gives me great pleasure to welcome to our show for the first time Texas Willie Nelson really welcome to the show Thank You Ralph it's good to be here I've never had you on the show willing I look forward to it for such a long time well I've been chasing you and I just couldn't find you I never could blast you out of Texas you love Texas don't I sure do I know Texas loves you Willie they used to say you were ahead of your time when you first started making records did you ever agree with that now always thought that folks in Texas were about riot and everybody else was behind well there's somebody once at a hip tune is an idea whose time has arrived certainly your time has arrived you've become one of the biggest stars in the country do you feel like a big star no no not really I haven't to haven't noticed any great changes kind coming over me you haven't looked at your album covers lately have you we were going we were putting together this show we started looking at your album covers from way back from the Liberty Record days yeah that kind of does look like a movie going on there and there there are a few changes yeah there were some went through the turtleneck stage and went through the neighborhood more than the ruse nehru sue yeah we're the rage for a while and then I got into the blue jeans and tennis shoe stage which you're much too new tees dismay I enjoy very much and they're very comfortable now no deer course is the Western Taylor who makes the beautiful suits with all the rhinestones and so forth and if he had to depend on you he'd go broke wouldn't he really would he wouldn't sell a suit will he last nudie suit I wore was when I was working with Ray Price and we had to wear nudie Tsushima everyone uh when I was working with Ray and everybody ray course naturally had nine thousand nudie suits in his closet and he insisted all of us wear them and we had on our rhinestones and everything Connie remembers and that's the last nudists suit I wore not that I don't like them I think they're beautiful but they're just heavy and it costs a lot of money now you I would imagine they are the most laid-back man in music you're wearing now what you would wear on stage right mm-hmm blue jean jacket blue jeans and a pair of sneakers etc and a headband mmm what's the headband boy keep the harem eyes yeah that's very practical reason Willie on the record blue eyes crying in the rain I understand you're playing the guitar mm-hmm and this is your band right right recorded in Garland Texas really it wasn't one of those Hollywood or Nashville or or major city productions then now it was recording a little bit of studio behind a bunch of warehouses in Garland Texas call a place called autumn sound why did you pick this old Fred Rose song this has always been a good you know I've been singing a song and clubs or you know in Texas and around for a long time for 30 years that song came out 1945 is when he first copyrighted and as far as I know I think Roy Acuff had the first record on the song but many pearl told me the other night that when she came to Nashville that this song was popular when she came here and this was one of her favorite songs when she came to Nashville so uh around 1945 this was was a popular song and I I've been singing it ever since not every night because uh you know I just don't say any song every night but this one when I was putting together the redheaded stranger album I needed a song that would say exactly what blue eyes crying in the rain says to go on this one slot in the album was this the first time you'd had a number one record first time you've been in the top ten a lot yeah yeah a couple of Sun blue and you never touched me when touch is out it was in the top ten and structurally and I had out willingly and that was in the mister record man mister record man I think was number one on your show well when you had the all night show that's right we get the top ten mister record man was number one that was the first time I'd ever had a number one record was on your show I see well you've got another one with it it's like a doctor says you ever this before he said yeah so you gotta get again what did Roger Miller say about Charlie pride he told Charlie that he looks just like his records Willy Wonka by Ray Charles but Hannah rallies I said guess who I think you did that to Ronnie Milsap everyone else l was our driver the other night was he where were you going well when we had the see a nice show over there when it was all in those little cars I don't know what he was over there though I was there fifty little bitty cars they look like a little bumper cars that they haven't and and they had two or three of us and each one i'venever we were running around over WSM chopper land over there and that's the end of that story and there's no punch line no I I was the hours the announcer they're announcing you would combine those little cars I was that was the opening of the CMA show when we would present each of you we presented you two by two and Ronnie was driving wasn't he yes that was the reason we had to it Brown when I want X note old fair on you remember that story without ever in Canada and of course and I think they'd had a party in the party was over and everybody left the room except Hank and Ferrell and they were sitting there in the room and of course they've been notorious enemies you know and their business not really but they're always kidney Jenna and Hanks had no fairness it ference it here we are sitting in a motel room in Toronto and sitting here having a few drinks and talking and telling jokes it's like we liked each other and said you can't stand me you hate me and Hank sit off Aaron I'll say hello Willie you have been referred to as the cosmic cowboy what does that mean I don't know what that means that went higher than the other Cowboys or not I really don't know what it means uh you know I don't care much for labels anyway I guess they're all right and maybe a necessity but the cosmic Cowboys come up and the progressive countries come up and redneck rock has come up so just whichever one would like all right is there a musical movement in Austin sometimes they'll say they Austin sound Austin is just happens to be by chance I guess or whatever one of the best places in the world to go and play and perform because of the audience is there the audiences are very enthusiastic and receptive and they love country music whether it's progressive or redneck rock or whatever it is they love it and they will come out and and come out if you've got a good show they'll come out and applause and if you don't well they won't come out at all or if they do they want there are very honest audience and there is a definitely a movement going on but it has nothing to do with recordings or record studios or anything else I think it would probably be more related to a place like Las Vegas where there are a lot of places who have performers appearing and there are good performers and Austin is not really that big a town so you can come to Austin and see the best talent in the world and just I'm walking around and are driving around to some of the nice clubs until there are a lot of nice and other joints yeah there's probably more in Austin I guess per capita than any other place in the world and I know that have really good music now Willie I presume you at least are given credit for the movement this Austin Texas movement do you think you're the leader of some sort of movement no I think so I just happen to be there and I saw what was going on and I joined John those people down there I wanted a good audience too so I started singing what I'm singing and doing what I'm doing in front of that audience and it's grown from there but I didn't start it it was there when I came there Jeff Walker was in town before I ever got there Jerry Jeff is from that area he's there he's from there now he's originally a New York boy that moved to Texas but he in ray Wylie Hubbard and Kenneth Threadgill and there's rusty Weir and there's a lot of Michael Moore Michael Murphy and Freddy fender there's there's a lot of times Freddy fender from Austin Freddy's from San Antonio which is an hour's drive south of Austin my guess is Willie Nelson what he used to be a disc jockey didn't you where were you a disc jockey on several different places I started it already obsession down in down below in Pleasant Texas down below San Antonio about 30 miles and I started out down there and I never will forget the first day on the job the guy doc Parker he's still there and he's still a good friend of mine but he asked me if I'd ever had any experience I applied for the job as a disc jockey you know and I heard it in 82 man I said sure I've had experience and which I had on your lines sure but we got in the studio and he said are you familiar with this board and I and one time I had remembered looking at a board when I was really a teenager or maybe 13 or 14 years old I had a radio a show in Hillsborough Texas and I remember they had a gates board there you remember the old gear sword so I remembered that and the guy said dr. Parker said are you familiar with an RCA board and I said no I've always sees the gates that's the only other one that I ever heard of and so he said well I'm show you how to use this one so he taught me to use the board and I learned to be a disc jockey you weren't gonna tell him no no the board now of course is what a disc jockey uses to assume the program out to you it has the turntables it controls the mics and so forth and some of them are pretty complicated but you had on-the-job training that oh yes the doctor told me how you didn't Eve anyone into the studio and was and then it come time for the news and he wanted me to read the news not a 15-minute newscast my first day on the air was 50 minute and he gave me a commercial to read which was the Pleasanton pharmacy whose pharmaceutical department accurately and precisely fills your doctor's prescription right in the middle of a 15-minute newscast so it took me about 35 minutes to get through that to 15 minutes again and he knew when the show was over that I hadn't really done a lot of working around radios day how long as you keep that job about a year so you did get some on-the-job training how long were you a disc jockey about seven years really so you did you you served time and paid your dues a lot of different areas why is it Willie what a bill or William that's my name Willie I mean some will they'll be ili yeah Willie its Willie well then I have a middle name what is your middle there will it's call mine the middle name is Hugh what's yours are out Ralph Ralph Ralph oh it's Walter out rap rap sound like a puppy that's Walter my first night Walter yes Willy Hugh is it Willie re on your birth certificate or William nice Willie uh Willie you know really Hugh knows you know people in the South are famous for their three names Billy Ray and Billy Joe and Johnny Joe Jack and Billy Jimmy John and Willie Hugh and Joe Bob Jill Bob Willie tell me who this pretty lady is over here I know she is but you might tell our audience who was sitting there with us miss Constance Jean over there that's uh that's one of my wives what one of your wives I see she certainly is pretty and she's one of the prettiest how long have been married about five six years now yes five Alex years what's your anniversary Oh April 30th because it's my birthday I can remember it oh that's easy then when's her birthday though it's uh June 16 and oh yeah she's a Gemini she's prompting you over here no she doesn't want you to be embarrassed she known at one finger I don't know what it means I know she's wearing one year old she was born that on d-day yeah yeah oh is that what how come you're so smart you know DoD days very famous stage you in the 6 1944 you know how will you a d-day I was 11 years old how were you Lambert well Roger Miller run up to this kid who lived in an airport in Seattle and was leaving town he's about daylight and this kid run up City Roger Miller and in Rogers yeah how do you boys as I'm said said when I was your age doesn't that you know what this show is gonna be like I didn't show Michael Ray Stevens and I didn't get a straight answer what tell me the story about Ray Stevens and Webb Pierce now there's I've read I've been I'm away now I'm far away down south and I want to hear all right boomers they live across the street from one another and they live in a very very well I won't say secluded area but it's an area of where they're very expensive homes yeah web refers to it as hillbilly Hollywood I'm trying to be fair to both well because Rea when he was on the show didn't want to talk about it much but web allows tourists to come to his house and tour buses clutter the streets and he has proposed that he build an off-ramp area or place for them to park there along that Street ray says that they're invading his privacy so they've had a little little go on this show ray said 200 he said he just tossed it off he said where I was trying to build a bus station across the street he said if he does he said I'm gonna put up a Shell station some gays heard web say the ratio motocross treatment star let me move people used to always said I mentioned this before Willie Nelson a lot of people would say he's ahead of his time and yet they were digging all the things you were writing they would dig them by other people funny how the time slips away hello walls crazy my patsy cline nightlife by Ray Price what else do you write for Ray Price no are you sure this is where you want to be and I almost wrote soft rain well I was working with Ray at the time we were in front of the bus and and we're sitting there trying to think about it let's write a song I'd rather play poker so I went back in the back and I started playing poker and and he come back say hey Hoss come on up here I got one start he'd come help me I said okay Raymond I'll be right there and I sit there and lost about another fifty dollars and by then he'd already written soft rain you should have gone really Willie let me ask you about another one of your songs practice I'll ask you about two of them Willie Nelson is my guest and apparently you hit upon hard times in your life at one time or another Oh huh family Bible the story goes you sold that for about $50 exactly $50 yeah I sold it to I was living in Houston at the time and I just moved there with my wife and kids and we've trying to get into an apartment I didn't have any money and I'd stopped by a place called the Esquire Club valentim stead highway and the Larry Butler not you know relations that I Larry here in town but Larry Butler of the singer had a band there and I did a lot of my songs for him and try to sell them to him he said no I won't said I won't buy your songs are too good but I'll loan you some money so he loaned me some money and I got into this apartment and then I ran into these other friends and they bought the song they would they weren't as good to me as Larry was they took the song with the and gave me $50 for the family Bible so when the song came out I think by Claude Gray yeah he's my like Larry but I do Claude it had somebody else's name ours while before somebody said hey Willie Nelson wrote that song and nightlife did not have your name or did it no nightlife had three more names on it none of her mind and none of those people whose names only had anything to do was writing it and I was just trying to raise a little money on the side as they say back in we'll sell that for I sold that one record just for the cost of getting the record out I wait where I gave the royalties off of the first record of nightlife two three guys because they put up the recording money to get the song recorded and out you had to use the first time it was done it was done by by me was it by you yeah and was done by hugh nelson and paul Buskirk and the little man this was a record when I came up to your studios I'm I ignored you yeah yes you really blew me off completely but you had a roomful of people and of course I hated you for years but I had this record nightlife in my in my little chubby little hand in that night and so but to get it on records I had to give up I say I had to I did I gave up the rights to the writing part of it and I'd had to change my name to record him because I was always recording under another label under another name so I had to change my name to Hugh Nelson to get well you were already making records as Willie Nelson yeah someplace yeah for happy daily in Houston Willie is there a way if a songwriter sells one of his songs is there way other than buying it back to ever get it back yeah yeah you can go beg the guy or it back if you want to no I heard that after a copyright runs out then it might revert to its original person well that may be true but that's 137 years or something like that and you know what it doesn't matter this how long is a copyright I think it's 37 years 18 or 37 which is quiet you've never handled a paper working with your song Hank Cochran always handled that for me no one is screwed up my guest this week is Willie Nelson Willie where in the world as Dripping Springs Texas dirty Springs is west of Austin about I guess 20 miles is this this was the location of your first 4th of July picnic but where do you where do you have it now well each time has been a different location it seems like we have to keep moving on each time and the last well the first year was Dripping Springs the second year was in College Station and bryan-college station and this year was at Liberty Hill Texas now the your Willie Nelson's 4th of July picnic and show has become rather famous I don't know do they actually do any picnicking is there all picking well I don't know what they're doing in the audience but on the stage we're doing a little both who'd you have this year on the show we had the pointer sisters and Kristin Rita myself or Charlie Daniels Doug songs Milton see Billy Carol Floyd Tillman Johnny Bush how many people did you draw about 90,000 90,000 over how many days one day just what you do with 90,000 people in one day what can you do with that's like when they asked me said how you gonna control 90,000 people and I said now you asked a question there's no way to control now they have to control themselves and which is what they do have you had any problems with these huge crowds none at all no no we had about 50,000 to first picnic and last year we had about 125 over a three-day period and this year we had about 90,000 and we haven't had any problems at all the only this year we had a birth a lady gave birth to a baby and named a little girl Liberty after Liberty to actually Liberty to Liberty Hill Texas so there hasn't been any problems at all I presume this is going to be an annual event I would hope so there's a very silly law in the state of Texas and I'm interested in seeing thrown away is called if five thousand people it's called a mass gathering act and I've been filed on this year because there was more than 5,000 people who gathered for longer than 12 hours so before we have another picnic I'll have to wait and see the outcome of this trial that's coming up pretty soon but I would like to have another picnic well you've had three picnics but only on one occasion have they gotten you on the mass gathering law yeah the other mad at you yeah there's one an old commissioner down there that didn't want the thing to come through in the first place and he doesn't like us hippies anyway you know and as we refer to you as a hippie not to my face he hasn't but I don't you know I'm sure he's he doesn't like anything he didn't understand or that might be a threat to his peace of mind in any way so he didn't and plus he's a politician and he's trying to get votes so he decided that he would be against our 4th of July picnic which is fine he blew 90,000 votes at least blew one they don't know well hey what do you remember about the song touch me I remember I was working with the right price when I wrote it Jimmy Davis playing steel and we would I think we just left Beaumont Texas and we'd worked Yvonne's place in Beaumont and was going out to think Midland or Odessa somewhere to work out there and it was in the middle of the night my bunk was above Jimi days and he was writing songs in the lower bunk and I was writing them in the top bunk he would come up with some real good lines and he'd come up and sing them to me and say what do you think of this woody and I said that's terrible go back and write some more and so all the way from Odessa he wrote I think one line that I liked while I was writing touched me did you ever lay your lines on him oh no I never did give him a chance to say what you think about no siree I enjoy your reminiscing about the song so whatever comes to mind about half a man I was laying in bed and my left arm was free my right arm and a lady on it and this was about in the sixties and it was in the middle of the night and I had woke up and I wanted a cigarette and so I only had one arm free to get a cigarette so I started thinking about what would happen if I only had one arm and then everyone oh if I had one a year and you put me off and I learned a lot of cigarette in one hand I feel like he just made that funny how time slips away what do you remember about this song Willy this song been recorded more times than any other song I've ever written and about average of once a month since it first came out it's been recorded you're kidding and of course Billy Walker had the first record on it and then Johnny Tillison and Joe Hinton had records out on that also released singles and were hits and it's a hit again I guess when Orville fell is there a story that goes with that song I remember when I wrote the sorrow of three songs in in the same week and I was living in out in Madison and in the same trailer house that Hank Cochran lived in when he first came to town and he left with his wife and three kids and I moved right in behind him with my wife and three kids and it was $25 a week plus the oil bill I remember and I used to drive from the trailer park over to pamper music everyday is only two mile hike and it's about a 15 minute drive and that week on the way from there I wrote funny on time slips away and I wrote crazy and I wrote another song can't remember which one he was but anyway out three songs in one week since you brought up those days in Madison and Goodlettsville Willie there was a little house out back of the pamper music company and didn't you in this little house with one room right hello walls yeah Hank mix town missed out on that one you remember that story that when Hank was out there with me and there was no windows there's one window in there there's no telephone and I hain't got a telephone call he and I were sitting out there trying to write a song and we were sitting around looking at each other and trying to come up with something creative and the phone rang and just as a phone rang I had an idea for a song hello wall and I said the Hank I'm gonna write a song called hello walls you only help me Riley yes sure as soon as I get back from answering the telephone because made else and us could come out to get him to telephone and by the time he got back about 10 minutes later I'd already written it in 10 minutes hello walls and walls were talk and when they would talk hello when de you know right a little ceiling no fool yeah I made Willie little money one time I I could have played my record of course on this show and been right in keeping with the Willie Nelson's hits I people laugh with my record career but I did win for you and award didn't hmm now I laugh about that I know you did win me an award I had a record go hello fool an answer - hello walls you talk a good song yeah you know who gave me the idea Joe Allen oh hi Cochran hankies Hank I met a little guy back of the Opera he wrote he had written the words - hello fool down on a grocery sack and of course you being the writer of the original idea got half of it and then Joe Allison who produced the record on me rewrote it and didn't take anything I never will forget when I ran into Willy you appreciate his around affarin while I had hello he had hello walls and then I follow they were hello food I hadn't seen him and if he came up one night and I filed I said you know I kept waiting for a comment and he wouldn't he'd ever mention my record and I said well what do you think he said what do you think about what I said why do you what do you think about my record he said why did you call me a fool well let's have another story about a song this is sort of and then I wrote Hank Cochran introduced me to Patsy Cline the first time that I met her and Patsy recorded this and I think during the session I think they worked three hours I think and the only song that they did on that whole session was this one crazy this one of this was the follow-up wasn't it - I fall to pieces right and she had hit number two and that string she developed at that time I guess it was about a year before she died wasn't it mm-hmm was this that day you wrote funny how the time slips away oh yeah this was the same week crazy was really yeah same week from driving from the trailer house over to pamper music you know and discussing music people you've known we didn't mention Donny Donny young Johnny paycheck you took his place for the right price pattern yeah that's true and then Johnny Bush the drummer used to be your drummer didn't he yeah and before that I used to be a lead guitar player for Johnny Bush before he was a singer had his own band down in San Antonio and this was in the early 50s and I was a lead guitar player that played for him so you were his employer and he had been your employer that's kind of a strange set of circumstances Welli what is you are sometimes you and Waylon Jennings and guests Jessie because she's married to will and are referred to sometimes as being the leaders of the underground musical movement I know we talked about the Austin thing earlier sometimes the term is used the media has a good time with you sometimes they call you an outlaw how do you interpret all that I don't pay a lot attention to it and actually I'm glad you're writing about me but there's so many different labels come up that I really don't pay any attention to a lot of them the word progressive country has been used a lot and now did it have something I'd like to say about that I think the word progressive probably applies more to the listener than it does to the music itself because if you can sit and listen to a country song and if the singer has a long hair or if he has a beard and it doesn't offend you then I would say you were a progressive listener you have progressed right beyond the time in the old days those young days when the Young Turks Roger and William Hank were running around Nashville you couldn't have gotten away though on stage with the way you were tired now got you I don't know what I could gotten away with it or not I couldn't have gotten away scot free but I might have been able to get out without getting killed but there would have been some comment even now I still get a little shaky and truck stops you know but it's not as bad now as it used to be and it may not have ever been as bad as we thought he was but today you are enjoying unprecedented popularity willie nelson has arrived and years ago we we thought you had really arrived as a writer but now i you've to write you have arrived as a performer I think somebody once said I read on the back of one of your old albums that is too bad you'd ever written a song because people typed you as a writer and didn't listen to the way you perform the tune that's probably true a lot of people who write and a successful writing then they're cast as a writer and it's difficult for them to ever get any good shots at being a performer which would you rather do well I have to perform and I have to write so I have to do both of them you can't select one over the other Willie when I was in Texas they were telling me something about you had done something wrong that involved the state Attorney General in Texas and he being a friend of yours apparently he got into it the last minute and I think he says this way the story went if next time you go prosecute Willie Nelson would you let me know first what happened in that story well it was mm-hmm the you won't know the truth yet anyway me and a lot of other Pickers work dor jobs you know where we go in and we play a gig and we get all the door what does obviously love operator we'll take all the bar you know and he make a little money we make a little money I've done this for years and years and years all over the country in the state of Texas there is a tax that must be paid on a door tax at cabaret tax and it came down to whether I was supposed to pay that cabaret tax a well the club operator was supposed to pay it in the meantime no one had paid it and it had come across the Attorney General's desk that when he was investigating this one particular club owner as taxes the cabaret tax issue came up and that's how I got involved in it because this one particular Club operator that I had worked for several times had always been for the door so he suggested that I would be the one that would be liable for the taxes so the Attorney General's Office just is of course of routine when it came across the desk that came there that I was liable for the taxes and the taxes hadn't been paid so the suit was filed against me but then when he finally came down to the attorney general's office and he looked at it for what it was he saw that it really wasn't that serious so we got to checking into it we found out that the club operator could be also liable for that and because it was never established he was going to pay the taxes so I wound that we the recent agreement and the suit was dropped huh and he was buddy here's to it yeah he was his job and okay but at the lasting the time we had a impeach he'll sign on there are John Hill was the Attorney General I still is a Texas and we played a club there and some friends of mine had a big impeach Hill banner that they flew across the stage which I'm sure didn't shake him up any at all he could care less about banners Willie we took this show on the road while back to Dallas got down there with Ray Price and the subject of Willie Nelson came up and he told us about a reunion you hope to have I wondered what the progress of that reunion is you and Ray and Johnny paycheck Roger Miller all one show I think Johnny Busch Darrell will call people like this I hope we can get that together I still think it's a good idea it's a little late in the year to do it this year we probably maybe do it next year in the spring or summer when we can go outside somewhere and do a show but I think it would be good to get all the original Cherokee Cowboys together for for one show as you said there's a lot of you know a lot of players that used to work with Ray that have gone on and done all right by themselves Johnny Bush was one Roger Miller and Johnny paycheck and myself and of course all the fantastic musicians that have worked with rave shorty lavender and Buddy Spiker and Tommy Jackson and Buddy Emmons and Jimmy day I think it would be good to get everybody together one day or as many of us as we can into a show the Ray Price Alumni Association and I think that would be a good idea earlier you mentioned that you were in the army I never knew that I was an Air Force really what did you do any Air Force I was well I did a lot of hiding I I used to whenever they call a roll call I'd say here and then when we go back into the barracks to get our canteen I'd slip out the back and hide under the barracks all day long what everyone else was not in last too long in the air of course I was I found it hard to adjust to military service we were in peacetime so I didn't see the need of all that you know we're walking in yelling and all that where were you stationed I'm stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for a while and we stayed in tents in the mud and it was near in December and then we went to a Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls and now I went to Buch then we went to Biloxi Mississippi for what the radar mechanic school there and washed out of that right into the air police I believe were you an AP well for a little while then I got into the medics and then I got so hung up in the medics I got in the hospital and that's where I got a discharge from the hospital and I used to have to wake up in the morning and get up out of bed at 6 o'clock in the morning this dummy nurse lieutenant that was there it would make me get up in the morning at 6 o'clock make up my bed and then I had then I could lay back now just as long as you got up at 6 and made the bed I take it you didn't find a home in the army or the Air Force all it was a nice place when you were an AP did you you know I told you with five nine I wish how much did you weigh back at those days I'm not 130 did you have to roust up with these great big guys or a raisin game I was on their side oh and maybe one of the reasons I didn't last logs in AP I want you to tell me again about Bloody Mary morning well there is a story that goes with a song do you think I'm making up all these stories are true incidents Bloody Mary morning was written one on humor when Glen Campbell had his television show and I was his guest one week on the Glen Campbell show and Kay in Los Angeles and it takes a week or five days it took five days to do that show we just finished the show and had a party afterwards and everybody's been up all night long and I had gone to the airport and caught that early-morning continental flight out of Los Angeles into Houston which would reply 50 from lausanne list Houston during that flight ro Bloody Mary morning Willie there's one more song I'm loved I want to talk about it and that's your great Christmas record the pretty paper thing which became sort of a Christmas classic and here we are in the middle of November and it okay it'll start coming up in a few weeks anything you want to say about pretty paper did you write that when you were sad no not really I don't remember being that sad it was written about a particular guy that used to hang around a street corner in Fort Worth Texas that when I was living in Fort Worth and this guy had no arms and well yeah yet he's armed but he had no legs instead of they couldn't walk and he his legs were cut off at her amputated about the thigh and he got around on roller skates and and he would help himself along the sidewalk and roller skates and he would sell pencils and all heavy on the street corner there in Fort Worth Texas and I've been watching him for years one day the idea came to me to write a song about him a pretty paper about a guy selling paper and pencils on the street corner pretty ribbons of blue paper pretty ribbons of blue that's a that's a great song you mentioned earlier that your sister was playing piano on a record we played is she playing your band yeah she's a regular member yeah of course we started out playing in our little family band together when we're all young and then she married and went away and we were apart from each other for a long time and she played occasionally but she'd been back with me regularly now for a couple of years are you from a show business family well yes show business I don't know we've musically inclined family we played all our lives and you know one aspect of music or another at nightclubs or Google houses or one thing you're in it but where was this in Texas you know the first was this how your mother dad had made a living no my dad was a mechanic Ford mechanic and he was you were just retired a few years ago and he he did have a band and he still has a band he still plays with a band in fact him and some of the old Bob Wills ex Bob Wills playboys are together now and they have him a little band down at Texas and my dad is playing bass with these guys Oh Jesse Ashlock and al Strickland some of those people down there and he also runs a poof I have a pool hall in Austin and my dad runs the pool hall so he's very much involved with music steel and he loves it what do you call it pool hall the willy-nilly willies pool I had to be Willie what's that what's going to happen to you in the upcoming months or perhaps in 76 you ever seen on any major television shows there's not anything set if something good comes along naturally I wouldn't turn it down what will be the follow-up to blue eyes crying in the rain do you have any idea about that yeah no I don't it's we've got it narrowed down to a couple of numbers it's going to be another single out of the album probably the title song rated it stranger Fred Rose somewhere is probably listening and very very happy that the world is still into his music I hope he's listening because he wrote a good song
