[I wrote this for Newsweek’s “My Turn” column but didn’t get my turn.] Country music legend Faron Young died December 10, 1996, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. News reports said depression over health problems and a feeling that the music industry had passed him by contributed to his suicide. My friendship with Faron […]
Nashville songwriter Jerry Chesnut remembers well that pre-dawn morning in 1971 when he could not sleep. He picked up his guitar, looked at his watch, and said, “It’s four in the morning and a new day is dawning.” Then he started writing a song. The first two verses and chorus came easily, but he […]
I first met Faron Young on St. Patrick’s Day, 1970, at a concert in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He wouldn’t let me walk the three miles back to my college dorm after the late show, and he insisted on taking me there in his bus. Over the years, after graduating from college and […]
Front/Lead guitar Doyle Wilburn (deceased) Jimmy Fautheree (deceased)
Diane loved Little Joe Cartwright. It didn’t matter that he was a television character she saw every Sunday evening on Bonanza. “Hurry, Kayo. It’s almost a quarter to eight,” Diane said as she pulled on her hooded gray parka and zipped it. “I’m coming,” her younger sister replied. “It’s only half a mile […]
Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story By Diane Diekman Published by the University of Illinois Press — Fall 2007 Who is Faron Young? Faron gained fame as a country singer in the 1950s, in the mold of his friend Hank Williams, and was eventually inducted into the Country Music Hall of […]