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00:50
Welcome back to Frankly Speaking here on the Patriot.
00:52
I'm your host, Frank Acomb
00:54
We're celebrating 13 years on the air, and I can't think of a better guest to have on the program.
01:00
We talked to him back on the 10th anniversary.
01:03
He's a rock'n'roll legend, a rock'n'roll pioneer, and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame, and soon to be Steuben County Hall of Fame.
01:12
Welcome, Duane Eddy.
01:14
Thanks so much for doing this and being on the show for the anniversary.
01:17
Yeah, it's good to hear your voice.
01:19
Talk to you again.
01:20
Yeah, it's good to hear from you too.
01:22
Boy, that convention that the Duane Eddy Circle put together on Sunday, that's really remarkable how much work they put into that.
01:29
Oh, I know that there's one guy named Jim Grant that does all that videoing and.
01:36
and editing and everything and then the others chip in with their ideas and they find stuff that I can't even find or never heard don't remember well I remember doing it but you know don't know where it is well and and the newsletter that they put together I mean I think it's what every couple of months that I mean it's like getting a magazine in the mail it's really impressive well that's Arthur yeah he's a professor at Sheffield University professor ofI don't know, something with Nano or something.
02:11
And his wife is one of two professors that knows stuff that she knows.
02:16
Wow.
02:17
WowWell, that's that's a good way to keep your job.
02:20
Yeah.
02:21
Well, I think he's retired, but he still, he can't leave it alone.
02:24
He still goes back and lectures or helps out.
02:27
Sure, sureAll that stuff.
02:30
And then he does the newsletter for, that's his hobby.
02:34
Yeah.
02:35
He gets it printed there at the university.
02:37
So and they do a good job.
02:40
I think I do.
02:41
I agree.
02:42
It's I look forward to getting it because he sends me a copy in the mail, not just the e-mail.
02:47
And I really do.
02:48
I look forward to getting it every, every couple months.
02:50
I do too.
02:51
I like the hard copies, you know, and a lot of people, he does that because some people in England still don't have computers, right?
03:00
RightSome of the old folks have just never just missed that boat and don't care, right?
03:08
Duane Eddy is our guest on Frankly Speaking.
03:10
I thought we should probably start off the interview with getting your reaction when you heard that you were going to be in the Steuben County Hall of Fame.
03:17
Well, to tell you the truth, I was a bit stunned and amazed.
03:20
I couldn't believe you did it.
03:21
I talked a bit to it, however.
03:27
It's really an honor and especially coming from where I was born and raised for several years.
03:37
It just was amazing and it gives me a warm feeling in the heart for the people of Corning.
03:44
And I want to say thanks to the city of Corning and to Steuben County for adding me into their Hall of Fame.
03:54
It's a great honor.
03:56
And it just was kind of overwhelming and and heartwarming.
04:02
And I just love it that they recognized me and put me in there.
04:07
It's really great.
04:09
And I'm proud to be with all the other people in there who have accomplished great things.
04:15
I've always been proud of that city because of the glass.
04:18
Everywhere I go in the world, everybody's oh, they got Corning glass.
04:22
Yes, they do.
04:24
Yeah.
04:24
And yeah, you always see the Pyrex measuring cups on TV shows and in the movies and only a Corning native looks out for stuff like that.
04:33
Yeah, I know of it.
04:35
They also do some fantastic or did.
04:38
I don't know if they still do.
04:39
I suppose they do fantastic artwork with the glass.
04:43
Yeah, it's.
04:45
Crystal.
04:47
Yeah.
04:47
I was afraid you were going to be banned from the hall forever the way I put up such a stink last year when you weren't put in.
04:52
Yeah, it's no wonder you didn't ruin everything.
04:57
Bless your heart.
04:58
You're you're a good man.
05:00
Well, it's funny.
05:01
Now it was, let me tell you, it was a relief because I didn't want to have to get that press release and see that you weren't on there and have to start complaining again.
05:06
But so it was a relief on that.
05:08
But I'm really glad that they decided to put you in.
05:11
It's long overdue.
05:12
Well, they can Google and find out.
05:15
You know some of the stuff I've done them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
05:19
The Musicians Hall of Fame and.
05:22
And may end up in the Country Music Hall of Fame one of these days, but that's kind of iffy.
05:27
They don't really consider me a country star.
05:30
They'd like to and they're really sweet to me and nice, but.
05:35
And that would be an honor too, yeah, and.
05:38
But I I think this honor.
05:41
Pleases me more than.
05:43
Most, you know, more than the others in a way, because it's always nice to be recognized by your hometown.
05:50
And most people learn.
05:51
Yeah.
05:52
And to think about when I noticed that at the conference on Sunday, that so often when you talk about your life, you always mention Corning.
05:59
Corning's always come up throughout your whole career.
06:02
So it's not something you've ever shied away from.
06:03
That's why I think it was so long overdue.
06:07
Yeah.
06:07
Well, they didn't know they.
06:09
Well, it's like my first bio in 1958.
06:12
red.
06:13
Perhaps the town of Corning, New York, is unaware that Duane Eddy, the new hot rock star, and his twang guitar were born there.
06:23
And that's the way it starts out.
06:26
And it goes on.
06:29
Isn't that funny?
06:31
And I think they were unaware.
06:33
I didn't grow up there.
06:34
I didn't go to high school there or anything, so they they didn't pay any attention, really, to that.
06:41
That's fine.
06:42
That's OK.
06:42
They didn't know.
06:43
Right.
06:44
Now, did you go-- Now they know.
06:45
Now they know for sure.
06:47
Where Where did you move after Corning?
06:49
Bath.
06:50
OK.
06:50
OkThat's where I started school, I think, and-- I know.
06:55
And stayed there until we moved up to Gayanoga, which is at the the northwest branch at Cayuga Lake, two miles north of the end of the northwest branch at Cayuga Lake.
07:10
So it was just 7 miles over the hill to Panyan or many more miles if I wanted to go around the bluff, you know, there, I forget what it's called, something bluff that goes the part that goes down between the two branches of Keuka Lake.
07:28
But anyway, that's not important.
07:29
Well, I know that we've mentioned this the last time we talked, but you, I mean, you still have relatives in the general area, so you still come occasionally before the pandemic, yeah.
07:39
Yes, my relatives were all in in Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
07:47
Sure.
07:48
20 miles south of the border.
07:51
Towanda, Troy, Alba, Canton.
07:58
They're all up in there.
08:01
And Towanda mostly, that's where my grandparents lived, and I still have a cousin there, several of them.
08:10
I have some in New York State too.
08:11
I forget where Ronnie lives, somewhere up there in a lake and just north of the border somewhere.
08:19
Rock'n'roll legend Duane Eddy is our guest on Frankly Speaking.
08:22
I wanted to mention because I'll be giving away copies of this CD a little bit later on, but Johnny Cash and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
08:28
Boy, this album turned out really good, didn't it?
08:31
Yes, it did.
08:32
I'm so proud of that.
08:33
I just had and I just, it was just a thrill doing it, hearing him sing and.
08:39
And it sounded like he was in the next room.
08:41
You know, we always record like that where the artist is often in the next room.
08:45
Or if I'm the artist, I'm in the next room.
08:48
And And it just-- I did-- when I did it, I just plugged in and just heard that.
08:54
And it just gave me chills.
08:56
It was goosebumps.
08:57
It was so-- because he did-- he recorded that years ago when he was still in great voice and all that.
09:06
just he and his guitar and they've added everything and the whole album has the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and they're one of the best orchestras in the world the Queen's Orchestra and in London England and that guy who arranges the strings is great he's fantastic he really gets the best out of them I think and Robin Smith I think his name isWe wouldn't know because we're not in London.
09:40
Well, and I like the choice for you farther along because it wasn't, you know, it's not Walk the Line or some of the bigger hits.
09:45
It's more of a, I guess you could call maybe a deep cut.
09:47
And your guitar on it just works so perfectly.
09:50
Yes, I thought it did as well.
09:53
And the reason I liked it was because just for that very reason, it wasn't anything that we'd heard before, right.
10:01
And that's what John Carter was.
10:04
John Carter Cash, their son, June and John's son.
10:08
That's what he was thinking too, that it would be better to do something off the wall, unusual, unknown, even release it as a single, whatever that means these days.
10:21
Well, like I said, company reached out to us at the radio station because we have a country station.
10:25
And they were reaching out to us and that's why I have these to to give away as well.
10:28
It's kind of interesting to see and and they really highlighted the fact that you're on the album.
10:32
I mean it's on the liner notes in the back, but also when they were promoting it, I know it's just amazing.
10:38
Sony's been really good to me on this and and I think John Carter had a lot to do with that, but and the other producers too, they they're all good guys and the ones that produce the strings and all that and.
10:55
in England.
10:57
And they're nice people.
10:58
They don't like me to talk about them because they don't want to be famous.
11:04
They just want to do their job and stay behind the scenes, I guess.
11:09
Yeah.
11:10
But anyway, it was it was really-- you know, well, I told the story on the album, too.
11:18
They They repeated it when the story was on the album thatabout how I heard that Luther Perkins had passed, and I almost called Johnny, hunted down a number and called him to see if he would like me to work with him for a while, you know, until he got another guitar player.
11:43
And I play what I play, of course, but I wouldn't try to do Luther.
11:50
And I got to thinking about it, and I realized thatThat'd be a bit presumptuous of me, I think.
11:58
And then I realized, well, you know what?
12:01
Luther and I lived in the same neighborhood, musically speaking.
12:06
We were both down there on the low strings.
12:08
We both had our own style, our own sound.
12:12
And I had never stopped to think about it before, but he did it first, and then I did it.
12:19
We both were different as night and day, but we were both in the samearea on the guitar.
12:26
Now that's kind of unusual and tricky to do.
12:31
I think if I hadn't have done it subconsciously or unconsciously, whatever, I hadn't thought of it, which was a good thing, because then it would have probably hexed me.
12:45
No, it probably would have messed me up a little bit.
12:50
I'd start thinking, well, maybe I'm doing getting too close to Luther or something, right?
12:55
RightBut I didn't.
12:57
So anyway, so I didn't think of it until just recently.
13:01
Yeah, well, it's a it's a remarkable album.
13:03
They did a really fantastic job with it.
13:05
With the pandemic going on, have you still been able to do studio work or is that kind of shut down?
13:10
Well, it's kind of shut down, but I did that before this insanity started, right?
13:18
And.
13:20
I've done a few things.
13:21
I did a Shaniqua Copeland, who's a blues singer.
13:27
Her dad was a, well, pretty well-known blues singer.
13:31
And Johnny Copeland.
13:35
And her name is Shaniqua.
13:38
No?
13:41
I can't hear.
13:44
Shaniqua ohh Copeland.
13:49
Yeah, they played that during the conference.
13:50
It was really good.
13:51
Sounded really good.
13:54
Oh, did they?
13:54
Yeah, I I didn't get to see it.
13:56
I totally forgot about it.
13:58
It's probably too early in the morning for me anyway.
14:02
It wasn't too bad.
14:03
Well, I got the e-mail and it said 8:00 in the morning on Sunday and I didn't realize that was West Coast time.
14:08
So I I came into the studio to do it and I waited.
14:11
I sat around for three hours for it to start out, but it was well worth it.
14:14
They, boy, they do a great job.
14:16
Oh, that's great.
14:17
Well, the first one was a little rough and rocky, but that they did a couple of months ago.
14:22
Yeah.
14:24
And so I'm glad to hear that they got it together this time.
14:31
And did they do some live music too?
14:35
Yes, a couple.
14:38
Correct me if I'm wrong.
14:39
Is it from the Safaris?
14:41
2 members are from the Safaris.
14:43
Is that who it is?
14:44
Yeah, I know him.
14:44
Yeah.
14:45
He's a he's around.
14:49
He had that one record and he's parlayed it into a career somehow, which is good for him.
14:58
So he played on it.
14:59
And then a gentleman that's, I guess, played at all the conferences when it was in person, he played a song or two.
15:07
So yeah, there's some live stuff.
15:08
Yeah.
15:08
Yes.
15:08
Philip, thank you.
15:09
Yeah.
15:10
YeahIt sounded good.
15:12
Oh, good.
15:14
I didn't realize the Duanity Circle had been around for as long as it had.
15:17
What'd they say?
15:18
It started in 73, I think.
15:22
Yeah, I think so.
15:22
Seventy-five.
15:23
Seventy-five.
15:24
Yeah.
15:24
YeahThey just celebrated their 40th anniversary, which is a couple of years ago.
15:30
I think this is probably their second or 42nd or 3rd.
15:35
Yeah, it would be the 4045th.
15:38
I think they're going into.
15:39
Wow.
15:41
WowAnd here.
15:43
It was 75.
15:45
Yeah, it would be 45.
15:46
Yeah, 2020.
15:52
I just saw.
15:53
I wanted to kind of reminisce with you because when I saw you play in Las Vegas and and Jerry Lee was on the bill, I just saw that he celebrated what I think his 85th birthday.
16:01
They had a big celebration for him.
16:03
Yeah, I think it was.
16:06
Elvis was 85 this year.
16:07
Yeah.
16:08
Wow.
16:09
They were going to do a big thing.
16:10
They had me overdubbed on a.
16:14
album cut of his.
16:15
Oh, wow.
16:16
And they were going to release it as a single, but then Priscilla's grandson, I don't know how, but he somehow he got killed or died.
16:25
I saw that.
16:28
And that just, you know, knocked her for a loop, and so she dropped all of her projects, I think.
16:36
Yeah.
16:37
Did you ever get to work with Elvis?
16:41
No, but I met him, had a great conversation with him all night.
16:44
Yeah.
16:45
After a show he did in Vegas.
16:47
Oh wow.
16:48
And he and Priscilla were there and and you know, it was just idyllic.
16:56
It was wonderful.
16:57
He was everything I was hoping that he'd be.
17:01
And you know, because he was the king, he was the man.
17:04
Yeah.
17:05
He started it all.
17:09
which I got to thank him for, you knowOtherwise, I said I'd be a sideman in a country band out playing honky-tonks in the Arizona desert somewhere.
17:20
He said, oh, you have figured out something.
17:23
And, you know, I thought, well, that's Elvis.
17:28
He's modest, too.
17:29
Yeah.
17:30
But that's not true.
17:32
We all jumped on his bandwagon and he said,Well, you know, the other day he says, You remember how they used to show me, wouldn't show me from the waist down on TV on that big show and the Dorsey Brothers or whatever it was?
17:52
I don't remember, big band.
17:54
Anyway, he says, Well, the other day I visited the President of the United States and he told me what a great influence I was on the youth of the nation.
18:04
Wow.
18:04
He says,Isn't it great how things turn around?
18:09
It's true.
18:09
Yeah.
18:10
Time dignifies everything.
18:13
I thought it was interesting.
18:14
I was reading Charlie McCoy's book a couple years ago, but it was kind of funny.
18:19
He focused on when he was giving music instructions and he said every single person that would come in to get guitar lessons wanted your sound.
18:29
Yeah.
18:31
Who said that?
18:31
Charlie.
18:32
Charlie McCoy.
18:33
Yeah.
18:34
Yep.
18:35
Everybody was, everybody wanted to copy that sound.
18:37
So it when it took off the twangy sound, it just what kind of took over the country.
18:44
It kind of took over the world.
18:46
Yeah.
18:46
Well, yeah, right.
18:48
Wow.
18:49
I mean, England has always been great to me.
18:51
And Germany, they have trouble with my name or something, I I think.
18:58
But they, when they hear the music, they go crazy.
19:01
Yeah.
19:03
They realize who it is.
19:05
And that's just the way it is.
19:10
I I have people in Spain.
19:13
I've had fan mail from there.
19:16
France-- I've worked in France, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia.
19:26
Yeah, there was someone on the-- Belgium and Sweden and Norway.
19:32
Never got to Finland or any of those places, but behind the curtain back then when I was working a lot.
19:41
Well, and that's what was interesting about that Viva Las Vegas concert, that how diverse the crowd was.
19:46
It was, you know, not a huge American crowd, really.
19:50
Well, yeah, there was a good contingent from America, from all over the country.
19:57
And then as you say, it was very, you know.
20:03
all these people from ohh the Netherlands and Amsterdam and places like that they they still they still go crazy over Rockabilly yeah and Sweden and Norway they have their little bands that work all the time and they have all come to Las Vegas I've had 20 times25,000 people there or something like that.
20:31
Yeah, I fell out of place because I wasn't dressed up.
20:33
Everybody had their hair slicked back and wearing leather jackets in the hot sun.
20:37
It's almost like, I don't even know what you'd call it.
20:39
It's its own kind of cult following, I guess.
20:43
It is a cult thing in a way.
20:45
And it's just people who love rockabilly and they lovely.
20:50
They've seen the cartoons of it, you know, they haven't really.
20:53
We didn't really dress that way back in that day.
20:56
And I think, you know, speaking of Johnny Cash, I think he was probably the first rockabilly artist, you knowYeah.
21:03
First country rock and roll guy.
21:05
He didn't have a steel or a fiddle.
21:08
He just had the two of them, three of them.
21:11
And, you know, he just -- that's all he did.
21:16
And And it was country, but it was also a little bit edgy on the rock side.
21:21
Yeah.
21:23
YeahYou know, they hadn't invented the name yet when he started.
21:28
That came along a little later because the country mixed into the rock.
21:33
Of course, Elvis did a lot of that.
21:37
And of course he mixed everything, the white gospel, the black gospel, the blues and country.
21:47
And just whooped it up into a big cake.
21:53
Rock'n'roll legend Dwayne Eddy is our guest here on Frankly Speaking.
21:57
Well, like Charlie McCoy said, everybody wanted to copy your sound.
21:59
Were there a lot of artists at that time that tried to copy your sound?
22:03
Yes.
22:05
There were a lot of people on record, a lot of on record, on other singers records that had it or would have it.
22:13
And it was a guy named Al Caiola in New York City that made a lot of he didn't.
22:19
he covered all the movie themes with big orchestras and he played my sound and had a few hits with it and I mean you know they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery right when I heard that I said I changed that saying to plagiarism is the most sincere form of flatteryWell, it is amazing.
22:47
I think it was Robert Finley's album that I didn't know that you were on, the one that Dan Arbacher produced that I heard.
22:53
Once I hear that guitar, I knew instantly that you had to be on the album.
22:57
So I had to look at the liner notes and I was right because it's so distinct.
23:02
Yeah.
23:03
And they kept putting the compression on me, which kind of kills my sound a lot, you know, at least does to me, I.
23:12
couldn't tell when it was me or when it was somebody else on some things.
23:17
But I guess they left it off with that, maybe.
23:23
Because I did a thing with Phil Everly before he passed away, and we took it in to get it mixed and all that, and I went in to listen to the playback.
23:37
and I had just heard a couple of guys singing Phil would sing harmony with himself which I loved because it sounded like I was producing an Everly Brothers yeah yeah and and he liked to do it because but he liked to keep his harmony down a little bit and his lead voice up so that's what I did and he he liked that because he didn't want he knew that was the sound he wanted in places but he didn't want it to sound like the Everly Brothers whichHe used to amaze me because he couldn't, he couldn't sound like anything else.
24:13
Right.
24:13
Right And he heard something different, that's all that mattered.
24:19
Anyway, I went in to listen and I just heard two guys singing and a guitar playing.
24:25
I said, have you got compression on this?
24:27
They said, yep, yep, sure do.
24:29
I said, could you take it off?
24:32
And he said, all of it?
24:34
And the producer and the engineer were both there.
24:38
I said, yes, all of it, off of me.
24:40
I don't care about the rest of the thing.
24:42
Right.
24:43
But so much.
24:44
But I said, off of me and Phil.
24:47
So they took it all off and here came Phil sounding like Phil and me sounding like me.
24:52
I said, okay, that's the way we'll mix it.
24:54
AhI don't know why they like that compression.
25:00
I guess it gives it a little boost or something, level-wise, and you know it makes it sound louder or bigger, but I don't think it does.
25:12
I think it compresses everything into one small, neat little package, which I guess is great for these little speakers that we have on phones and iPads and so forth.
25:26
But when you put a pair of earphones on with those, the sound is pretty good.
25:32
Yeah, it's true.
25:34
It's pretty interesting too, how often when you'll just be watching a movie and how you're on the soundtrack to so many movies, it's almost if they're going to do a 60s movie specifically, I don't think they can leave your your sound out.
25:48
Well, I tell you, we got a thrill one night.
25:56
a director something think of his name he did The Hateful Eight ohh Quentin Tarantino yeah yeah Quentin Tarantino he was getting a big award to all these guys all these big huge producers from the guy that did Star Wars and all of them Ron Howard you know you name it they were there and they were honoring him they gave him some awards some achievement awards so he got up andwas explaining how he how he learned to direct.
26:30
He said, I'd do it in my bedroom.
26:32
He says, I'd put a Duane Eddy record, I'd put his Rebel Rouser on it.
26:36
He'd go down, down, I'd use this camera angle.
26:39
He'd go down, down, down, down, and I'd change it to that one.
26:43
He's doing this playing in front of this whole crowd.
26:46
It was amazing.
26:47
Oh, that's great.
26:48
I thought, wow, I'm glad I saw that.
26:52
Rock'n'roll legend and Corning native Dwayne Eddy is our guest here on Frankly Speaking, and I know we talked about this last time you're on the program, but are you still working on your autobiography?
27:01
I am trying like crazy to do that, and I actually do write some every once in a while, and I just write until I get.
27:13
As my friend, the great steel player, Buddy Emmons, said, Till I get sick of me.
27:20
They asked him, he started writing his guy halfway through and quit.
27:25
And the publisher I talked to for some other reason, he said, You know Buddy Emmons?
27:30
I said, Yes, of course.
27:32
And he said, he said, Could you ask him if you'd start back onOn his autobiography says he just quit in the middle.
27:44
I said, well, I'm thinking that's above my pay grade.
27:47
Yeah, I'm not gonna.
27:50
I gotta stick my nose into that.
27:52
That's not my business why he quit.
27:55
So I'm frankly trying to think what can I oh, I know.
27:59
I said, well, did he give you a reason for quitting?
28:01
He says, Oh yeah, he says I got sick of me.
28:07
Why lookSo, you know, I had lunch with Buddy not long after that.
28:13
I asked him about it.
28:15
Yeah, he says I just couldn't.
28:17
He says it just sounded.
28:18
And I know what he means when I'm trying.
28:20
I think nobody's going to want to read this.
28:23
You know, it's going to get bored and shut the book and toss it.
28:29
But I'm trying.
28:30
I'm trying to do it and make it interesting.
28:33
I don't have any sortedlife to talk about.
28:41
And you know I don't know what to write that would capture everybody's attention.
28:51
I just talk about my career and my you know family a little bit, and friends, people I've met, stories I've got.
29:03
That's about it.
29:03
I'm sure it'd be fascinating.
29:05
But, and I know I don't want to keep you all day.
29:07
You know, I can talk to you all day, but I I should probably ask you before we go, if you have, you talked about your father letting you go to the the grocery store by yourself the last time or the shop.
29:19
Is there any fond memories of Corning that you have?
29:22
Oh, yes, yes, very much so.
29:26
Where we lived, we were about, oh, a six or eight-minute walk, I guess.
29:32
And then we crossed the street.
29:35
I'd go with my dad.
29:36
I was about four or five then.
29:38
Every Sunday morning you'd get the Sunday paper.
29:41
You know, it was a big deal in those days.
29:45
Fost a quarter, I think, and maybe it was only a dime or 15 cents then, but I don't know.
29:52
But it was a big, huge, thick thing, you know, with all the sections of the newspaper.
29:58
And I don't remember the name of it, it was the coin paper, the New York Times or what, but it was a Sunday paper.
30:06
And so one day I said, I want to go get the paper by myself.
30:15
Ohh My mom and dad said, well, I don't know, but they said, okay.
30:19
They figured it would be a good lesson in independence.
30:24
So I walked over and some guy come up to me, he says he had a hat and an overcoat on.
30:32
It was kind of chilly and I had my jacket on.
30:35
And he said, where are you going, little boy?
30:39
I said, I'm going to get the Sunday paper.
30:42
I'd stopped for a light and waited for it to change so I'd cross the street.
30:48
Oh, oh, OK.
30:50
So I went on to get the paper and walked back home with it.
30:59
And I found out years later that that was my dad.
31:03
Testing you.
31:04
Yeah, he just he wanted to see if his disguise worked.
31:09
I didn't even recognize him and.
31:13
Chased his voice and and he raced home and went in the back door while I was going around to the front.
31:20
So he's in there waiting when I got there and.
31:25
Also, what else?
31:28
He used to drive a bread truck for Cobaco C-O-B-A-K-O, I think it was and later on for Nabisco but he had I still got a picture of him on the Cobaco truck and he delivered bread to all the stores around like within a hundred mile radius, little towns and andThat was his job and I used to love to go.
31:56
When I got a little older I could go with him and I'd go to that bakery, which was.
32:01
I said I don't remember what street it was on.
32:03
I think it's the building still there, but they back up to the docks and load the truck and with bread and there'd be the smell of gasoline and oil and and and overwhelmed by the bread smell.
32:18
And I knew there were cupcakes back there somewhere and.
32:24
about noon I'd I'd start begging and no I didn't do that he would reach back and get one and hand it to me and and I'd feast on it yeah I don't know it's just oh I remember ice skating on a pond over there oh sure yeah yeah and we do that on weekends orwhenever, I don't know when my mom would take me or I think it was weekends, my dad would be there.
33:00
And I'd go ice skating.
33:02
They got me these little ice skates that had two runners on them so I wouldn't fall over.
33:10
And I'd skate around that pond in the winter and play in the park in the summer and it was an idyllic time.
33:22
Andplace to be at that age.
33:26
It was wonderful.
33:28
And so I have very fond memories of it.
33:36
Yeah That's about it.
33:37
Yeah, you know, I mean as far as Well stories go, you knowYeah, where were you living when you first started?
33:47
Oh, I remember one other thing.
33:49
I remember when World War II started.
33:51
Oh, really?
33:52
Yes, my it was on a Sunday of course, and my dad came running in the house.
33:57
He was out back doing work on the yard or something.
34:00
He came running in the house and he said I just talked to so and so who was walking by, he says.
34:07
He said something about war starting, so he turned on.
34:10
We had one of those old chapel radios and you know with the little yellow thing in the center and the two dials or whatever knobs and so he.
34:23
Turned it on, the yellow light came on and go, you know, yeah and.
34:29
The voice came over.
34:30
This is the day that we've been attacked at Pearl Harbor this morning and the reason I remember that was three at the time, but I remember because it was such a.
34:42
You know, yeah, eye opening shock when my dad came running in like that it just.
34:49
you know, something was wrong and you'd just imprint yourself on your brain.
34:52
Sure.
34:53
At any age, you know.
34:54
Yeah.
34:55
Where were you living when you took up the guitar?
34:59
Just right after I moved to Bath.
35:02
And it was in the, I didn't know my dad had that, but he had, we were in Bath and we were down in the cellar getting coal in, 'cause we had a coal burning furnace to heat the house.
35:18
And he was -- the guy had a shoot in and was dumping it in the bin.
35:26
My dad was down there with a shovel to keep the pieces that bounced out and stuff, throw them back in and all that.
35:33
I was down there with him, and I looked over and I saw this thing leaning against the wall.
35:36
I said, What's that, Dad?
35:37
He says, Oh, he says, it looks at, he says, that's a guitar.
35:42
I said, What's it do?
35:44
He said,He says, you play it, and you sing along with it.
35:49
He says, I used it when I was courting your mom.
35:52
My dad was a real romantic.
35:54
He wanted to be a writer, but he-- and he finally did get a story in Reader's Digest that he wrote.
35:59
Ohh So he had his success, and he was pleased.
36:05
Never got a book published, but he tried.
36:08
And he didn't have enough time.
36:11
He was raising three kids and feeding them.
36:15
and a wife, and and a couple dogs.
36:20
So, anyway, he did great.
36:23
He did very well with his life, but he, anyway, that's what he said.
36:27
He said, I ohh used it to court your mom.
36:32
I said, What's that mean?
36:35
I'd sing songs to her.
36:38
AndWhich let her know how much I I liked her, you knowYeah.
36:44
And anyway, he didn't go on about it, but he did teach me some chords, and four or five, I think.
36:55
And it was like three or four more years before I learned you could play up the neck.
37:01
Those were all like C and F and G and E and D and...
37:09
I think that was it.
37:11
Yeah.
37:11
And something like that, more four or five.
37:14
And I could sing some songs and some Gene Archie songs like that.
37:22
And You Are My Sunshine, Jimmy Davis.
37:27
And it was a big thing back then, a big hit.
37:30
AndSo anyway, that's what I did.
37:34
I'd sing Happy Birthday at parties, and I used to sing along while I played.
37:39
Yeah.
37:41
And it was the extent of my entertaining until I got the penny in, and I did a couple songs at a school, what do they call those?
37:53
Oh, like a variety show?
37:55
Assembly.
37:55
Yeah.
37:56
Assembly.
37:57
They had some messages, and then they had somePeople that had talent, so they said.
38:03
I don't know how much talent we had.
38:06
I got up and sang a Hank Williams song and a Stuart Hamblin song, who was a country artist at that time, and had a big hit with this old house.
38:19
He was the first one to have the big hit with that.
38:23
It comes back every once in a while.
38:25
It hasn't come back recently, so you probably don't know it.
38:30
Yeah.
38:31
well Probably nobody under the age of 60, 70.
38:37
Anyway, I sang those two songs, and then not long after that, that was my first-- well, my first thing was up there, so I went to Hornell, New York.
38:52
Is it Hornell?
38:53
Oh, Hornell, yep, Hornell.
38:55
Hornell.
38:56
in a radio station and I took about three or four lessons with this Hawaiian lap steel teacher.
39:06
And so he he was trying to teach me to read music but I just learned it by ear after one time through and play it, you know, pretend I was reading and I didn't, I learned to read a little bit.
39:20
I learned the basics but not to where I could sight read.
39:24
I wish I had gone on with it.
39:28
it just bored the heck out of me.
39:29
And so anyway, he took me over to the station.
39:32
He'd take a couple students to play along with him, and we played the Missouri Waltz.
39:38
And he had like a 15-minute segment advertising his music school.
39:44
And I took about four lessons, five lessons, and we did that, and I decided, well, that wasn't for me.
39:54
I wanted to play guitar, butYou know how it is when you're a kid, your parents say, about 10 then, and parents say, well, I like the Hawaiian guitar.
40:07
You're all hard to play.
40:10
And if you want to play anything, you can have lessons on that, but you don't need lessons on that guitar.
40:18
Boy, that was something, wasn't it?
40:22
Yeah.
40:23
See how my life turned out.
40:29
Thanks so much for again for doing this.
40:30
And let's talk again soon.
40:33
Let's do.
40:33
I enjoy that.
40:34
Well, good.
40:35
Well, thanks.
40:35
I don't have to watch what I say.
40:37
Right.
40:38
And I'll let you and I'll let you know when, when the Steuben County Hall of Fame, what they're going to do induction.
40:44
Yeah, I can maybe make a video or something for them.
40:47
All right.
40:47
And I'll tell them that.
40:48
All right.
40:49
Perfect.
40:49
All right.
40:50
Thanks.
40:51
Take care.
40:51
You too.
40:52
Sad indeed for me.
40:52
All right.
40:53
Love you.
40:53
I love you too.
40:54
Bye.
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