FARON YOUNG, FORTY-FOUR YEARS AGO:Â Faron and Hilda moved into their 5836 Hillsboro Road house in August 1962. They had admired the house whenever they drove down Hillsboro Road to visit friends in southwest Nashville. Set back from the road, behind a curved driveway and a tree-filled yard, the long rambler with double front doors […]
FARON YOUNG, FIFTY-ONE YEARS AGO: Faron took Hilda to Baptist Hospital for the birth of their first child, Damion Ray, who arrived August 16, 1955. “I was in labor like forever,” Hilda recalled. Their doctor did not show up, and someone eventually told Faron it would be a breach birth, with no guarantee of how […]
FARON YOUNG, FORTY-TWO YEARS AGO:Â Faron’s magazine, “Music City News,” celebrated its first anniversary by hosting “Country Music Night” at the Nashville Speedway on August 11, 1964. So many country music personalities signed up for the race that two events were run. Ten thousand fans came to the regular Tuesday night at the speedway to […]
FARON YOUNG, FOURTEEN YEARS AGO:Â With the final version of his Country Deputies band, Faron recorded his only live album, a collection of his greatest hits titled “Live in Branson, MO, USA.” The recording took place at Gilley’s Theatre on August 7, 1992. Richard Bass, who’d been a Deputy since 1973, played lead guitar. Stu […]
FARON YOUNG, FIFTY-ONE YEARS AGO:Â Faron returned to Fort McPherson, Georgia, for a surprise performance at General Bolling’s retirement dinner on July 29, 1955. This was eight months after Faron’s discharge, during which time he’d acquired a band, had a number one record, and made his first movie. The Special Services Officer, who formerly worked […]
Laurie Matheson, Acquisitions Editor at the University of Illinois Press, told me my revised manuscript looks terrific: “tight and clean, and the tone is just right.” A big thank you to Sandy Cooper in Kansas for reading the manuscript and advising me where to cut. Her advice helped me condense 33 chapters into 24. I’m […]
The University of Illinois Press will publish “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story” in the summer of 2007. Please forward this weekly newsletter to anyone who might be interested in reading it, and send an e-mail to al******@*****on.net if you have questions/comments about Faron Young. This will be my last newsletter for a […]
The University of Illinois Press will publish “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story” in the summer of 2007. Last night I finished cutting words from the manuscript and got down to 1700 words below the 100,000 maximum assigned in my contract. I’ll need those words to write my acknowledgments page and photo bylines. […]
I’m immersed in editing the manuscript, and what a job! I cut 8 of 33 chapters by inserting pieces of them into other chapters. Although I got the manuscript down to 95,000 words, I was shocked to count up the endnotes and find 10,000 words there. A biography should have good source information, but something’s […]
My friend in Kansas fulfilled her mission of finding 15,000 words for me to cut from the manuscript. I’m using her advice to combine chapters and condense, condense, condense. This is now my fourth draft of the book, and I’ll be spending the next several weeks on the rewrite. FARON YOUNG, FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO: Faron […]