Hey, it's Bob Picket. We are on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoke. Come on, let's get out of the truck and head inside.
A little Girl and rockets Land they told, damn, you're proud of it.
Come on, let's go inside. Getting ready for another tale from the
Broken Spoke. Time for another great tale tales the Broken Spoke. I'm Bob
picking my buddy Monty Warden right here and on the line with us. We
and got the legendary John Conley. Now you were just in Texas and Georgetown
saw a great show you that night. Ernie's an would and were you surprised
at the crowd getting up and dance? And I tell you there's nothing like
a Texas crowd at a concert, is there? I know, I mean,
all these weeks with the with the hot temperatures, and we've done several
dances amongst the various shows I've done, and there they dance anyway side this
is outside. Oh no, but man, correct, Well, you know
we're gonna get up and dance. You know, that's the that's the whole
thing is you know, that's the thing about a Texas dance hall for our
listeners that might live in other parts of the country. Is the whole family
comes out, young mens come out and uh and also you know, if
I may, if you're at a John Conley concert, so you're gonna hear
hits, Yeah, non stop, non stop, and it ain't fun unless
you're sweat and let's just put it that way, no matter what you're doing,
right, correct. Oh you, my friend, I could not believe
you told the audience your age and I will say the average medium age out
there, which is probably uh, mid forties maybe, but they knew every
one of your songs that you sang. That's one of the amazing things that
no matter where we where we play, there are always people in the crowd
who are who weren't born when these songs came out and they know the words
and that's very flattering. You know. Well, it's because the songs are
great, and that's the key. That's the key to you know, producing
a body of work, in my opinion, and having it last a long
time. So you know, I'm very proud of that and thankful for it.
Before before I forget this, I gotta tell you, Monty, I've
never seen this before when it comes to your merch that you were selling.
Of course you had rose colored glasses, which we'll talk about in a minute.
But I have not been to a show where they saw not only T
shirts, not only CDs, your music was on thumb drive. Oh yeah,
yeah. We've got a serious called Classics, which is a greatst sitch
package with a lot of new music, and we have it both in CD
form, three discs in the series, but we started this year carrying it
on a thumb drive. All three all three albums on the little thumb drive,
and people are leaving it there. There's a great idea, I'd a
great idea. Oh yeah, that's brilliant, Yeah, brilliant. It works
great. You know, in this streaming world we live in, in this
digital world, it's just another way to deliver it, and it doesn't take
up a lot of space. Well, and mister Connolly Monty Warden here,
Uh yeah, and listening, just call me John bye, by the way,
Well, mister Conley, go away, just John. Well, hey,
we're all one big family. It's okay, let's take that up with
my late grandmother. But but you know, one thing I think that that
has allowed your music to be uh classics and and timeless is your uh,
the records that you've made your entire career with with Bud, Bud Logan your
record. You know, I was listening to your to your music over the
past weekend, just doing the show prep and refamiliarizing myself. Thirty two chart
records, twenty one top tens, seven number ones. But those records that
you all started making in the seventies and still having hits up until just a
few years ago, there is a timeless quality to it. And I notice,
you know, y'all went through the urban cowboy phase and disco and country
politan and all that stuff in nash Vegas and all that stuff. You and
Bud made timeless sounding country records and at the time were y'all purposeful in not
putting the frills on it that everybody else in Nashville was doing. Because your
music issues guitar based difference, and it gives it a timeless quality that makes
it just sound like a John Conley record. Was that Why did you avoid
the gimmicks and the trends at the time. I've always wanted to ask you
that, well, because those gimmicks and trends will date you, and there
will come a point in time when they will sound silly to somebody, I
think, and you know, and so we did that on purpose. A
long time ago, I worked with the guy in the funeral profession. He
would never buy when all the car when when cars actually had a different look
year to year, like they no longer do. But you know, one
one year some one of the carmakers would have big fins and big curves and
they change the look of the car. He always said that if you buy
a car with a straight line from front to back, it will appear new
longer. And he's right, Uh, straight lines instead of all the all
the tricks. And that's true for music as well. Amen, ah man,
that is it's I I didn't think about that. It's beautiful. Well,
and that's the whole thing. Is that what people need to know.
Uh, there's no such thing as a hit record on accident. And and
these records that mister Conley and Bud Logan made together and make together sound timeless
like uh. I know, mister Connley, back about a few years ago,
twenty fifteen, and then again in twenty seventeen, you cut two songs
that my late father in law Phil Thomas wrote, Standing in the Shade and
Walking Behind the Star, and those records, say, sound just sound similar
and in the same vein as as if they've been cut on the Rose Colored
Glasses session or in the backside of thirty session. It just sounds like a
John Connley record. And I think that is what is so wonderful when people
put on your records, is they don't sound old. They just sound like
a John Conley record. And I, as a fan, I just want
to thank you and Bud for making records like that that don't that don't date
themselves. You know. Well, yeah, I appreciate that. And Budd
certainly gets the credit. He's produced everything I've done. We agree our ears
are in tune as far as the types of songs we like to begin with,
and that's been a pleasure. We've never had to argue with each other
about you do this, you know, and have to argue about what we
do. We just agree on those things. And uh. But he gets
the credit on that production value thing because he comes from you know, he
worked with Jim Reeves. Uh. And that's another great example of song quality,
if you will. That's one of the things I miss about today's music
is that we don't have enough songs that tell a story, that have a
distinctive melody, that don't say the same old thing, I mean everything.
We've had enough songs about pickup trucks and drink and beer. I'm sorry we
have that. We don't need any more of those. Uh. And but
we you know, something that expresses something positive and with a distinctive melody and
by a distinctive voice. And I miss all of that in today's music.
I do too. Now it's a slice of life. And I got to
tell you you made a few people, more than a few people crying the
other night and the show, but I didn't mean to. I mean,
I didn't off in your gospel numbers and the way you ended your show with
a gospel tune. I mean it was just beautiful money. Thank you.
Well, Yeah, we close every show with Amazing Grace, which me and
so many others have recorded. I believe it's an anointed song and we put
it on our first gospel CD, and so I close every show with that
song because it's my favorite of all time and all formats it it just preaches,
you know. And we're looking forward to having this new gospel project out
here soon. We gave everybody a little preview of of a song that'll appear
on that project. At the show the other night. Yeah, what song
was that? Mister Conne Scars in Heaven is the name of it. Casting
Crowns one of the people Casting Crowns helped write it, and of course they
had it out as a single, but we're going to release it as a
single as well, both the country and gospel. And you know, there
was a friend of mine, it was at the show the other night and
you started singing that and she cried because her late husband that's the song they
played at his funeral, and it write so much for her to hear that
song. And then she told me the story when you're and she was just
she goes, God, I love this song. This Like we said,
your your music is timeless. Every time I hear Rose Colored Glasses, it
takes me back to when I was first this jockey, and it's your voice
is of course there's no other voice like John Connley's voice. Well, and
also it's important I feel for the listeners to know. I mean, mister
Connie's had such a he and Budd you know, found so many great songs.
Sonny Throckmorton and Rape Van Hoy and Harlan Howard, well mister Conley John
Connley wrote Rose Colored Glasses and Backside of thirty. So that's a pretty easy
pitch when you're pitching yourself. And yeah, and you know the way this
business works. Of course, I wrote those in nineteen seventy six, that's
also the year Budd and I met. But but when I demoed those songs,
we pitched those around town before I had my recording contract. Really,
we pitched those around town to everybody a town, and nobody picked up on
it. Nobody, well, one exception, Joe Stampley did cut Backside of
Thirty before I did, and he released it on two different albums because he
wanted it to be a single, but he couldn't. He couldn't talk his
management and people into letting him do that, and so he put it on
two albums in a row. It never did come out as a single for
him. By that time, we had started recording and we released it as
a single, and uh, you know, and it didn't work for me
the first time out it was it didn't hit the national charts until it was
rereleased. It was our first and our sixth release Wow, I didn't know
that at all. Didn't know that at all. Now you brought up a
you were a more titian. We did not get into this with the first
time I interviewed either day. But how long were you in the funeral business.
It seems like six years. It seems like they jobs never going away.
Why did you leave it? Oh, no, it isn't. I
didn't mean to do it, you know, I was supposed to do it,
but my plan out of high school was to go to college to major
in radio arch. I was in love with the radio and broadcasting, and
that's what I wanted to do. But I started working part time at a
local funeral home, mainly because my best friend had already started doing that and
he talked about it incessantly got me curious about it. So I started working
part time at the local funeral home, and indeed became intentionally interested in it
and felt called to do it, so I pursued it. I got my
licenses, which I keep renewed. I renew him every year. But wow,
yeah, absolutely, yeah, I'm still a licensed undertaker in Kentucky.
However, I don't practice. I mean, that's the other question. I
was going to ask you until last time. Yeah, I have no intention
of doing it. However I could if I wanted to, And I'm very
proud of having done it because I learned more about helping people serving people doing
that, and I could have with any other thing I can think of.
It was a ministry really to me, and it has influenced well. Plus,
the gentleman that that we both my friend and I worked for was such
an incredible detailed person. He was he was He was a great educator,
a great trainer because he cared about what he what he did, and he
concentrated on the little things, doing the little things that nobody expects you to
do. Uh. And I've applied that to everything I've done At the mean
time. It's all about the details. I'll the details. Yeah, exactly
exactly, mister Connley on Bud Bud Logan, your producer, dear family friend
and best friend of my late father in law, right Brandy, my wife,
Brandy and publisher. She was talking to Bud helping to set this up
and he sent over you know what in the final mix or anything like that.
I guess it was a rough mix, but it is. It is
a song going on your your upcoming spiritual record something about is it the last
suit? The last suit you wear, the last suit you wear. Let
me tell you something, mister Connley, and I am a first chair.
I would say this standing on your grandma's kitchen table. There is not a
bigger John Connley fan than me. And and the Last Suit You Wear is
one of your finest recordings in your entire care. Oh, thank you very
much, appreciate Wait till the folks get to get to hear the song,
but please give them the premise of the song and the story behind that song.
Well, the key line in it is the last suit you wear when
you die. It doesn't say when you die, but the last shuit you
wear won't need no pockets because you ain't gonna take nothing with you when you
go here. When you leave this earth, you're going just with what you
came with, which is your spirit. And uh, you know, whatever
you've accumulated here is going to stay right here. So that's the theme of
the song. And it's it's a great song. I can't wait to hear.
Oh, it's it's about like in one of the verses is about a
banker. It might afford closed on some properties well, this is the last
suit he's gonna wear. And it's just yeah and just you know, and
can nobody sell it like John Connley. It's it's a Brandy and I.
We had like old time country songs like you know, the first time you
heard he stopped loving her to day or something. We had just tears coming
down our face. We must if if B and MI was plugged into our
house, whoever wrote that song is gonna have a good day based on our
living room, I hope it was. That's a great Yeah, it's a
great song. I've had it in my pocket for a long time. It
uh, you know, I heard it on a bluegrass album a long time
ago and fell in love with with the that version. So I've had it
on my mind for years, and we finally got to record it. So
I'm thankful for that. I'm glad for it. And do you all yet
have a release date on your upcoming spiritual project? Now we're we're down.
We've got all the music mixed and we're down to the the artwork and you
know, getting all that together and scheduling it. As you know, anything
you do today, you have to schedule it two or three months away.
From when you when it's due. So I'm hoping by the end of the
year we have it out, but John Connley dot com will be the place
to know when it's available, John Connley dot com. Now I didn't didn't
realize this until then I told it Rose Color Glasses. Did you ever think
that was going to be hit at all? Well, I didn't. I
knew this. I had written it and backside of thirty, and we put
backside of thirty out first because if I was going to lose a song,
and coming from radio, I got and I was a music director, so
I got to see a lot of records come into the library that never got
played, that never hit and if I if I was going to lose one,
I didn't want to lose Rose. Rose was more special to me than
backside a Vote. But so I didn't put Rosecolor Glasses out first. We
saved it till down the road and it ended up being the fourth release,
and and indeed the first three did not make it, including backside of thirty.
And so you know, now, if Rose had not made it on
that fourth release, I'm sure they would have done me from the label,
you know, rightly, so we would have given it four shots and nothing
worked. But it did work and thanks thanks to doctor Bruce Nelson and Houston.
Okay, tell that story because I did not know that story till the
other night about doctor Bruce playing it. Doctor Bruce Nelson, who was at
KAHE and R Radio in Houston at the time, was the first to play
it in Houston, and it just exploded in Houston, and its spread from
there because Houston is such a large market, it spread from there to the
other regions of Texas and then then eventually the rest of the country. You
know, Rose never made it to number one. People don't believe this,
but it was not a number one record nationally. Yeah, but you know,
here's the reason. To have a number one record nationally. All of
the stations in the country have to take it up their individual charts at the
same time. And because it bicycled from region to region, it stayed on
the charts forever. However, it you know, the first region that played
it, it was an oldie by the time the last region got on it.
So it couldn't be a national number one record for that reason. But
I've always said, if every every record could be as big as Rose and
become a standard like it has. I'd take seven every time. What a
huge hit? And again what a time was it? Well? And also
miss Conn when I was doing show prepped for this Rose Colored Glass. You
know, most songs hit songs, most top tens are in the charts about
three months, maybe a four month ride. Rose Colored Glass was then the
top ten three months. Yeah, right, exactly, That's what I mean.
It just stayed, you know, right, it pointed itself, so
to speak. Ye, that's right. Yeah, And that's why I know
you didn't hate that at all. Oh, I don't know. Hey,
the numbers got I've always because I again because I come from radio, and
because I knew what the chart thing was all about and all that. The
chart deal and the numbers game is an inside deal for the industry. People
don't care. They either like it or they don't. And that you know,
it doesn't matter if it's number. We spread these numbers around, number
one, number ten, number five, It doesn't matter. Is it good
or is it not? And do you like it or do you not?
That's the only important. It's a hit, exactly, that's right. Now,
you keep bringing up radio. I always thought that you were a country
disc jockey. Yeah, you weren't a country disc jockey, were you.
The only country I played was at a small station I helped put on the
air in my hometown. I played about an hour of country every morning.
Before I went into the MR format. I had a block programming deal.
It was the way we did the station. But no, I never worked
at a full time country station. But again that doesn't matter, because radio
is radio, whether you're playing rock and roll or Middle of the Road or
country. Radio is radio or news talk. I was part of news talk
for In fact, when I came to Nashville, I came to read news
for four hours every morning at a news talk station here WLAC and which later
became rock and roll. I ended up big music director for the rock and
roll part, and then they turned it back into news talk. It's it's
news talk again. These days everything comes around, right, but it's uh,
you know again, radio is broadcasting. Is broadcasting. You're doing it
right if you're speaking to one person while you're doing it. And so yeah,
I loved it. I fell in love with radio and music at the
same time. Well, you know, you got something to fall back on.
It this if this singing thing doesn't either either radio or you go back
to the funeral home. Shut her home. I'm still on a farm.
I still have the farm. I'm okay, let's talk about talk about farmaid,
because then you brought it up the other night. I forgot all about
that. You were involved with that the early by the first the first nine
or ten of them, I did. What happened is we did a concert
in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen eighty five. I called three or four of
the farm organizations National Farmers Organization and two or three others to put together a
concert to call attention to the farm crisis that was that had reared up in
nineteen eighty five. And so we did that show in June of eighty five.
Just behind that, Willie announced the first farm Aide to be held in
Illinois in September of eighty five. And I called Willie and volunteered to be
a part of that, and so we did the first nine or ten.
I was sort of on the board, if you will, a farm aide
for a while, and uh, Willie keeps it going, God bless him.
He's still calling it to the issue. And that's what farmade was created
to do, is call attention to the fact that there was a farm christis
yeah, keep it relevant, Yeah, yeah, certainly. Yeah, mister
Connor, I want to ask you just real quick about just the whole recording
process. I just such a huge fan of your your records and just the
way your voice translates on tape and just all those things. I mean,
just to give you some perspective, sir. Uh. You know your Greatest
Hits Package that came out in eighty three. I remember it as a summer
release. And the reason why I do, sir, is I rode my
bicycle up to the Ecker Drugs in my neighborhood and I put the album in
the basket and I was just in my bike basket and I was hoping I
could make it home in time before the Texas Sun cook gets But I did,
and it was It was one of the best purchases ever made. Uh,
when your Greatest Hits Package came out, but with you and Bud You
and Bud Logan, And I was doing some research on this. So y'all
started making records in seventy six, correct sir, so right, so that's
forty six, that's forty seven years ago. I know of no other artist
and producer relationship. And for our listeners, a record producer is kind of
like a movie director, you know. And uh, and in the relationship
y'all have of you and Bud understanding the right songs and the right keys and
the greater right arrangement. I mean like the Beatles had George Martin, the
Everly Brothers had Chet Atkins, Loretta Lynn had Owen Bradley. But these relationships
only lasted at the most eight or nine years. Y'all have been making hit
records, incredible records for close to fifty years. I hope so I heard.
I hope in seventy six, y'all sorry, in twenty six, y'all
are going to do a fiftieth anniversary. You know that would be great.
Yeah, I'm for that. I'm for that altogether. I mean, we're
like brothers, Bud, not just we When we met and we've we met
in a restroom at a golf tournament in nineteen seventy six. Yes, the
guy that I worked with in radio, his name is Dick Kent. He
ended up being my first manager as well, but he was chairman of the
four star golf tournament outside of Nashville that year, and he got me to
come down with a guitar and just do three or four songs during the dinner
meal under the tent of golf tournament at night, and Bud was in the
audience, and I guess it he was attracted to what I was, my
singing, my voice and everything. Anyway, we ended up in the restroom
together after I had done that. He introduced himself and we, you know,
made an appointment to get back together when we got back to Nashville the
following week, which we did, and uh, you know it started from
there, so I tell you, oh, absolutely yeah. And it took
us. You know, it took a while. I mean we he and
I were hooked up before I ever had a recording. I didn't have a
record to contract at that time, and it took some months for that to
come together. But when I got that first recording contract with ABC Records,
I requested that Bud be my producer, and of course they agreed, and
we've been together ever since. Well, I know that Bud uh told told
all our listeners and told me in Brandy that just shortly before he met you,
he was just praying to God. He said, God, just please
please send me a voice, and it was just a few days later.
And of course, you know Bud, you know he can't tell that story
without without crying. Of course, you know it's Bud. He cries over
a good steak. But well he and you know what, he just told
me that within the last some months year or two, he had never told
me about his praying to find a voice and and and then meeting me until
within the last eighteen months. I'd say, before I ever knew that,
and I was I'm thankful to know that. I mean, well, you
know, when God knows what he's doing all the time, you know,
well, exactly right, exactly right. And that's why I've said earlier,
everything I've done to make a living, from being raised on a farm to
the funeral profession, to radio to me has led me to the spot I
am today. I was supposed to take all of those steps for a specific
reason, and it still serves me. Well. So it's it's among it's
among my many blissings. Yes, sir, Yes, sir, absolutely,
And you know I was just so the listeners out there, you had said
John Conley dot com, uh j O h N C O N l EE
dot com correct your classics packages. I know classics one, two, and
three are on there, and it's not just your greatest hits like you said,
Uh, Classics two and three have new songs well, and new songs
too that people had and and that's why it's three this wide. You know,
we could have put all the hits on two this without any problem.
And uh, but we kept over the course of putting this together, over
the course of a few years, we kept finding new songs. So we
decided to add the new music to the old. And that's why it's three
this wide. Well, and I'll just tell the listeners, as we said
earlier, you cannot tell one era from the next because you and you and
Budd just have that great John Connley formula of making all the record sound like
a John Conley record. You know, yeah, right, well, we
we we we've tried to do that on purpose and it's it's worked up pretty
well. I don't think your voice has changed. I know that the older
we get it, we seem to have our voice changes, but your voice
has not changed since you started recording back in the seventies. In a lot
of ways, it's more mellow now than it than it was I know this.
It's it's more fun to sing than ever before. And but my voice
is that's the one comment we get more than any other for people. It's
it's kind of funny in an autograph line after a show, a lot of
people will come up and say, well, you really sound good, like
they're shocked. Well, and I said, well, thank you, I
appreciate it. But yeah, because a lot of people's voices deteriorate with age,
and thank the Lord, mine has gotten better, really and uh burne
mellow, and it's more fun to sing than ever So I'm thankful for that.
Well, what do you do to take care of your voice? He
thinks, Well, passed to money night, because we're getting it is it
is in spite of me. That's what another thing I tell people, it's
it's not my fault. That it is not my fault at all. The
only the main positive thing I did for my breathing and my voice was I
quit smoking over twenty five years ago, and that helped me more than anything
else probably. But in the meantime, no do I do vocal exercises,
No do I eat right, absolutely not. So So again it's in spite
of me that it's held up like it is again common man's theme. Right
here. You sang a Vince Gill's song the other night, which I have
never heard before. Everybody and you told the story. Then this has written
two songs about his brother, right of course, go rest Town the Mountain
and the other song that you did the night. What was the name of
that song? Bread and Water? Is the name of that? You and
he and yeah, he and Leslie Satcher wrote it. I found it on
one of his albums a few years ago, and when it was brand new,
I went to Vince. I said, well, do you have a
plan for this song? Are you going to release it as a single?
He said no, he didn't think so I said, well, with your
permission, I will, And so we recorded it and we did release it
as a single. And of course, you know these days, if you've
been around over fifteen minutes, commercial radio is not going to play it.
I mean, Merle Haggard could rise from the dead and record and they still
are Elvis and they still wouldn't play it, I don't think. But at
any rate, so we released it as a single. But I do it
on every show just about unless there unless it's a crowd that's talking and too
loud to be quiet, then I leave it out. But it is an
incredible song story of redemption, and uh, I love it. I mean,
you know it's on Classics too, and we produced a T shirt with
that theme as well on it. Yeah, whose idea was it to come
out with the rose colored glasses to sell at your concession? Because I had
great idea. I know Willie sells. You know hair braids are used to
but boy, I tell you that top seller. Once I got a pay
of those glasses of the night, everybody wanted them. Yeah, it is
a top item. And the guy that helped me write it, another guy
in radio. Uh and my first road manager, George Baber was his name.
He wrote the third verse to the song. But it was his idea
years ago. And you know my original pair when when the song came out,
I went to an optometrist or or glasses shop and had a had a
real pair of glasses tinted rose to wear for the show. And I used
those for the first year and a half or so. Finally realized that I'm
going to end up losing these things or somebody's gonna grab them. They're gonna
get broken, so I put them in the safe and we found some people
to produce the ones we now sell and that's what I use on stage.
And it's also, as you mentioned, a concession. Yeah, I think
the original pair of glasses should be in the Country Music Hall of Fame and
Nashville that's that should be the homewriter along with John Connley. Well, we're
not going to talk about but John conn deserves uh membership in the Country Music
Hall. M definitely, definitely you should be in the Hall of Fame.
I mean you're well maybe maybe one day you know that that if they do
it, I'll show up, But I'm not lobbying for it. I mean
it's okay, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate we will do that,
you know. Uh. And and just so, just as a songwriter,
John Connley has just one of those voice you want a Conley cut, like
my late father in law, and he had Johnny Paycheck hits and George Strait
and Alabama and Barbara Mandrell all this, Randy Travis and he said and after
he retired from writing on the row, Phil said, man, he goes,
I never got a Conley cut, and he goes, my must have
thrown two hundred songs at Bud and then mister Conley cut the Shade and then
and Walking behind the Star and uh and he just uh and those were his
last two major cuts he got in his lifetime. And he said, man,
he said, I can close the book. I got a condott you
know, and well let me let me let me point this out to you
now now as closer I mean, Bud and Phil Thomas were best friends,
I would say, you know, especially in the later life. They were
a Bud missus him still to this day. But here's the deal. In
spite of that friendship. It it took the right couple of songs for us
to go to the studio with for Buddy even show him to me. Amen.
For whatever reason, the other songs didn't didn't click with Bud, and
so he didn't use the friendship. My point is he didn't use the friendship
just to try and to make something happen. You know, the songs come
first, the music is the songs come first. Yeah, exactly right,
well, exactly right. And speaking of that, you know, early in
my career was Condy, I kind of got mentor a little bit, uh,
kind of just took me on his wing. Harlan Howard was a big
supporter of mine and those An don't know. Harlan wrote Heartaches by the Number
and I fall to pieces and gone gone gone, and it busted, and
I don't remember loving you for you, but I will tell you when I
was in his h in his office there in Nashville, uh, and we
were talking about his favorite cuts, and of course he listed I fall to
Pieces, and then he was talking about Busted, and he said, do
you know my favorite cut of Busted? And I said, well, Ray,
Charles, I reckon, He goes, no, hell no, he
said my favorite my favorite cut of Busted was John Conn. Wow that's pretty
big right there. Oh that is, That's that's great. And you know,
I mean he told Bud I think that he'd sort of quit writing for
a while. And when we did Busted and it ended up coming back out
and becoming a hit for us, it short of got Harland picked his pencil
back up again, and he wrote a number of great songs after that as
well. Certainly, but he was he was, yeah, he was,
he was great. Harlan was. That's the one regret people ask me all
the time, do I regret? Uh? You know, missing a song
here and there or whatever. And h Harlan was the first to show us.
I don't know a thing about love that Conway had a hit off,
but we had first we had first crack of that, and for whatever reason,
Bud liked it and I liked it, but I didn't, you know,
it just didn't knock me out the first time I heard it. But
here's the deal. My regret is I should have cut it just because Harlan
wrote it, you know what I'm saying, and exactly right, and uh
but anyway, that's the only regret I have that I didn't. And and
Conway had a great record, I guess if he was supposed to have it.
And I got to tell you, I can hear you sing that I
here, I would love to hear version. Yeah. Well, I guess
it's never to never no never. Two. I gotta tell you why,
Harlan howard story biggest thrill. Now when I was a kid, my biggest
song that I love was Tiger by the Tail right. Oh yeah, So
I'm in Nashville. This is back when I was on Case in Austin and
Case one station of the year CMAS. I take my mom out there to
the big ceremony in Nashville, and we're I'm up there, sitting at a
table. They're getting ready to hand out the CMA Station of the Year awards.
I look back. My mom is sitting there and this nice gentleman is
sitting next to her, just talking up a story. It's Harlan Howard talking
to my mom. And I'm going hold a big fan. Of course,
so I get the award, come back. Harlan's already gone, and my
mom goes, what the nicest gentleman just sit there and talking to me.
She goes, I'm sorry, I couldn't pay attention to the ceremony. He
was he was talking up a storm. And I said, you know who
that was, Mom? I said, that was Harlan Howard. She goes,
who's Harlan Howard? And then I started listening to songs, you know,
and she goes, oh my god. I said, oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, my goodness, yeah exactly right. Well, and I
and probably just from the timing of it, uh, I don't remember Loving
You was was one of those songs that Harlan Howard had after he picked up
his pencil after Buster, because yeah, right, exactly yeah, right,
and he had that, you know that, that's one of those things he
had. He had made the had the idea and this happens all the time
with songwriters, but he had the idea of years before put it on a
scrap of paper and put it in a door somewhere and uh and then I
guess she got the pile out. He and Bobby Braddick were going through it
and uh, you know, they just I guess Bobby probably pushed him to
try to do something with it. And boy did they ever. The Roger
Miller school of writing right there. Man, it's yeah. Well, uh,
was this really going to be your final tour through Texas? Uh?
I don't know. I doubt it. I mean, we're going to alter
things I am tired of. I love doing the shows. I love doing
the shows, but I am sick to death of the road and the rough
road and the bounce in the back end of the bus and all that stuff.
Come. So, how's that? Well, you know, that's one
of the things I'm I'm not going to quit singing. No, I'm not
going to quit singing. How we do it, I'm not sure yet,
I don't know. Maybe we'll make a couple of trips in the year,
longer trips and stay out for a couple of weeks when we do it.
I'm not sure how we'll do it, or we'll find someplace locally to play
and get people to come to see us there. I'm not sure, but
i know I'm not going to do it like I've been doing it, which
is weekend after weekend after weekend, trip after trip after trip. That's got
to stop. Yeah, well, I'm just tired. I'm tired of it,
that's all. And also, Miss Conney, you know, let everybody
know, remind them they probably already knew. You've been a member of the
opera since eighty one, and you'll be doing it, still be doing operation
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly right. I'll be singing somewhere,
maybe in my kitchen, well the opery, but but I'll be I
would always saying I want to hear you sing the last suit you wear live,
you know that. Yeah, hopefully you'll be doing that on the opera.
And of course when you finally cut, don't know a thing about love
when you do that, and Howard tribute out there, you go, well,
so we've already got something and I'll tell you we overcut for this gospel.
We've got enough a good start on a second edition of the gospel album,
so we'll no doubt be going to the studio for that as well.
Well. In in twenty twenty six, your fiftieth anniversary compilation with Budd Low
and fifty tracks, right, fifty fifty Okay, let's stop talking. I'm
getting tired, Mr Conny. This has been such a dream. Thank you
so much, and thank you for just a lifetime of incredible music. Just
some of the best records I've ever heard. Yeah, well, thank you
so much. Money. He was the first country artist that I got to
bring out on stage in Lubbock. Yeah, I think it was seventy eight,
and I got to bring him out the other night, and it was
just just an honor. So I hope to talk to you getting real soon,
mister Conley. Alright, gosh, thank you so much. I've enjoyed
been with you today. You gotta thank you, all right, Okay,
Okay, John Conley tells some broken smoke. That was a fun little conversation.
When John wouldn't it that was fantastic. I mean, you know,
at first, I was trying to be cool and it want to be just
the fans, and then I went to hell with that. This John and
his voice, really, it's it's timeless. You know. I don't know
what you plan to do later this afternoon, but I'm going to pull out
my John Conley album I'm Vinyl, which I still have, and well,
dog, I wanted to buy that thumb Drive the other night, but I
thought this is so unique he's selling he's keeping up with the times. Not
only can you get it on CD, but thumb drives well. And if
you go to his website, whoever's doing that form, it's uh up to
date. Yeah, and they will sell you what you want. John Connley
dot com. So in the Connelly by the way, co O n l
e ees not to be confused with John Connley who was Texas governor. Believe
me, there's loads of different sab More Taels and Broken Spoke coming up.
Tails from the Broken Spoke is recorded live at The Broken Spoke in Austin,
Texas, hosted by Country Radio Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Picket and Monty Warden,
recorded mixed down and produced by micro Vera