Bonsall - On the Road with The Oak Ridge Boys: Forty Years of Untold Stories and Adventures

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Lyrics to This is America by Norah Lee Allen used by permission of First Time Around Publishing.

Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon

Front cover photo Jarrett Gaza Photography

ON THE ROAD WITH THE OAK RIDGE BOYS

Copyright 2015

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bonsall, Joseph S.

On the road with the Oak Ridge Boys / Joe Bonsall.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-6419-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6420-3 (eBook)

1. Oak Ridge Boys. 2. Country musiciansUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

ML421.O2B68 2015

782.421642092'2dc23

[B]

2014035335

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T O OUR PRECIOUS MOTHERS

Lillie Bonsall

Lorette Allen

Ruth Golden

Victoria Sterban

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

Abraham Lincoln

CONTENTS

Living Our Dreams

W hen I was first approached about writing another book about the Oak Ridge Boys, I wasnt really sure whether I could take it on. Writing is an all-consuming art, and although Ive managed to write quite a few books over the years, this task seemed daunting.

Several years ago I wrote my heart out about the Oak Ridge Boys in a coffee-table book called An American Journey . I thought that book was the whole story. But my wife, Mary, inspired me to keep writing about the group, and Im not sure she even realizes it.

It was a summer afternoon, and I had to leave early that evening for a concert at a big Midwestern state fair. Normally wed leave at around midnight, but Darrick Kinslow, our tour director, set the departure time for six p.m. to give us plenty of time to arrive in Somewhereville, USA, to get set up and prepare for the huge grandstand show the next day.

Mary and I decided to eat dinner out early. We picked one of our favorite places, which just happened to be right across the road from our offices and the gathering point for our departure. We drove there separately so she could head for home after dinner and I could drive over to our parking lot, grab my stuff, and board the bus. As I remember, it was to be a four-day trip.

After dinner, Mary and I sat together in her truck in the restaurant parking lot and watched the constant activity across the street. The two big black Prevost tour buses had started and were now on high idle. Band guys and crew guys were arriving. Some arrived by themselves while others were dropped off by family members or friends. The life of the road musician leaving home was being played out right there in that parking lot, and it was exciting to watch it unfold.

I was just about to tell Mary goodbye when she turned to me and said something Ive never forgotten. With teary eyes and a halt in her voice, she said, You know, honthats a phenomenon going on over there. You guys are a phenomenon! Its so hard to believe you all are still out there performing at such a high levelits just a phenomenon. After her voice trailed off, she regained her composure, kissed me, and added, Now get going. Youre never the last one on the bus!

We both laughed, and I watched as she drove away in her big, white Silverado pickup, back home to a houseful of cats and, as usual, no husband for the next several days.

You have to realize that Mary Ann Bonsall never says much about the Oak Ridge Boys. Singing is what I do and what Ive always done, so for me to get on the bus and leave home is a natural part of our lives. But this particular evening seemed a little different somehow. Mary doesnt give props every day, so I must admit my heart was warmed as I parked my own truck and boarded the bus with a few shoulder bags, my laptop, and four days worth of clean laundry and stage wear (clean jeans and some cool shirts).

As is usually the case, I greeted and was greeted back warmly by two of my fellow Oaks, Duane Allen and Richard Sterban. Then our fourth member, William Lee Golden, pulled into the lot, so I was indeed not the last one to board the big busour rolling home away from home.

I threw my stuff into my designated area on the back couch, hung my clothes in my closet, and decided that even though it was early I would crawl in my bunk and get some sleep. I had worked hard on my farm the past few days, and I was tired. My stomach was full as well, so I settled in, pulled the covers up to my chin, and just lay there for a while.

I could hear the guys laughing and cutting up in the front lounge. Richard already found a baseball game on the TV in the back lounge, and Darrick, or DK as we call him, was already on the phone, talking to tomorrows promoter. Our driver pulled away from the office, the other bus full of band and crew followed, and suddenly we were off. Buses on the movetime to ridetime to sing again. It has never gotten oldno, not once!

Leaving home is always hard though, and as we rolled through the early Tennessee evening I felt myself drifting off into a wonderful and much-needed sleep. I could still hear Marys voice echoing, You guys are a phenomenona phenomenon

Her words made me realize there really is still a lot more to write about the Oak Ridge Boys.

Jesus Is the Man for the Hour

S AMMY H ALL

I t was mid-October, 1973, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was about ten in the morning as my flight was landing in Cincinnati, and I was about to open what would become an exciting and very long chapter in my life.

I had spent the better part of the past seven years in Buffalo, New York, singing and promoting gospel music with my cutting-edge little gospel band, the Keystones. I was having fun, but I was also starving to death. I might have stayed in Buffalo forever singing with the Keystones, but thank God, I didnt. What influenced my decision to board the plane and fly away from the Niagara Frontier on that autumn day?

One reason was that my first wife, Barbara, was pregnant, and my bills, which were way overdue, were weighing heavily on me. Especially the one that was earmarked Rent!

But it wasnt all about money. I had always managed to somehow keep singing and still pay my bills, and even as a young man of 25 years, my faith in God to provide was strong. I believed (and still do) in the saving power and guiding grace of Jesus Christ, and I was stepping out in faith with the assurance that God was guiding my path.