Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain

by Grand Ole Opry

  In its first week of release, It’s All About Him reached number one on The New York Times best-seller list. Denise went on a whirlwind book tour. Requests poured in for her to speak to various women’s groups.

  “I commented to him, ‘This is so exhausting,’” Denise told The Tennessean newspaper. “He just laughed and said, ‘Welcome to the entertainment world. Now you see what it’s really like.’”

  As for Alan, “I just do what I like and what I feel I do best. Country music is America’s music. It’s America’s common-man poetry. It always has been, and it’s got to be preserved somehow. I’ll just continue to do what I do, whether I keep selling records or not. I don’t see any reason to change.”

  25

  Broken Duets

  Of all the tragedies that have befallen the Grand Ole Opry’s stars, few are as difficult to bear as beloved duet teams that are torn apart.

  Opry star Emmylou Harris was devastated by the death of her singing partner Gram Parsons in 1973. In addition to intense grief, Emmylou was also facing the prospect of having her career end before it had truly begun. Gram was the reason she became a country singer in the first place.

  Born on April 2, 1947, Emmylou Harris is the daughter of a marine corps officer who had been a prisoner of war during the Korean War. She grew up as a military brat on various military bases around the South. She attended the University of North Carolina and Boston University but became swept up in the folk-music boom of the 1960s. She moved to Greenwich Village in New York in 1967 and made a folk LP called Gliding Bird in 1969. After a brief sojourn in Nashville, she settled in suburban Washington, D.C., in 1970 as a divorcee with a baby daughter.

  She started singing in folk clubs again in 1971. Chris Hillman, who later became a country star in The Desert Rose Band, heard her perform in D.C. and told Gram Parsons about her. Gram loved what he heard and a year later paid for her to fly to the West Coast to harmonize with him on his debut solo album, GP. She was even more prominently featured on a second collaboration with Gram, Grievous Angel, but he died from drug and alcohol abuse on September 19, 1973, at age twenty-six, four months before the record was released.

  Although Emmylou had a brother who was a country-music fan, it was Gram Parsons who truly taught her to love the style. His vision was to take his passion for country to the rock audience. After his death, Emmylou made that mission her own. And that crusade is what took her from being a derailed duet partner to becoming a star.

  Emmylou married record producer Brian Ahern in 1977. He produced the discs that were her early hits. Her second daughter is their child. After their divorce, in 1984, she moved to Nashville with her girls. Emmylou’s third marriage was to British-born Nashville songwriter Paul Kennerley, a union that lasted from 1985 to 1992.

  Her long string of hits, her reputation for musical integrity, and the universal respect she has in the Nashville entertainment community led to an offer to join the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. Emmylou Harris became an Opry member on January 25, 1992. In 2008, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  THE OPRY CAST MEMBER whose shattered duet most resembles Emmylou’s was the late Skeeter Davis. Like Emmylou, she was just beginning her career when her duet partner, Betty Jack Davis (1932–1953), was killed in an automobile accident.

  Born Mary Frances Penick on December 30, 1931, she was dubbed “Skeeter” by her family because of her high-strung, energetic nature. When she formed a vocal duet with her high school friend Betty Jack Davis, Skeeter adopted her last name, and they began to record as The Davis Sisters. “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know” became a number-one country hit for the team in 1953. But the week it topped the charts, the girls were involved in a car crash in which Betty Jack was killed while traveling home to Kentucky from an appearance on the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree in West Virginia.

  After she recovered from her injuries, Skeeter toured and recorded in 1954–1956 as The Davis Sisters with Betty Jack’s sister Georgia. Then producer Chet Atkins suggested that Skeeter harmonize with herself in the recording studio. The sound was still that of a “duet,” but Skeeter was now a solo star.

  She had a big hit with 1959’s “Set Him Free” and joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in August of that year. Skeeter’s “The End of the World” was a massive pop and country hit in 1963, and she sang it on the Opry stage throughout the rest of her long career. Skeeter Davis died of cancer on September 19, 2004, at age seventy-two.

  BROTHER-DUET SINGING REACHED ITS peak in the works of The Louvin Brothers. Older brother Ira Loudermilk was born April 21, 1924, and singing partner Charlie came along on July 7, 1927. They developed an electrifying vocal sound, with Charlie anchoring the melody and playing guitar while Ira sang sky-high harmony and played mandolin. The Louvin Brothers came from their native Alabama to Music City and became stars with such records as “When I Stop Dreaming,” “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” “You’re Running Wild,” and “My Baby’s Gone” in 1955–1959. The siblings joined the Opry on February 26, 1955.

  But theirs was a volatile partnership. Like many brother teams, the Louvins grew to dislike one another. After a 1963 show with Ray Price in August in Watseta, Illinois, Ira announced to Charlie that it was their last. After attending a previously scheduled recording session back in Nashville, the team split up. Charlie continued on the Opry as a solo act. Ira formed a duet with his Canadian-born wife, yodeler Anne Young, and recorded a solo album.

  Then a car crash ended Ira’s life, dashing any hopes of a reconciliation between the brothers. Ira and Anne and a couple traveling with them were returning from shows they’d performed in Missouri when they had a horrible head-on collision with another car on June 20, 1965. Everyone perished. Ira Louvin was forty-one years old.

  Charlie Louvin went on to have a long solo career. He introduced songs from such stellar writers as Bill Anderson (1964’s “I Don’t Love You Anymore” and 1965’s “Think I’ll Go Somewhere and Cry Myself to Sleep”), Roger Miller (1965’s “Less and Less”), Ed Bruce (1965’s “See the Big Man Cry”), Dallas Frazier (1968’s “Will You Visit Me on Sundays”), and Bobby Braddock (1970’s “Something to Brag About” and 1971’s “Did You Ever,” both duets with Melba Montgomery). He enjoyed a career resurgence in the Americana field with his self-titled 2007 CD with the support of Elvis Costello, Marty Stuart, Jeff Tweedy, George Jones, Bobby Bare, and Tom T. Hall. Its standout track was the moving “Ira,” a tribute to his departed brother and duet partner.

  OPRY STAR RALPH STANLEY was the “junior” half of his duet team, too. And his older brother, Carter Stanley, died at age forty-one, just as Ira Louvin did. Guitarist and lead vocalist Carter, born on August 27, 1925, formed the bluegrass band The Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946 with his banjo-playing younger brother Ralph, whose birth date is February 25, 1927. The Virginia mountain duo recorded classic songs for Mercury Records, Rich R Tone Records, Columbia Records, and King Records in the 1940s through the 1960s.

  Carter began to suffer from internal hemorrhaging. After he died on December 1, 1966, Ralph was uncertain about what to do. He’d never been the group leader, but music was all he knew, so he decided to carry on. He led a series of stellar Clinch Mountain Boys from whose ranks emerged such stars as Ricky Skaggs, Larry Sparks, Charlie Sizemore, and Keith Whitley.

  The Stanley Brothers were elected to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992. As he aged, Ralph evolved into an icon of Appalachia. Ralph Stanley was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry on January 15, 2000—the first new cast member of the new millennium. His work on the acclaimed soundtrack of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? earned him a Grammy Award in 2000, and in 2006 he was presented with a National Medal of Arts in Washington, D.C.

  THE DELMORE BROTHERS WERE one of the earliest duos to join the Opry, entering the cast in the spring of 1933. Their gentle harmonies, fireside warmth, burnished songwriting skills, and deftly strummed dual-guitar accompaniment made this duo one of the most enchanting of all the ol
d-time music acts. Alton Delmore was the older brother, born December 25, 1908. Rabon Delmore was born December 3, 1916. They hailed from rural Alabama.

  The duo initially rose to fame with such softly crooned tunes as “Brown’s Ferry Blues” and “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar” in 1933. Alton was also the creator of the country standard “Beautiful Brown Eyes.” At the Opry, The Delmore Brothers were second only to Uncle Dave Macon in popularity. They loved the Opry but never got along with its leader, George D. Hay. In the fall of 1938, the Delmores left the cast. They eventually wound up at WLW in Cincinnati. That city’s King Records label signed them and brought them to renewed stardom with 1946’s “Freight Train Boogie” and 1949’s chart-topping “Blues Stay Away from Me.”

  But this career revival was sadly brief. They returned to Nashville so that Rabon could be operated on at Vanderbilt Hospital, but he died of cancer on December 4, 1952, at the age of thirty-six. Alton wrote one of country music’s most engaging autobiographies, Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity, before dying at age fifty-five of a liver disorder, on June 8, 1964. The Delmore Brothers were elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Alton’s son Lionel Delmore (1940–2002) became the successful songwriting collaborator of John Anderson’s (“Swingin’,” “Bend It Until It Breaks,” etc.).

  ANOTHER OPRY BROTHER DUO team, the Wilburn Brothers, grew up performing in a family band in Missouri and Arkansas. Doyle Wilburn was born on July 7, 1930, and Teddy Wilburn followed on November 30, 1931. Their pitch-perfect, close-harmony vocals attracted the attention of both the Opry and Decca Records, and they signed with both in 1953. Although they had a number of hits in the 1950s, the Wilburn Brothers’ biggest successes came with such hits of the 1960s as “Trouble’s Back in Town,” “Hurt Her Once for Me,” and “It’s Another World.”

  They formed their Sure-Fire Music publishing company and Wil-Helm talent agency. Their most famous client became Loretta Lynn. Doyle got her signed to Decca Records. Teddy polished her songwriting and worked with her in the studio. The brothers also featured her on their syndicated television show. In 1973–1974, The Wilburn BrothersShow showcased Loretta’s distant cousin, teenager Patty Loveless.

  Doyle’s health deteriorated during the 1970s. He died of cancer on October 16, 1982, at age fifty-two. For the next twenty years, Teddy carried on as a solo singer on the Opry, but he never really got over the loss of his brother and partner. Teddy was seventy-one when he died, on November 24, 2003.

  THE LONGEST-LASTING BROTHER DUET in history was Jim & Jesse. The death of Jim McReynolds ended fifty-five years of togetherness. Guitarist-singer Jim was born February 13, 1927. Younger brother Jesse McReynolds, a singer and a dazzling mandolin innovator, was born July 9, 1929. They grew up in the mountains of Virginia and began their recording career in 1951. Jim & Jesse joined the Opry cast on March 2, 1964.

  The team became superstars on the bluegrass-festival circuit. Every time the courtly Jim & Jesse appeared on the Opry stage, they were models of class and professionalism. Jim & Jesse were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1993. Both brothers were diagnosed with cancer in 2002. Jim succumbed to the disease at age seventy-five, on December 31, 2002. Jesse has carried on, fronting a new edition of his band The Virginia Boys.

  BOBBY OSBORNE, STILL SINGING more powerfully than many men half his age, has also continued as a solo artist after his long partnership with brother Sonny ended. The Osborne Brothers have immortalized such songs as “Once More,” “Ruby (Are You Mad),” and, of course, “Rocky Top.” The duo was somewhat controversial in bluegrass circles because of its willingness to use amplified instruments and Nashville Sound production touches. But it also created some of the genre’s most exciting records and was justifiably inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1994.

  Older brother Bobby Osborne is renowned for his piercing tenor vocals and driving mandolin work. He was born December 7, 1931. Sonny Osborne is much admired as a banjo stylist. He is also a walking encyclopedia of country-music knowledge. Sonny was born October 29, 1937. The Kentucky natives developed as musicians in various bands before joining forces in 1956. The Osborne Brothers joined the Opry cast in 1964 and were named the Country Music Association’s Group of the Year in 1971. Sonny announced his retirement in 2005 and suffered a mild stroke in January 2007.

  PERHAPS THE SADDEST OF all the Opry’s broken duets was one that didn’t have a hit collaboration until after one partner’s tragic death. Following Keith Whitley’s demise, widow Lorrie Morgan harmonized with a tape of his voice. “’Til a Tear Becomes a Rose” became a hit duet in 1990 and won a CMA award as the Vocal Event of the Year.

  Lorrie Morgan has been on the Grand Ole Opry stage her whole life. She is the daughter of Opry crooner George Morgan (1924–1975), who sang such ballads as “Candy Kisses,” “Room Full of Roses,” and “Almost.” Born in Nashville on June 27, 1959, Lorrie made her Opry debut at age thirteen, singing the Marie Osmond/Anita Bryant favorite “Paper Roses.” She was also at the Opry for its last performance at the Ryman Auditorium, on March 15, 1974, and its first in the new Opry House the next night. Her father George was the last Opry star to sing in the old hall and was one of the first to sing in the new one.

  After her father’s untimely death at age fifty-one from a heart attack, Lorrie Morgan sang at the Opryland theme park, at the Nashville Palace nightclub, on Ralph Emery’s Nashville Now TV show, and on the Opry. On the road, she opened shows for Opry legend George Jones. She recorded a series of singles that went nowhere. Nevertheless, the Opry invited her to become a cast member, and she was inducted on June 9, 1984. Lorrie is particularly close to her fellow female Opry stars Jean Shepard and Jeannie Seely.

  Lorrie Morgan first heard Keith Whitley sing at Acuff-Rose Publishing in Nashville. On April 12, 1986, they reconnected backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, where she was a regular and he was a guest, performing his new hit “Miami My Amy.” The two recent divorcees were instantly infatuated with one another. Keith was a Kentucky native, born July 1, 1955, who became a teenage prodigy alongside boyhood friend Ricky Skaggs in Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys band. After a stint singing lead for J.D. Crowe and The New South, Keith had come to Nashville in search of a country recording contract. Signed by RCA in 1984, he was on the verge of stardom.

  Keith and Lorrie married on November 22, 1986. “Ten Feet Away” and “Homecoming ’63” were on the radio airwaves as his first two top-ten hits. Lorrie got her own RCA recording contract. In 1988, Keith had massive hits with “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “When You Say Nothing at All.” Everything seemed to be going the young couple’s way.

  But Keith Whitley had a dark secret. He was a binge drinker who downed huge quantities when he was by himself. Early in their relationship, he overdosed badly and would have died if she hadn’t taken him to Vanderbilt Hospital’s emergency room. Lorrie thought her love was strong enough to change him. She threw away his booze, entered him in treatment programs, and tied her leg to his in bed so that he couldn’t sneak away to drink. But in 1989, Lorrie went on the road to promote her RCA single “Dear Me” and her upcoming album for the label. Alone in their house, Keith Whitley drank himself to death. The thirty-three-year-old’s body was found on May 9, 1989. His single at the time was the prophetically titled “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” It became his third number-one hit and was named the CMA Single of the Year.

  Lorrie was thrown into the painful position of grieving, yet having to provide for her children, a daughter from her first marriage and her son with Keith. She turned to her Opry sisters for solace, and the show’s family warmly embraced her in her time of need. In addition to the duet “’Til a Tear Becomes a Rose,” she honored Keith’s memory with a devastating 1991 performance of the George Jones classic “A Picture of Me (Without You).” The fans rallied to her side and brought Lorrie a string of big hits throughout the remainder of the decade. But up to now, Lorrie Morgan h
as never found lasting love again.

  26

  Outlaw’s Prayer

  No one has ever had a more tumultuous country-music career than Donald Eugene Lyle, better known today by his stage name. Johnny Paycheck had a streak of country hits in Nashville but sank to being a homeless, alcoholic bum in Los Angeles. He climbed back to the top with “Take This Job and Shove It” and other successes. But then he was convicted of shooting a man in an Ohio tavern and was sent to prison. In the end, he found peace and contentment as a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast.

  “Music saved my life and music governed my life,” said Johnny Paycheck. “That’s what really held me together through my problems and my troubles.”

  Few have sung country music with more hair-raising conviction. He wrapped himself in country music at an early age, and he seldom wavered from being a hard-core honky-tonk traditionalist. Born May 31, 1938, he was raised in the small town of Greenfield, Ohio, which is roughly 50 miles east of Cincinnati. Perhaps “raised” isn’t quite the right word, since Paycheck was still a boy when he left home.

  He began playing guitar at age six and was entering talent competitions at age nine. He dropped out of school in the seventh grade, landed his own local radio show at age thirteen, and began riding the rails as a vagabond at fifteen. He supported himself by singing in dives.

  “I was not really a runaway,” he recalled. “I just told my mom and dad I had to leave. I was just a gypsy, bummin’ around the country.”

  He landed a job in a Columbus country nightspot at age sixteen, then traveled north to Toledo. That’s where he joined the navy when he was eighteen. His nonconformity and against-the-grain independence made him ill suited to military discipline. He punched a superior officer and was court-martialed. He brazenly escaped from the brig twice. The navy released him in 1958, and he turned up in Nashville a year later.