Braddock - Bobby Braddock: a life on Nashvilles music row

BOBBY BRADDOCK

A Life on Nashvilles Music Row

BOBBY BRADDOCK

A LIFE ON NASHVILLES MUSIC ROW

COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION PRESS

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

2015 by Bobby Braddock

All rights reserved

First printing 2015

Published by Vanderbilt University Press and the Country Music Foundation Press

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Jacket design by Bruce Gore | Gore Studio, Inc.

Text design by Dariel Mayer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

LC control number 2015000677

LC classification ML410.B7787A3 2015

Dewey class number 782.421642092dc23

ISBN 978-0-8265-2082-1 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-8265-2084-5 (ebook)

I lovingly dedicate this book to my daughter, Lauren Braddock Havey, and to my grandson, Braddock James (Dock) Havey. I also dedicate it to the memory of my friend and mentor, the great Southern author John Egerton.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I was very fortunate to have a great author like John Egerton guide me through the writing of two books, and I honestly dont think I could have written either one without him. Each time I finished a chapter, I would drive to his home on Copeland Drive in Nashvilleusually very early in the morningand put the manuscript in his mailbox. Within a few days I would get a call, and John would ask in his western Kentucky drawl, You wanna come over and talk? Within fifteen minutes I would be sitting in the little office behind his house. Sometimes he might say, Bubba, youre just not convincing me, and Id go back home and read all his comments, written out by hand across each page, and take another shot at it. But there were times when he would sit at his desk, reading my chapter, then look up with that big squinty-eyed smile and tell me, Damn, son, this is good. I always kinda knew how to write a song, but I had to be taught how to write a book. I couldnt have had a betteror nicerteacher than John Egerton.

I got a lot of other good help on this book, which was originally titled Hollywood, Tennessee. Advice from the great Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick was obviously priceless. Feedback and copyedit suggestions from author Michael Kosser, journalist Sharon Cobb, and songwriter-proofreader Chapin Hartford were extremely helpful.

The long and probably incomplete list of first-readers of my manuscript, who often gave me constructive advice, includes Tami Jones Andrews, Martin Bandier, Carmen Beecher, Melissa Bollea, Kaci Bolls, Walter Campbell, Stanley Cox, Dixie Gamble, Peter Guralnick, Jim Havey, Lauren Braddock Havey, Tammy Jacobs, Kathy Locke, Barry Mazor, Shannon McCombs, Don Pace, Dolly Parton, Alice Randall, Bob Schieffer, Blake Shelton, Troy Tomlinson, and Terry Wakefield.

And when long-term memory, reference books, and the Internet failed, there was always Dale Dodson, who knows more about old country music than most people twice his age. Many times I went to Michael Kossers indispensable book How Nashville Became Music City, USA. The late Wade Jessens satellite radio show was steeped in country music history, and any conversation with Robert Oermann or Marty Stuart is an education. ASCAPs LeAnn Phelan was helpful with contacts. My daughter, Lauren, has an amazing grasp of timelines. My son-in-law Jim Haveys PR skills are always an asset.

Before my large tome was ready for production, the photographer Dennis Carney was a tremendous help in making old snapshots look like professionally shot photographs. And I owe a debt of gratitude to those who granted us permission to use their pictures. Their names are mentioned in a separate place in these pages.

This book has two publishers. It is a joint venture between Country Music Foundation Press and Vanderbilt University Press. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Director Kyle Young got the ball rolling with CMF Press, and Jay Orr became my editor, relentlessly challenging me, but never forcing me, to make this or that little change. (Jay is an amazing fact-checker, and I swear if I were to misspell the middle name of Bill Monroes bus drivers cousins wife, Jay would catch it!)

The final destination, before hitting the stores, for Bobby Braddock: A Life on Nashvilles Music Row was Vanderbilt University Press, where Michael Amess very professional staff sprinkled their magic dust on my words, and Joell Smith-Bornes team gave my manuscript one final copyedit and proofreading. Others on the VUP staff are Eli Bortz, Dariel Mayer, Betsy Phillips, Jenna Phillips and several whom I never met but who worked on my project. Though I never met Bruce Gore, I must acknowledge the man who proved me wrong when I said there would be no book cover with my picture on it that I could possibly like.

To all those mentioned in these acknowledgments, I say a very big, heartfelt thank you!

And a big thanks to Sony Music Publishings Troy Tomlinson for making it possible for me to obtain permission to use song lyrics.

I would like to add this. I cant believe that Judy Roberts, who has been a fixture at Sony Music Publishing since the Tree days of 1968, does not appear as a character in my story. She is a constant and important part of it, and I just wanted to mention her name and ask her to forgive the oversight.

Finally, I want the daughters of my late publisher Donna Hilley to know that my accounts of Donna and I sometimes butting heads over my financial neediness does not take away from the fact that I had enormous respect and affection for her, and I think that shines through in these pages. And I want Carolyn Killen, the widow of my original publisher, Buddy Killen, to understand that my occasional good-natured references to Buddys little quirks pale when compared to my portrayal of him as a great man who helped my songwriting career more than anyone else in Nashville (with the possible exception of Curly Putman). This book is not some big puff piece. I tried to be honest and balanced, and the truth does not always paint a perfect portrait. If I wrote a book full of sweet, wonderful characters who were perfect in every way, it wouldnt be very interesting, and I dont think people would like it very much. I dont kick anyone around in this book nearly as much as I do myself.

BOBBY BRADDOCK

A Life on Nashvilles Music Row

Although these stories and experiences are entirely true, in some cases the namesand in rare instances other revealing characteristicshave been changed to preserve the privacy of unwitting book characters. Except for this one courtesy, I have maintained a dogged commitment to honesty and accuracy in this book.

FOR A SONG

One night in the early spring of 1965, I sat watching TV with Sue, my wife of nine months, in a little, rented, red brick house on the southeastern edge of Nashville. Since February, I had been working a young musicians dream job, playing in the road band of a superstar. Marty Robbins was one of my favorite singers, so I felt fortunate to get the gig, especially only a few months after moving to town. And even better, he had taken a liking to some of my songs. He was doing a recording session that night, so I was keeping my fingers crossed. Sue urged me to relax and enjoy the TV show, but it was hard to concentrate. When the phone rang, I popped up off the couch.

Hey, Bobby, its Ox, hollered Don Winters, whose tenor singing voice was a perfect harmony blend on Martys legendary gunfighter ballads. The Chief says get on over here to Columbia studio, hes got somethin he wants you to hear.