as the base singer for The Sunny South quartet replacing Big Chief weatherington members of the popular Sunny South included Horace Floyd Roger Clark Quentin Hicks and Jay Cass we moved to Tampa after he joined the sunny South and you know I remember him going off every weekend that was his early Beginnings in a in a quartet we were very poor we lived in the project until we moved basically to Atlanta when he joined the sunshine boys I first saw JD with the sunshine boys way back younger I can't remember when I was a small kid and uh of course Jody was a a great singer and he had this Aura around him it drew the attention to him you know and I was in all of him tell you the truth about it those were just you know great times and it was it was when the family began to realize that Daddy was actually I think in Show Business there's some hilarious stories about like wylene and Mosey Lister coming down for dinner and and you know mother trying to serve dinner by candlelight but I'm sure our dinner was probably fried chicken and pork and beans and gravy because I mean that was just that was like filet mignon does so I finally got to join a quartet it was from Atlanta the sunshine boards they were very low on the totem pole so we moved on Boulevard place and up the street was Mosey Lister and his wife and I thought the best way to get him was the big boys was to have them now for supper so we invited them down for supper my wife fixed supper and had candles and everything on the table we were trying to really Act like one of the boys and in my thyroid glands had swollen up and so always eating separated on the candlelight I said I was raised Pentecostal and I never think so God hadn't I never heard the word hemorrhoid if you'd have said that at our house you've got a whipping you know it was nasty so I knew nothing about no roids you know I didn't do it so I I reached up and I said man my hemorrhoids is killing me and Moses said well if they're up that high and I wonder in order to travel to their growing singing engagements across the country the sunshine boys purchased a 1947 Cadillac limousine that had a worn out wheel bearing shortly after they soon realized they'd purchased a lemon they insured the car hoping for the chance to collect on a better ride we had a 47 Cadillac nine passenger we were going along and JD was driving and the wheel bearing was going out in the back and it was going grinding like that see I said JD you might better stop he said I said it'd be okay so he kept driving they said don't stop just keep driving maybe to catch on fire Bruno collect the insurance on it so I drove and drove them so we got into Lewis Town's an all-night service station there JD pulled right up in the service station right in front of the gas pumps we all got out and he went around to the back to look up under to see what was what was happening we knew it was a wheel bearing but we couldn't tell which one it was so I'll pull into the filling station and just time I stopped Ablaze it did catch you on fire it started burning right under the gas tank the guy from the service station came running out and he said I'll call the fire department JD says mind your own business it's insured and it would wore out anyway well I didn't know right across the street was the state's school for firemen they had 400 fire right across the street and here they come with them old and completely run the car of course they saved it I mean they saved it which was bad luck and then of course uh if we all we could do was drive it to where it was the way for about two months after that had a great big hole burned in the back seat and that that burnt cotton didn't smell too well for a couple of months after that the Lord I think sort of punished is for trying to collect insurance on wheel bearing in 1950 the sunshine boys were back into the Silver Screen to Star as singing Cowboys for Columbia Pictures they appeared in over 19 westerns with cowboy Stars Charles Starrett and smiley Burnett of course I was raised in a form and knew how to ride horses and but certainly didn't know anything about the movies and the worst thing that happened to me was I was so big and tall there were very few people that was my size so they had nothing to fit me so they had to get brand new clothes for me and they got me a pretty cowboy hat I had a handkerchief up here brand new shirt boots man I look good so I come on the set for the director said who in the H Do You Think You Are you are not Charles Sterrett you know he said come here he got my hat down and throw it in the ground and stopped it and just took my shirt and towards my hands you forgot everything why ended up putting the dirt rubbing it on I looked pretty bad when I got through what did start but it was something that was an experience and a singing in in the movies and being a cowboy it was a lot of fun my first uh remembrances of JD and the Sunshine boys we had made some remark that they'd heard or they heard we'd made a remark something regarding the sunshine boys that they uh didn't feel as complimentary or something so they said the next time that Blackwood Brothers Sunshine boys met that they were going to whip us and supposedly that Ace Richmond who's a manager of the sunshine boys he was he was going to fight RW and JD was going to fight me and so as JD was six six and I was five six so if that fight had come off at my the top of my head and JD's shins would have really been sore a recent survey made by the National Association of Music Merchants to determine the most popular kind of music in America found it to be religious music of all types and within this field of entertainment it is generally conceded that the top Gospel quartet in the nation is the Blackwood Brothers quartet over 2 million Blackwood Brothers RCA Victor records have been sold throughout the United States their recordings have been shipped to almost every country in the world with the exception of those countries behind the Iron Curtain music and record shops Across the Nation feature hundreds of backward records and Sheet Music Millions from Maine to California listened daily to several hundred radio stations featuring Blackwood brothers recordings and the very popular Blackwood Brothers radio program the quartet has made guest appearances on the Coast to Coast Radio Networks of NBC CBS and ABC during June 1954 the Backwoods appeared on Arthur Godfrey's talent scouts a CBS Television Network show they walked away with top honors and literally rocked the Applause leader Beyond this maximum the producer of the show stated that the quartet Drew more spontaneous Acclaim than anyone else they had ever had to appeared let me rise [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] swing dance [Music] [Applause] for three and a half weeks after our appearance on the Godfrey show we had a plane crash in Clanton Alabama with the time of traveling by private plane already Blackwood my nephew was the pilot Bill Lyles our base was the co-pilot and in a crash in a fire rate crash in Clanton Alabama on the 30th of June 1954. RW black wasn't Bill Lyles were both killed in the plane the concert that night with the blackwoods and Statesman was to have been held in the airport hangar in this little town and RW and Bill had taken the plane up late afternoon to check something out and something went wrong in the attempted land and it crashed I was standing watching it as were several hundred people who had already gathered for the concert and I started running toward it before it ever hit the ground I could see my nephew r.w still trapped in his seat Through the flames immediately went up in flames and I was told that I started in to the plane not knowing what I was doing I was a State of Shock someone picked me up from behind and held me and carried me off the field for some years I did it really didn't dawn on me who it was because I was in such a State of Shock at the time some years later Jake Hess said do you remember who it was kept you from going in that Burning Plane I said no I really don't he said it was me he said I just had to manhole you handle you and hold you and keep you from going in it as the Statesman put me in their car I took me to Memphis that night I said I'd never sing again I was through over there we just wanted to God for show and top selling record thousands of people coming out to hear us highest point in our career and it all went up in flames I didn't think I could ever sing again and I don't think it was my prayers and I think it was the prayers of thousands of people praying for me that God showed me still had something left forward to do so almost immediately I reorganized the quartet you know after the plane crash we lost rwn and Bill Lyles talking about day or two after about he said he'd never sing again and so on and so forth I told him well he had to sing you know that's why God put him here to do that was his job and that was his calling in life and so on so the people expect him he said who would I get for basing and I said JD Sumner looked at Minnesota grand okay but I said you're gonna need somebody to take care of things to help hit everything up and not only does the same base he wouldn't be comparing JD to Bill Lyles because it's like oranges and apples and if you get some smooth boss bass singer in here he will never be as good as still alive so I convinced him that's what he should do George Jones said that he came over and auditioned I don't remember it but other people says he did too I wasn't exactly what they was looking for uh I was a kind of a smooth bass singer like on a type of Bill allows not anywhere near that good but that tap you know and they was looking for something completely different which was a good move for them you know I remember that I considered two or three other bass singers and somebody gave me a little 45 record of JD singing oh happy day I listened to that record and it intrigued me and interested me him singing the way he sang it so I called JD told to ask him if he'd be interested in enjoying us and told him I'd either give him a salary of so much or he could buy into the group as a full partner and he said well do you want to think about it and pray about it so a few days later he called me back said he felt this Lord's will did he come and wanted to buy in as a full partner which he did and the Blackwood Brothers quartet when I got the chance after the airplane crashed and the manager to work at age regiments did good George said y'all thank you I think you're an artist why he cried a quartet is is like a family you know you fuss invite and touch one another but uh bottom line you love one another game again [Music] foreign [Music] then I really got it send those guys up there and those great suits and those Great Haircuts and those and mustaches and uh it was amazing to me it was like seeing those were stars [Music] [Applause] inside the game I'd like to point out that that low low voice there belongs to JD Sumner America's lowest bass singer and now let's pause for a moment while a friend of yours brings you a very important message it would say this idea to get a bus and he's got a lot of ribbing about that I remember somebody in the group said well we could get a train car you know and do them down in the country of in a train car somebody said well I could get a boat and go down the rivers you know in a boat back in the early days when you get through there's two in the front three in the back a five-man quartet whatever two hours you switched you know but the one in the middle in the back when you went to sleep your legs would fall over on the other guys with you so you took your belt off strapped it around your knees and buckled it and folded your arm and went to sleep like that so when you relax when you went to sleep your legs wouldn't fall over on other guys you know so those were rough days traveling that was the best idea he ever had because it's you know it's nice to get in that bunk and go to sleep and pull that curtain around you and read a book and then be like this for 500 miles guy I don't pin run on one side and Bill Gaither on the other that's between ugly and ugly I kept bugging James and Jane Fonda said if you think you can do it do it and uh so uh the 37 area code customize it at first we put in five big recliner chairs in the bus we'd sit in those daytime and lean them back and sleep in them at night and then we put in some bunk beds and first we put in inner spring mattresses that didn't work because it bounced too bad going up and down the highway so we took those out and put in about six inch foam rubber mattresses that worked when I was in the Army I used to take uh Patriots home and always had a pool and I had meal private compartment the law said man would that be something that has the same thing the bus when JD got the bus I said it isn't practical it won't work and coming in from left Little Rock one Sunday afternoon going into Fort Worth and he said but I don't you would get on the bus and talk to you about some things but when I got on the bus he had my bed ready and all that sort of stuff I went back there and and went to sleep and I woke up in Fort Worth so we uh George and I got over down that record at the coffee shop and told him that we thought we needed both of us to get a bus and so what we agreed and we went to Dallas and bought two buses just to like you know had those twin buses the bus is the greatest I think it's the greatest thing I've done I'm proud of that anything traveling by bus was not JD's only Innovation to help Propel the gospel music industry forward it was also JD's idea to begin an annual Convention of quartets we were talking one day and JD said it would be nice sometimes we'd have concerts around the country where I would have two or three maybe quartets together but he said it'd be nice if we had a time and a place every year where all the groups came together for perhaps a weekend or a Friday and Saturday and I always tried to get try to get the sunshine boards to do it and I was with them and they wouldn't do it and and I came with Blackwood Brothers with James finally got sold on the idea so we couldn't call it the camp meeting of gospel music so we just called the national quartet convention and at the same time we we organized The Gospel Music Association GMA and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame we had our attorneys secure the charter for all three of these organizations the national quartet convention Gospel Music Association and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the first quartet convention was in 1957 in Memphis Tennessee although JD would be the innovator of these great institutions he was most proud of the friendships he cherished I thank the friendship between Daddy and Jack Hess was cultivated by two kids you know just having this burning desire to do nothing but sing um I mean they were in the very you know together in the very first quartet that I think each one of them basically sang in Jake is my godfather they've always been friends they've they've been you know for each other and a part of each other's life since since I have a memory I don't know anyone that any two guys that had a desire to sing in a male quartet more than George and I did of course those of you that know me know that I called him George and here's how he got that name we had been somewhere to sing one morning and we stopped at this restaurant to have breakfast and there was an extra chair there and so um the the waitress said well what does he want I said oh and Jade is it who she said who's and I said oh he's gone to the bathroom with somewhere he'll be back I said just bring him uh scrambled eggs and JD said no he he doesn't have scrambled eggs he wants his eggs over medium I said no you want scrambled eggs and JD said over meet him so we ordered one egg scrambled and one over medium and then she said well what meat would he like I said bacon crisp she said no sausage and we kicked that thing round and round and finally we ended up he got one egg scrambled and one egg over medium and he got ham and the manager of the quartet got mad and walked out on us and anyway we referred to the guy the Invisible Man there's George it's only fitting that we should keep that going so that's where I started calling J.D George and I called him that for 52 years but I want you to I just want you to know just how close George and I really are you see George smokes I get cancer I'm telling this through [Applause] last year I was nominated for the Gospel Music Hall of Fame George was inducted we were up in Ohio James told you part of this story I wasn't feeling too well that morning so I took a laxative then affect me did George was still close Joe [Applause] the first time I met TD I think it was something I'm not real good at dates places but I think it was Greenwood South Carolina the Blue Ridge and the and the blackwoods were working together and back in those days we went on First and sometimes Elmo and the guys would sing a few songs then all of a sudden Elmo would pick somebody out of the group to do a couple of solos while they went in the back and just hung out a while you know so that night to ask me to do a couple solos men men can against the piano player stayed out there without Sanger solo and then I told Katie I said I was going to do something silly I said give me a key candy said what key I said don't ever say to you I does it may be in the wrong key I said no just just give me a roll of piano and I did the Laughing Song For The First Time at night and uh and uh well a little bit later when we walked off stage when we threw their stand I passed JD JD shook my hand and he said anybody that can be that big idiot I want to be their friend so we were friends for 42 years JD and I yeah in 1963 the blackwoods purchased the Stamps Quartet Music Company and with it inherited the Stamps Quartet the now struggling Stamps Quartet needed a boost and JD had a plan in 1965 he came to me and he said I think to make this work I'm going to have to sing in the Stamps Quartet I can travel with them so we just swap bass singers Big John Hall came to us and he went with the Stamford quartet [Music] looking ahead no trouble come my way he understands he's with me all the way foreign [Music] he will be my God [Music] thank you [Music] he will be my God [Music] I was working for JD had a talent agency called Sue more talent agency I'd had a group since 1959 decided to get off the road and so I went to work at his talent agency and I got a call one day and he said we're losing our baritone singer and I need you to fill in until I can audition somebody and so I filled in ever since when I joined the group it was JD and Ed Enoch Bill bass and then myself and Ronnie May played the piano they don't worry about telling that old story of Salvation and a dedicated life in the good old days when they preached Amazing Grace in the good old days at the whole country church we would gather up at that old camp meeting ground and the saints of God would shout and sing and pray I can still hear them singing of those hymns and they're ringing in my heart as they did way back then saints of God would start crying singing marching up to Zion and they'd sing until they said the last they made I can still see the tears stained at the foot on the altar made by Sinners who were running out of time then the glory started rolling and the veils from Heaven told it when the biggest tear stain made was [Music] mine's Amazing Grace [Music] in the good old days [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] during those early years a young man from Memphis Tennessee became a huge fan and was greatly influenced by Gospel quartet music the young man was Elvis Presley we attended First Assembly of God Church in Memphis and Elvis attended Sunday school there as a young boy he would come to our we had a singing every month at the auditorium in Memphis Gospel sing and Elvis uh came to it and we all became acquainted with him there and uh one month he we didn't see him at the singing JD asked him why weren't you at the singing he said well I didn't have the money to buy a ticket so JD said well you don't have to buy a ticket just come to the stage door we let you in any time Elvis was in town he always came out and uh listened to the gospel music and the conventions he certainly was excited about the convention I remember one year we had him come to Convention and the colonel wouldn't let him sing but I introduced him and the fan just I mean just came to the stage our fans would would criticize they criticized me when I started to work with Elvis but did you bring Elvis there and you it almost like rock and roll they were just excited about him and uh as anybody else but he came and we had both buildings full and he walked around the stage covered both sides of the building he walked around and he swayed his hips when he walked and when he got through the crowd was just I mean the people was trying to get on the stage it was gospel fans and so uh when he got all the way around well then I decided because I introduced him he was my buddy I introduced him so I decided I was going to do the same walk he did and then through my back I was born I was trying to sway my hips the way he was he always said that he would never be a backup for anyone he knew that by taking that responsibility of doing something that that he was you know ridiculed the entire business was against you know him going with Elvis they just they couldn't believe it but he knew he was setting up a platform by which he would be able to sing gospel music to more people you know than probably anyone in our business had ever had the capability of doing at the time today was wanted us to come sing with him uh he had had the Imperials and uh uh they had a double booking so he got a hold of me and uh it so happened at that time I had a quartet that was capable I had Richard sturban who is now with The Oak Ridge Boys sang in The Bass if I had two base singers and so I booked him mainly just so that I wouldn't have to work I was going to go along and play golf you know which I brought on the plane and but when we got there he said no I got you a mic by yourself I want some of those 56 endings and what he meant by that was [Music] low stuff and uh he made me sing with him when we went with Elvis Presley it was a an interesting situation because we were criticized a lot by the some of the gospel music followers and JD had a saying about that that I thought was rather amusing he always got up and in a lot of places and when he was going to explain it in a gospel concert he'd say I used to always say that I wouldn't sing with that old Elvis until I got the chance if we had the chance we took the chance and because we took the chance we were able eventually to work into a spot of starting the Elvis show every single night with 20 minutes of gospel music the very first words that anybody heard on the Elvis Presley show was tell me the story of Jesus he called me and said you want you do me a favor okay he said I want you to open the shoulder knife the sweets are upset so I said my God that's what I've been waiting on so I got my boys together and I said we're going to open the show tonight or Elvis and one of them said well I can sing uh West Virginia and he doesn't say I can say by the time I get to Phoenix I said no you you don't get the idea we're going to say gospel and uh I said that's our new music we got two standing ovations and uh they always told me he said I always wondered if gospel music would go on my show and he said you proved it tonight so from now on come at your high water uh you're going to be you're going to open the show I said here's a little something for doing me that favor give me a check for ten thousand dollars I said call me anytime you want to buddy you know once he gained Elvis's confidence and and Elvis allowed them to front the show he just wasn't a backup singer he he brought gospel music front and center of all the accomplishments that was one of the main goals that he was most proud that he had that desire to bring gospel music you know to people that would not ordinarily hear it by every measure that I I think you could possibly invoke gospel music was the center post of Elvis's existence the fact that the king of rock and roll would would gather the group around and sing gospel music to get ready to record popular rock and roll music and then when they were done would stay up half the night singing gospel music for all of the people in Elvis's life there were a handful and JD was one that that that he shared that passion for gospel music with and that bound them from the early days to literally Beyond his death I'm sure that Elvis always felt real good having JD and the boys with him it made him more secure I think he always was kind of particular about who he worked with and some people more than others he he was very comfortable with and it just made things easy for him well for example he knew that if he went into a gospel song the boys would pick right up on it it'd be they'd be right into it there'd be no problem of course they knew it it just made it easy for him I I don't think Elvis could do without could have done without JD you know when it all said and done in the world of Elvis there's you know there's God Jesus Christ Elvis Presley and J.D Sumner and it just that's just the way it is and everyone accepts it and you know if you're going to work you know with Graceland and and be with the fans and in the world of Elvis That's that was just what we all accepted to show you about JD's devotion how much he loved Elvis one night during I think that was in Las Vegas Elvis and all of his guys made it up that they would stage a fake attempt on Elvis life but didn't tell JD got all the stamps together before the show started and said now be on the lookout especially when we do You've Lost That Loving Feeling when the lights go down and Elvis turns us back and they pinpoint his head everybody down and you look at this you you concentrate on this part of the audience Ed you concentrate on this part Bill Etc everybody had a little section they were responsible for nothing happened on the first show so we grew up to the suite to make better plans for the second show while we were in the suite Sunny West slipped around through the hall and came back down through the servants Hall and it was a sweep and had on a black velvet jacket with a ski mask on and he hollered out the profanity of Elvis and called him a name and started shooting at Elvis through the doorway and it unloaded about three or four rounds the other guys suddenly burst in the door was going shooting of course they were shooting blanks Elvis knew how to do one of these bullet tucks they call it and he jumped backwards and did that little thing where he flies he sprawled out on the floor and JD just knew that Elvis had been shot but didn't know how bad and JD just jumped all of a sudden and spread like that on top of Elvis Shield him he thought they were trying to kill him and he said letters just without thinking I mean that was just a reaction like that that I was I was to guard Elvis and although it was a prank Elvis knew that JB didn't know that it was a prank and he had covered his whole body with his body to protect him and then he saw all the guys laughing in jail and Elvis laughing but that that demonstrated how much he how much he loved Elvis I'm sure Elvis never forgot that either and for that reason from then on if JD mentioned it it was in the parking lot within 15 minutes he decided you want to give away this white limo the the Lincoln so he offered it to JD and Jade he said sure I'll take it so uh so after everybody everybody everything's sort of doled out and so uh we're all going home so the sessions are over we can all go home so Elvis gathers so I mean you know a lot of time is passing Elvis is upstairs so JD takes everybody and I said let's go guys are y'all getting the limo and they head back to Nashville well Elvis is assembling everybody to go out front and watch JD drive off in the limo well David Briggs and I wrote with David Briggs for the sessions over there we know that JD and Ed and everybody they've already gone they said goodbye I figured Elvis wasn't coming back down he was gone for the day so JD and I I mean uh David Briggs and I say goodbye to everybody and say what we're going so I get in the van with David Briggs and we pull that around the front of Graceland there's Elvis the cigar and there's everybody you know the Sweet Inspirations and all the help and they're all standing on the front of the porch and and David Rose when the dance says uh what are you guys doing and they say oh we're waiting yeah we said we're waiting on JD to leave in a big limo we said oh cool we're going he's been gone for like 30 minutes I can thoroughly understand why Elvis loved having JD come into his bedroom here at Graceland and and they sat together there and talked about life and and the Bible and and what actually was we were all here for the real reason of being in this life and what was going to be after this life and how much better it's going to be um and I got to share in a lot of that with with JD they had that that bond that thing that uh that cemented all the edges and it sanded all the things where everything was smooth and it was a beautiful beautiful thing to see I've I've never I never quite understood it while it was going on because uh I think at Old hindsight thing comes in you but now as I look back I see respect in its deepest form on both sides on August 16 1977 the world was stunned at the loss of the greatest rock and roll legend of all time and so too was one of his closest friends J.D Sumner we're back live in front of the Graceland Mansion here the home of Elvis Presley as the vigil continues and with me if you haven't recognized him already he's one of Elvis Presley's favorites JD Sumner of the sampner quartet JD we at Channel 5 know how you close you and Elvis were in the we all extend our condolences when was the last time you saw Elvis JD well in the last week these are just things that we don't understand uh I can't believe it I've seen him three times and I I can't believe it it's just one of those things that you and I could be dead in the next five minutes God called and uh we were supposed to be in uh Portland Maine tonight and he had a bigger appearance for me how long have you been with uh with Elvis since 1972. of course I've been knowing Elvis because he was 14 years old I used to let him in the back door of gospel scenes when I was with the Blackwood Brothers here in Memphis and uh we just think folks friends Simpson are saying his mother's funeral Saturday is going to be I got to sing it here I was going to say we understand that you will sing at the funeral tomorrow what kind of songs will you sing JD well the songs that he loved to hear we've sung for many times and we'll sing the song the gospel song that he loved to hear I mean his favorite I remember when he got the call from from Vernon to come to Memphis and and help plan the the funeral he was in shock I mean he he was just you know it was it was like losing a member of the family they had been very close and and he knew that that you know um the world had lost probably the most important entertainer of our times but to him it was he was also losing this young kid that he had watched grow up and turn into this Superstar we opened Graceland in June of 82 kind of on a wing and a prayer there was a there was a record an acetate on Elvis's turntable and I you know I can remember thinking that'll be interesting to you know what was the last record that he had on his turntable when he died because everything was untouched and and and it was the stamps one thing we knew was to leave it there and uh and not touch it and so it stayed on that turntable for years and years and years [Music] despite the death of Elvis the stamps continued recording traveling and making numerous television appearances [Music] [Music] who led me across the divine [Music] you'll find me Touring that City away with him I will ever abide here on Earth we have troubles to us seem so heavy but in heaven no one will be sad mom and dad will be singing Heaven's Praises be ringing for the dearest friend I ever had a morning you'll find me Touring that City where the Son of God is trees so pretty made of gold so pure and so right is [Music] [Music] however [Music] [Music] the stamps disbanded for a short time in 1980 however later that same year a new group was formed a group of Old Friends Legends together again after I left the Blackwood Brothers in 19 late 1980 and helped with JD and over Lister and shake his to form the Masters five JD had disbanded the Stamps Quartet temporarily and Hovey was having personal trouble with the Statesman and JD was filling in with him singing Bass and Jake has had been had left the Imperials and was had been in California singing a few years and just moved back to Nashville and so they got together and decided to form a group and called me I wonder if I was interested the group was known as the Masters five then the drawers of Roselle and Jake JD Hovey and me but the ladder was hit down from heaven after my sins were forgiven started out for Higher Ground here oh well I'm climbing firing [Music] first time was regeneration my second round just a vocation I'm in the third a happy confession finding the Holy Ghost the next round was Great Tribulation [Music] to glorification oh well I'm climbing Higher and Higher and the Wolf on come on I'm gonna come till I pass the sun moon and stars Jupiter Venus Neptune and Mars fit farewell to this place and then I'll go a running up the milky white ways [Music] Jupiter Venus Neptune and Mars did farewell to this whole house of pay and in a Gore running up the milky white boy [Music] I'm so high I'll never come down [Music] in 1985 after years of being the practical joker country and gospel music artist alike had the chance to get even as an annual roast was held and this time the joke was on JD there was everybody from Rice Stevens to The Statler Brothers to Don light to Wendy Bagwell Tammy Wynette and one by one they just nailed Daddy to the wall Jerry just informed me a moment ago that we Roasters can't say anything about the roast tea that would jeopardize his chances of staying in the gospel music field that's that's it for me JD came by my house one day with a horrible black eye and he said look what Mary done to me and I said I thought she was out of town and he said I thought she was too I I noticed when this thing started all these people had pages and pages of things written down to say and I didn't have anything written down I'd never been to a roast before so I just as it went along today made a few little notes Here I did I was sitting right back behind Tammy Wynette a while ago and there were quite a few that was requesting pictures of JD and Tammy together so um JD I saw as you did he got up and went over and sat down the chair and had Tammy sit in his lap he said damn it's okay I'm an old man you can just sit here in my lap it's all right and after a few minutes JD said tell me I believe you better get up I'm not as old as I thought it was [Laughter] [Applause] and I'm proud to be here to honor a legend a real legend an Iron Man really A lot's been said about what he's gone through in his health and this and that and if I could be a little serious conduct to begin with let me just say that he overcame about with his heart with heart disease that a lot of people couldn't get over his recent bout with AIDS he's come through [Applause] I've loved and I've honored this man admired him since back in the 20s when he sang with the Chuck Wagon Gang the Blackwood Brothers blackweed the blackweed brothers okay Blackwood Brothers I got you okay back in the fifth okay I got it don't keep interrupting man I know what I'm doing it's been said that JP is a hit JD JD it's been said that JP is ahead of his time we figure about 20 minutes all kidding aside though I watch his show every Friday night and him and Sue Ellen sometimes get into it what's wrong look that's JR this is JD that's Dallas you know where you're at no no [Applause] JD Sumner's voice not only amazed his gospel music fans but the Guinness Book of World Records recorded JD singing the lowest note ever registered a double low C this note is sung on the recording of Blessed assurance and again on the Elvis Presley recording of way down JD was a probably the most unusual voice ever come along in our business he was having on campus early in the morning or middle afternoon or late at night JD always had an incredible low voice on recitations he was impeccable you know uh and singing low notes it wasn't just growling he had a tone to those low notes you know a lot of people hit a low note but it sounded like they're grunting you know it's not singing but he could sing those low notes he was a incredible voice probably I don't think there's ever been another one knocking you know I'm just amazed at JD's voice because we sing with so many different bass singers and every time you're working with the Basinger they all want more volume you have to just keep turning them up turning them up turn them up and it just amazed me that after just getting through with her group as a basing where I've had him cranked up as far as I could get him to go the JD would come up there and and turn it down to like maybe half the volume they had and just blow you away with his voice JD brought a new style of basing and into the professional quartet world he not only could he sing the normal base register but he created this this kind of a freakish sound somebody said it was freaking I don't know where he got that bit but he developed he had developed a low register there well in the Guinness Book of Records you know he was the lowest bass singer that ever lived and he did that on it on his own he created that that extra register down there no other base thing of the business they ever had until Sumner came along his voice is just so incredible uh I don't think there'll ever be another voice like that and it was always that way I mean every day and every time I'd run into him after I hadn't seen him for a while I'd think you know I didn't remember that it was that low but it but it always was you know he could sing right on off the scale of the piano no trick at all for him he always said the secret of that was uh being able to relax the vocal cords and I've tried it and tried it I tried it tried to figure out what he's trying to tell me doesn't work for me but it worked for him very well although JD's career was demanding in every aspect his love for his music was only overshadowed by his love for his family and his precious wife Mary Mary was you know was such a lady and always took such good care of JD but I always admired her because she she had such Grace about her but at the same time she was kind of always in the background she never never really seemed to want center stage and that was that was JD's place and she was perfectly happy and content with that and it was just fun to watch her as she watched JD and and how she she just never seemed to ever be anything but total Grace switched off the bus from truck stop at that time we had no mobile phones and Payphone worked quite well back in those days and he would call her and and and tell her he loved her and hang up and say anything else but that back on the bus we go back down the road again and in a few minutes he said stop the bus on his phone he'd go back in he would call her and say I love you hang the phone up and we did that many many times then he had a several dozen roses sent to her so that the Roses would get there right before we would get home because he wanted to be a special time for them I can't remember doing anything that romantic I can't it's kind of like you would see in an old old movie but the story is so true you know that love was a bond that uh death can't break mother dying before daddy did was the biggest shock of of all as far as the family was concerned because we always figured we'd lose daddy first and in late August early September of 92 we found out that mother had three melanoma brain tumors and that she had at best three months to live and it I'm not sure daddy ever recovered from that I mean it was it was finding out that you know that that the love of his life of 52 years 52 and a half years you know would not be there he was never the same you know he tried to bounce back and he he did of sorts and his life was full but there was always that under line you know misery of of not having my mother although the loss of Mary affected him deeply JD found solace in his music and the love of his family especially his grandchildren he loved his grandchildren he's got Kathy who is grown has three babies and then my son Jason he adored both of his grandchildren because Jason lived in and around Knoxville he and Jason shared a great deal of time you know right toward the end and of course Joe's daddy lived long enough for Jason to be a young man behind the seemingly Gruff exterior laid a gentle and giving man his generosity was one of his greatest gifts we're on the bus going on a on a to a church to sing and we always leave him at night 10 o'clock at night and we'll get there in plenty of time to get a hotel clean up and then have a lunch before we go into the show to set up the sound so Mark Lowry have to be on the trip with us and uh he told Mark now don't eat anything on the way he said when we get there there's a great Steakhouse there that's I starved all the way to Georgia we pull into a western sizzler that is the great Steakhouse Eastern Sizzler but you know I would I wouldn't starve for it you know I starved clear across Tennessee and Georgia waiting for this great steak get there in his western sizzler there we passed 20 Western Sizzlers to get to this one in Georgia we go in there and it went any better than the rest of them so so we got there and and we're all sitting at a big table and somebody on theirs I can't recall who it was but they're they were kind of cheap you know they never bought never left a tip or whatever you know so he told he told this person he said you just give this lady some money right now for a tip and and I guess they gave a couple of dollars and Mark says what'd you do that for he said you give them twenty dollars too so Mark get put 20 on the tray and she he put twenty dollars on the trace the lady had probably 50 bucks on the tray and she would just stand there wide-eyed and then she started crying and she said you don't know what you what you're doing she said I'm dying with cancer and she said I'm trying to save all the money I can for my children before I die so JD always cared in his pocket no less than a thousand dollars and he had it in his hand when she said that he just dropped the whole amount or a tray all that money was going to ask him later I said how much did you give her he said I don't know it doesn't matter I won't miss it but he was always blessing people like that we did the the rhyming Auditorium uh Friday night saying a nice one and Wally Fowler JD myself and Elmo was going to Birmingham for the next date within one car Somebody went off with a cash box we didn't have a lot of cash anyhow but you could get enough to eat on well I didn't have any money while they didn't and Elmo didn't JD had five dollars so we wanted this place to get a cup of coffee because there's a place right outside of Birmingham had great hot dogs coffee would have cost us about a dollar and then we've got two hot dogs a piece right before we got to Birmingham you know so one hand sat down and got coffee the waitress coming along and recognized JD oh oh she hugged his neck she said you're the greatest singer to ever walked what an honor to meet such a man like you well well JD paid for the coffee he gave her the five dollar bill he gave her the paper the dollar coffee and give her a four dollar tip we didn't have a dime left you know didn't have a time left we got on him all the way he said well boy she recognized me what was I going to do you know he came he gave her hot dogs away in May of 1997 the gospel music industry took the opportunity to give back to this Legend who had given so much JD Sumner was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame well I don't know of anybody that deserve this more than me no I wish that uh all those good things that Bill said was true I'm just fortunate to uh have been blessed nothing means any more to me my friends and that's you I love you God bless you [Applause] [Music] if this Earthly Tabernacle would be good [Music] I traded for finer one that would not pass away but until the day arrives when time it's such a joy to know the Lord [Music] the Swedish Fellowship I've known as fortified [Music] [Music] up and down before there's snow upon the Rooftop [Music] s are near worn out it's such a sweet peace to know the Lord foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] fun and fancy I am all I can boast about is as strong [Music] there were times when he had the right [Music] just up and move away and there were times and days I know it foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] worry kept my hand in here away [Music] from home is all that it really is and it's showing finding the fancy and all I can post about is after all the years [Music] I have to draw all these years [Music] a few months that I was rallied but the only thing he want to talk about was spiritual matters about what is what really is being born again what really is heaven can you know that you're going what happens to people that you love when they pass into eternity and for the last at least three years I saw that escalating greater and greater in becoming bigger and bigger in his life he said you know said this may come as a shock to you but said you know who brought me back to the Lord I've in here at the idea he said Mark Lowry said Mark Lowry explained Grace to me like no one ever could before I'd read a book called The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll I'd go over eat with JD and sit around his you know his little condo up there we'd sit around and talk about what I was learning in that book and he would ask me what certain words mean and I would explain it to him you know and then he would mull it over he'd Maul things over he could see those that fertile mind I mean he had a great mind to the day he died and he um would mow those things over and then spit them back to you on a level that anybody could get it I mean the cookies were on the bottom shelf when JD got through thinking about it even though JD realized his time was short he never lost his desire to perform or his sense of humor I get up every morning at five o'clock I spend 225 days on my bus I get up every morning at five o'clock and that's the most precious time of the day that's when me and Jesus you're all talking ain't nobody up me and him I get a hold of him a lot easier I thank him for everything and and uh asking to forgive me for things I've done yesterday and he does ask him to help me or be a better boy tomorrow and he does I'll sit there and drink my coffee and I'll watch that CNN I ain't gotten on that uh Channel HBQ our Movie Channel I ain't got nothing on there but CNN history a e and discovery I love to watch CNN I want to see what old Bill done yesterday you've been a busy boy ain't he [Applause] but I'm sitting there watching CNN the other morning drinking my coffee young man come on there and said have I got good news for you I said well thank you Jesus I got up on the edge of my chair I said it's been so long since I've heard some good news on television I wanted to hear this and I'm 73 and it's hard for me to move around real good but I said I want to hear this he said they've raised the life expectancy from 68 to 73. food stuck right there and told me I was gonna die they see we got two and a half minutes we love you we just came by to tell you about Jesus that's what it's all about I would love to tell you I think of Jesus since I've found in him a friend so kind and true I would tell you how we change my whole life completely [Music] he did something that no other friend could do [Music] no one else [Music] like Jesus [Music] [Music] no one else like take this old sin and from me so far from me [Music] how much he cares [Music] [Applause] 1998 was probably the toughest year for Daddy for several different reasons but his health was failing and we guarded that we all realized that he wasn't feeling good we could see we could see him kind of going down but it's like not as probably as much as somebody that's seen him ever so often it's like watching a kid grow up they grow up in front of you you don't notice how much they've grown but uh we could I could tell on the bus he would sit and he would lay down more and do things of that nature and and like like we've talked before he has he seemingly tried to make if you thought he hurts your feelings he was trying to make up with anybody he thought he had hurt his feelings and I think the Lord let him know that he was his time was short and so he was trying to take advantage of that it's a cold dreary day and I'm laying in my room you see I don't have long to live and I'll be leaving here soon well I've had a good life with so many happy memories and I relived them all today and they were so real to me I had gone out as I did every day to the bus um you know because we were working remodeling it and they were leaving on Wednesday night and I had gone and gotten dinner and and we had we were going to run an errand and we got in the car and he said I want to play you the new project and he put the tape in I remember when I married and we started listening to the songs and and each of those songs brought back memories of of when they were written in my childhood you know growing up in Memphis him being a part of the black woods and and and I knew the words to nine ninety percent of the songs and all of a sudden um a particular song came on the tape and it was a song called Old Man death and he had written that song like 20 years ago and it's a very powerful song just just the words but when I heard him do it on that particular project that night I thought my chest was going to explode I mean I I listened to it and he was driving and I was sitting across from me and I wouldn't look at him because daddy daddy where our our whole family or cry babies but Daddy and I I mean we both we couldn't say very much without breaking down so I wouldn't look at him but that song was just heart-wrenching because I felt like he was saying goodbye and the song played and he hit he punched a rewind and I thought oh my God he's going to Play It Again and I was looking out the window and he played it again well that time by that time I was crying you know and I thought what am I going to do you know straighten up don't let him you know just behave and all this kind of stuff and when it was not it was at night and you know when you're in the dark in the car you can't you you don't see but just the silhouette of someone but I turned and looked at him and he had punched rewind again and was playing the song for the third time and I looked at him and tears were dripping off his chin then I just let it go I was sobbing you know and I just said Daddy I can't stand it I can't stand to listen to this song again and he said baby you're going to have to because it's going to happen right someday it's going to happen but he was telling me that he knew that that someday was was closer than either one of us wanted to say and when he left that night I really and truly had the sense that he was saying goodbye and I would never see him again and I did I remember when I married my little woman and how we tour together to raise our family it seemed that she'd strive and do things every day to make it easier for me you see God gave us two little girls and the end of they are heard him cry we had a condo over in Myrtle Beach where we were staying and uh uh the night before uh JD died or the day before he had gotten sick and we took him to the emergency room and they gave him a little bit of medicine and told him that he had a little bit of bronchitis you know and that's why I was feeling so bad so uh he began to feel better when he woke up the next morning and we we went out for dinner that night and had a big steak and a good time or he was actually we were actually sitting around the table singing I mean it's kind of stupid JD never did that and uh at one point he just looked over many said you know I think of you as my son and I think that maybe uh you're an angel that God sent to me and he never said that before me why why would he say it then unless he knew he was going to go pretty quick you know and so we went on back home and to the condo and I always fix the coffee so that all he'd have to do in the morning was get up and turn it on and in just a minute he had coffee because I've come in the kitchen before and watched him you know and he'd have on his sleeping clothes and he'd be looking you know bending down looking at the coffee just waiting for it to get done he'd have a cup in his hand just ready we're gonna pour that thing and and slurp it right down but that that morning when I woke up I slept a little bit later than usual it was about seven o'clock because JD got up with the chickens and I looked out of my bedroom door and I saw that coffee sitting out there not hadn't dripped yet so I kind of you know I thought this might be the day I always dreaded that day but sure enough I went in there he had died in his sleep in November of 1998 JD Sumner went to be with his beloved wife Mary his friends gathered in Nashville Tennessee to bid their friend a final farewell I know he's in a better place I know JD's happy and and he's saying he's making the Thunder boom I wouldn't want him back nothing that he could having trouble breathing couldn't walk he's homesick for Mary he wanted to see Jesus I mean I think the scales were tipped over there had more over there than he had over here I hear that happened at some point in your life I've got his picture in my bathroom I see it every morning you know look at it and think about it I'm a better man having the own J.D Sumner he's a wonderful guy I loved him very much oh friends like a rare piece of gold oh friends make it great to grow old friends what a wonderful friend oh friends he was an old friend and no way that a man could have a better life anyway I mean I mean I got a lot of friends thank God while resting One Day by the side of the road I saw an old farmer in a field he just told his face was all brown and wrinkled by the wind and he is talking to the Lord just like he'd be talking to a friend well sir he said in a voice calm and quiet them corn tassels need to sucking but I got no string to tie it ain't had no reigning so long the fields is money Dusty and it's been so unbearable hot even the kids is getting busted and you take the grass in that Pastor Lord ought to uh Ben knee-high if we could just get a shower too it might peep the cow from going dry oh but listen to Mia talking you'd think that I wasn't grateful and if you didn't know me so well Lord you'd think I was downright hateful you'd think that I wasn't thankful for the new calf that you sent and the money that came in the mail to pay up the rent Moss goals better and John is home from the Navy and that's Sunday dinner with chicken dumplings and gravy and the new preacher that you sent us Lord he sure is a fine young man why he's been converting them Sinners just to beat the band well guess I'll be mosing along Lord and not take up no more your time I guess Eva folks hear about is waiting to ring your life evening to you Lord and watch over us tonight and don't go worrying about us none cause ever things gonna be all right

Channel: Larry L. Dancer

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Id: rbopvN0rTYU

Length: 91min 25sec (5485 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023