Page 55 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018
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record it—but if Chet didn’t like it—it with Columbia. The reason I didn’t put it
probably was a flawed recording. out was because Billy Sherill, who was
notorious for picking hits, didn’t like it. I
did a good version of it.
He had a great stable of artists.
Yeah, he had a lot of them.
How did you enjoy working at Mercury?
I loved the working with Jerry Kennedy.
You ended up with a Eurovision song
We saw eye to eye with songs. I did a lot
too, didn’t you?
of Kristopherson songs and a lot of Tom T.
Hall songs, a lot of Billy Joe Shaver songs. Oh, yeah! A friend of mine over there
I was heavily into good writers. Jerry gave wanted me to do a duet with him for
me the freedom to do that because he Eurovision. I was in Florida fishing and he
knew they were all great songs. The first asked me to fly over to Oslo and made it
one I recorded was “That’s How I Got to sound like a three-day trip. I had written a
Memphis” which was a Tom T. Hall song. song called “Things Change” and we did
Then I did “Come Sundown” from the duet, but I didn’t know what
Kristopherson. Eurovision was. I got over there and
found out it was a big deal. Peter and I
Don’t forget “Sylvia’s Mother” too.
sang that song on two TV shows. You
won the first one you went to the final and
Loved that song. That’s what I did for the
then if you won the final you’d get to go
next ten years—Kris, Tom T. and Billy Joe.
to Russia. I had no idea. We did the first
You can’t go wrong if you’ve got a good
TV show and won it. Then we went to
song.
final which was in Oslo and the press had
Were there any records that you were picked up on the song. The press were
offered but you skipped and someone everywhere—it was like we had won the
else had a hit with the song? Pulitzer prize. We did the final and I told
them, “If we win this one and go to Russia
I recorded “The Gambler” about two
we will probably win it all. There were
years before Kenny Rogers when I was
