BILL JOHNSON Bill Johnson played steel guitar for Marty Robbins from 1960-1974, with a two-year break in the early Sixties when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was one of the first people to provide me with research material and his memories when I started working on Marty’s biography. Bill talked about Marty’s […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and I’m currently writing Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins for publication in 2012. REMEMBERING MARCH 5, 1963 Billy Grammar and Faron Young were in […]
FARON’S BIRTHDAY Faron Young was born 77 years ago today in a little two bedroom rental house in Shreveport, Louisiana. His sister Dorothy remembered standing out in front and telling people who came by, “We got a new baby brother.” She told me, “All the kids in the neighborhood liked to come over and play […]
MARTY ROBBINS AT THE DAYTONA 500 February brings NASCAR’s Daytona 500 race. Marty Robbins ran that race in 1973 and 1975 and was a broadcast commentator in 1976. He described the first race as follows: “I was gonna pass the guy on the inside, and coming off the fourth turn there’s a bad hump, and […]
FARON YOUNG AUDIO BOOK I’ve been talking with a production company about publishing Live Fast, Love Hard as an audio book. I would pay production costs and then earn royalties on sales. The company would distribute and sell the book via the Internet, both as an 8-CD set and as a downloadable e-book. I’m wondering […]
Happy New Year!! This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and I’m currently writing Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins for publication in 2012. FARON AND MARTY SIGN RECORDING CONTRACTS […]
MARTY ROBBINS IN HIS DRINKING DAYS Those who knew the teetotaler Marty Robbins might be surprised to hear this story. It comes from a transcript of a 1981 interview, and the incident probably happened in 1949 or 1950. “I’ve drunk as many as 24 bottles of beer between nine and one at night,” Marty told […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published last year by the University of Illinois Press, and I’m currently writing Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins. This week marks the anniversary of the deaths of these great entertainers–Marty 26 […]
MARTY ROBBINS BEFORE AND AFTER THE NAVY Here’s a paragraph in my biography draft that I originally placed in the section on Martin as a teenager before he enlisted in the Navy: ***He and his half dozen friends “were trying to have fun,” he said. “We’d choose up sides and have fights with the oranges. […]
MARTY ROBBINS, THE NAME Marty once told Ralph Emery he got the name Marty Robbins from “a Russian kid by the name of Harry Tomichov” [phonetic spelling]. He wanted to change his name “because I didn’t want anybody to know it was me playing. Because I was ashamed. So Harry says why don’t you just […]