Porter Wagoner

That's so powerful.

Right? I mean, that song carries such emotional weight, especially knowing it was a farewell to Porter Wagoner.

It's like a heartfelt goodbye.

Totally, and it's interesting how Parton originally wrote it when she left Wagoner's show.

We kinda liked that jangly, big country, uh, The Alarm, like I said, um, The Long Riders, you know, with Sid Griffin.

That was the beginning of my direction towards Gram Parsons and old country, like Lefty Frizzell and Porter Wagoner, and it just, you, you name it.

There's a great, uh, podcast.

There's a guy named Tyler Mayhem Cohn, David Allan Cohen's son, he has a podcast called Cocaine and Rhinestones.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Smoke on the Water, from January of 1945.

And I'm gonna follow that up with a great early Porter Wagoner record.

I got this nice clean DJ copy of this.

This one is RCA Victor.

And to me, this is one of the great-

great-Uh, early sort of, uh, I guess they call it hillbilly bop now, or, uh, rockabilly records, early country records.

Porter Wagoner had some, some great records.

You got Speedy Haworth, um, and George Rhodes on guitars, Claude Jackson on steel guitar, Robert White on bass, and Buster Fellers on fiddle, Paul Mitchell on piano, and then of course, Porter Wagoner bringing up the rhythm guitar and the vocals.

The album received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, becoming Parton's highest charting solo studio album, as well as topping the country and rock album charts.

In addition to her performing appearances on The Porter Wagoner Show in the 1960s and into the 1970s, her two self-titled television variety shows in the Dolly and Dolly, and on American Idol in 2008, and other guest performances, Parton also had television roles.

In her first feature film, Parton portrayed a secretary in a leading role with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the comedy film 9 to 5.

In 1989, Parton returned to film acting in Steel Magnolias, based on the play of the same name by Robert Harling.

In 2004, The Dixie Chicks were joined by James Taylor, and John was a part of that tour.

His recording experience goes back decades, and some of the artists he's recorded with include Rhonda Vincent, Don Williams, Larry Gatlin, Porter Wagoner, Jerry Douglas, Al Cooper, Gene Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Josh Turner, and many, many others.

He was nominated for a Grammy as a band member for Earl Scruggs, The Ultimate Collection, Live at the Ryman.

From 1999 to 2002, he was the staff drummer for the Grand Ole Opry, and from 2015 to 2020, an adjunct professor at the East Tennessee State University.

And we finished it, and the crowd's applauding, and she looks at me and she goes, "I know, I know.

I'm no Patty Loveless." She goes, "But you ain't no Porter Wagoner, neither." [laughs]

[laughs] Oh, I love that.

Cracked everybody up.

Well, anyway, um, yeah, I got to see her.

I was living in Austin in the 197- 70, uh, through the mid-'70s, and she played at the Paramount Theatre down there, I think that's what it was called, and, um, with her band, her family band, right when she was breaking big from her, uh, first record, breaking away from Porter Wagoner.

I think that time's about right.

Um, and man, she was incredible.

Um, just a lot of people, and I had the writers of the songs come over and be on the tracks, but Dolly Parton, I, I said, "Man, I don't know Dolly, but I think if we maybe recorded one of her songs, I bet you there's a chance she might, uh, come and sing on it." And I pitched him the song- That I heard on the radio when it was a single.

I, and I was just sitting in a, in, in this parking lot, and I just stopped and listened, and it was devastatingly beautiful, called Tomorrow Is Forever.

Her and Porter Wagoner, she wrote the song.

Mm.