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