Celebrating Triumphs and Confronting Addictions in Country Music
Dec 31, 2023
Randy
As the clock ticks towards a new year, we've got an episode that mirrors the bittersweet symphony of life, celebrating triumphs and facing challenges head-on. Willie Nelson's musings on his town named Luck set the stage for an eclectic mix of reflections, from the cross-generational success of Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to the raw realities of addiction in the music industry. We're not shying away from the tough stuff here—Blake Shelton's New Year's resolution to curb his alcohol dependency echoes the battles many artists face, and we honor their journeys with candid stories that might just change your perspective.
Roll up your sleeves for a deep-dive into the heart of country music, where we strip back the veneer and look at the scars left by addiction. The eerily quiet coverage of Ernest Tubb's dark night in history serves as a stark reminder of how times have changed, while the redemption arcs of artists like Tim McGraw and Keith Urban, supported by their strong partners, illustrate the power of love and determination. We're also peeling back the curtain on podcasting mechanics, discussing the tricky dance with music rights and our relentless pursuit to craft compelling narratives for your listening pleasure. So, pull up a chair and lend us your ears for an episode of Hot Mic that promises to stir the soul and ignite a spark for the year ahead.
As the clock ticks towards a new year, we've got an episode that mirrors the bittersweet symphony of life, celebrating triumphs and facing challenges head-on. Willie Nelson's musings on his town named Luck set the stage for an eclectic mix of reflections, from the cross-generational success of Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to the raw realities of addiction in the music industry. We're not shying away from the tough stuff here—Blake Shelton's New Year's resolution to curb his alcohol dependency echoes the battles many artists face, and we honor their journeys with candid stories that might just change your perspective.
Roll up your sleeves for a deep-dive into the heart of country music, where we strip back the veneer and look at the scars left by addiction. The eerily quiet coverage of Ernest Tubb's dark night in history serves as a stark reminder of how times have changed, while the redemption arcs of artists like Tim McGraw and Keith Urban, supported by their strong partners, illustrate the power of love and determination. We're also peeling back the curtain on podcasting mechanics, discussing the tricky dance with music rights and our relentless pursuit to craft compelling narratives for your listening pleasure. So, pull up a chair and lend us your ears for an episode of Hot Mic that promises to stir the soul and ignite a spark for the year ahead.
Speaker 1:
Hello everyone and welcome to Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan.
Speaker 2:
And this is Dave and that's Randy sitting right over there. Randy, as we sit here and record this podcast, we're wrapping up a year and starting. What was it Willie said about when you get to Luck? He named that town he built out there.
Speaker 1:
He built that old western town called it, named it Luck, texas, and he says when you're here you're in Luck, and when you're not here you're out of Luck.
Speaker 2:
Well, I hope 2023 has brought you a lot of luck and, as we go into 2024, I hope you're not out of luck there you go.
Speaker 1:
You understand, willie, yeah.
Speaker 2:
How about that, Brenda Lee?
Speaker 1:
Brenda Lee.
Speaker 2:
How about Brenda Lee?
Speaker 1:
Getting voted the number one Christmas song when I was voted.
Speaker 2:
It was the Billboard magazine, the sales downloads and ever have people purchase music. She was the number one seller this Christmas with a song she recorded in 1958, rocking around the Christmas tree. I played that. That was. You know, that was like the start of my career. When that came out I was just getting into broadcasting and played rocking around the Christmas tree and gosh, I'd have to figure out. That was what 60 plus years ago.
Speaker 1:
And I played it. I just finished up the Christmas season and I played the heck out of that. I even played it more this Christmas season because the people spoke. You know, that's something we want to play a lot of.
Speaker 2:
So Brenda Lee reached about three generations of people. She's enjoyed that song.
Speaker 1:
And we're going to do a show or maybe a couple of shows on Willie Nelson coming up in the next couple of weeks. So you stay tuned for that. But I just watched a four part documentary about Willie and Brenda Lee is featured a whole lot. She's interviewed a whole lot in this documentary series about Willie's music and she's still doing great Brenda Lee man, I'm telling you she's, she's a good her one of her songs was my is one of my all time favorite songs called Johnny One Time.
Speaker 2:
I remember Johnny One Time? I sure do. It's a great song, yeah, and Brenda Lee has the type of voice that she probably could sing rocking around the Christmas tree today.
Speaker 1:
Today.
Speaker 2:
At her age, which would be in the seventies somewhere. I think she could sing it today and it would sound just like it did when she recorded it in 1958.
Speaker 1:
Little Miss Brenda Lee we used to call her.
Speaker 2:
Do you make New Year's resolutions, since we're entering a new year?
Speaker 1:
Well, yes, I don't always make them public, but I do make some resolutions.
Speaker 2:
I saw a story, heard a story about Blake Shelton, a country music artist of great success, and Blake says going into the new year he finds himself battling his addiction to alcohol.
Speaker 1:
Really.
Speaker 2:
And that he's made a resolution to back off from the use of alcohol in the coming new year. I don't know if that influenced his leaving the voice. You know he was one of the stars of that show and he left the show recently, but we wish him luck. So many artists in the country music field, as well as other genres of music, have battled alcoholism or drug use Addictions, addictions, you know. But there are a lot of people who haven't. We need to make that point. You know, some people get the impression that everybody who's saying country music is a drunk. And I've known, you know, people like way back Sonny James and Brad Paisley today, people who are in the business and don't drink at all. They're tea totals. So there's a host of those people. But there are some big stars that have battled alcohol.
Speaker 2:
Let's go back to 1955 and Ernest Hub. Okay, ernest Hub, the Texas troubadour, one of the most popular artists of the 50s, actually part of the 40s, when Walk in the Floor came out. Walk in the Floor Over you, a tremendous hit, big jukebox song, and Ernest, a lot of people didn't like Ernest Hub's singing and they would say, well, he can't sing. So Ernest played on that comment that he heard somebody make. And he says I know I don't sing very well, but you know, in these honky-tonks he said boy would say to his girlfriend, when my record comes on I can sing better than that. And Ernest said, you know he'd be telling the truth probably, but he had great musicians around him all the time, had one of the great bands ever put together in country music and some of his members have gone on, went on to become recording artists in their own right. Okay, people like Jack Green he was a member of the Texas Troubadours for a long time and Cal Smith I didn't know that he was a Texas Troubadour. But back to the 1955 story that I've got to tell when we talk about people with drinking problems. Ernest had a real drinking problem back in the 50s. He was able to conquer it later on and in fact I talked to his wife, mrs Tubb, about that. She was very upfront and honest about Ernest and the problems that he had drinking back in the 1950s.
Speaker 2:
Jim Denny was one of the titans of country music. He was the manager of the Grand Ole Opry. Jim Denny also ran the, the, the, the bureau, the artist bureau at WSM back in those days in the 40s and 50s If you wanted, if you were a promoter and wanted to book somebody who was a member of the Grand Ole Opry, you had to go through Jim Denny to book them. Okay, it was in their contract. If they were on the Opry they had the rights to your touring, because most of the they felt like that, most of the people on the Grand Ole Opry, when they got to go out on the road it was because people heard them on the Opry. But anyway, he, ernest Tubb, had a big falling out of some sort with Jim Denny and he was drinking one night Actually it was early in the morning, I guess he'd been drinking all night. Ernest Tubb went into the WSM building in Nashville the National Life and Accident building where the Grand Ole Opry offices were, where the pistol name is going to kill Jim Denny.
Speaker 1:
Uh-oh.
Speaker 2:
He was of course a neighbor, eddie. So he walked in to the WSM studios downtown Nashville and a man came out of the office and shot. But he missed him and it was not Jim Denny, it was Bill Williams who was the morning news anchor on WSM. Now you know the interesting thing about that story there was hard-leaning publicity about it. There was a little short story in the Nashville Tennessee and newspaper that Ernest Hub had been arrested for public drunkenness.
Speaker 2:
That's all there was. There was no story about Ernest Hub trying to kill Jim Denny. Now imagine today if one of the big stars of country music Blake Shelton, tim McGraw, if they did something like that, what a story that would be. It would be number one on CNN, msnbc, fox. It would be a tremendous story. But in 1955, ernest Hub tried to kill Jim Denny and almost killed Bill Williams, and nobody paid much attention to it.
Speaker 1:
Man and social media this day and time. You know, and you're also reminding me I think it was Mark Twain that had the quote there's no better feeling than to be shot at.
Speaker 2:
And missed. Nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at and missed, and if you don't know who said something, just to tribute it to Mark Twain or Yogi Bear there have been other country music stars who have battled alcoholism.
Speaker 2:
Tim McGraw is one of them. Faith Hill intervened and of course they became married. They got married and Tim McGraw has been sober since 2008. He knew he had an alcohol problem when he started taking shots first thing in the morning, get up in the morning, have to have a shot, and one morning he thought I've got a real problem. So he credits Faith Hill with helping him get through his addiction and get sober. You know one of the singers that I really like, but he's never had that one song. That would make him a big star. But he's got a great voice Joe Nichols. You know Joe Nichols music.
Speaker 1:
Down in Broken Heartsville and Tequila makes her clothes fall off.
Speaker 2:
He became addicted. He became an addict at age 13. Wow Finally went to rehab in 2007 and has enjoyed long term sobriety. He got into an incident of some sort out in Steamboat Springs, colorado, pulled a gun on a man and he Hi Scott knew then that, oh, I gotta do something about this. He went into rehab in 2007 and has had long-term sobriety.
Speaker 1:
Gary Stewart remember Gary Drinking? Yeah, he had a song about he did. He had a song. It's a drinking thing, or?
Speaker 2:
something Drinking thing was the name of it, I believe. Yeah, gary Stewart battled alcohol.
Speaker 2:
Didn't realize that Unsuccessfully, unfortunately. So did Keith Whitley. Yeah, Keith Whitley battled alcohol and drugs and sometimes we don't think of alcohol being a drug, but it is. Yes, we say alcohol has become so well-known, so common in our society and that's the way it's been for hundreds of years, so we kind of separate the word alcohol from drugs. But alcohol is a drug. Keith Whitley, one of the most talented country music stars ever from up in Eastern Kentucky, was not unable to battle the demons or defeat the demons that he battled.
Speaker 1:
Started out as one of the Clinch Mountain boys, ralph Stanley, didn't he?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, he was like Ricky Skaggs. They started when they were just kids, children, yeah, yeah, just children. Jo DeMasina Remember Jo DeMasina?
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Of course she's still around. She had a problem with alcohol, had some embarrassing incidents where she couldn't get through a show on stage because she was so inebriated. But she went out to Utah and rented a cabin this is back in 2004, rented a cabin out in Utah out in the off the grid, so to speak, and got sober. And he is sober today. Now here's another star everybody knows who battled alcohol addiction and drug addiction to a great degree and was able to defeat the problem Keith Urban.
Speaker 1:
Oh boy, you just named an artist. That guy is so talented I didn't realize he had an internal battle.
Speaker 2:
Alcohol addiction is in Keith's family, but he went to rehab in 1998, but had a relapse, was sober for a couple of years, had a relapse in 2006. And there was a certain person at stage an intervention. They call it an intervention when you get some of your friends together and say, look, you've got to do something about this. We staged this intervention in 2006, and Keith Urban has been sober ever since then and that actress was Nicole Kidman yeah, the mother of his children, and she was the star of Cold Mountain, the movie Cold Mountain.
Speaker 2:
And of course we all know and we don't need to talk about it because most everybody would know about it Hank Williams and his struggles with alcohol and drugs, waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. I saw Waylon and Johnny several times together on the David Letterman show and it was on late night and they're openly talking about their struggles with not just alcohol but cocaine and other drugs and how they were able to. You know the Good Hearted Woman song. Willie wrote it, didn't he Right, good Hearted Woman, and Waylon was one of his buddies and he wrote that song about Waylon and Jesse Coulter.
Speaker 1:
Wow, she's a Good Hearted Woman. So when you hear Good Hearted Woman.
Speaker 2:
It's about Waylon Jennings and his wife, jesse Coulter.
Speaker 1:
She's a Good Hearted Woman loving a good time in man. That's right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, tanya Tucker.
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Tanya went to the Betty Ford Clinic in 1988. Tanya and Glen Campbell Glen Campbell, yeah, they had a explosive relationship. Had a front page on every newspaper practically. Yeah. But Glen Campbell was able to get sober, but Tanya Tucker is still struggling, from all indications, from what I hear, and we wish all these people who are struggling good fortune, because alcohol and drug addiction is, you know, one of the worst things in our society, in my opinion. Randy Travis oh gosh, randy was arrested and gotten into a fight, I believe, with a deputy sheriff.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and he struggled with alcohol and is sober today and has been for years, trace Adkins. Trace went to two, went through two rehab programs before he was able to get sober and, far as I know, trace is still sober today. And what a voice he has.
Speaker 1:
My word, incredible, incredible artist. Started out in gospel music, singing that bass part.
Speaker 2:
He's a good singer. Yeah, Love Trace Adkins.
Speaker 2:
I do too, I do too, and the last few years of my radio career starting in about 2000. I did talk show. I co-hosted a morning talk show with Carl Swan on WJCW Johnson City, tennessee, and one of the guests that I had occasionally on the program was a lady who was a counselor, alcohol counselor. She had been an alcoholic for many years before she was able to get sober and at the time of the interviews that I did with her she had been sober over 20 years and she counseled, she worked with people struggling with alcoholism and they had a department of a hospital over in Johnson City at that time probably still there where people could go for counseling and help with alcohol. But she said some interesting things. She said you hardly ever find. She may not have put it in these words, but I hope I can get the point across.
Speaker 2:
You seldom find one alcoholic in a family. There's either one or none. Usually if there's one alcoholic in the family there will be a good many who have the problem and usually if you you find a family of no drinkers and fortunately in my family I don't know, tracing our family tree back as far as I can there was nobody who had a problem with alcohol, but I know families have been close to families who have numbers of people in their family who struggle with alcohol, and the point I'm trying to make is there's I think it's been well established that there's a genetic connection involved. Yeah, and so I don't think we need to need to or should condemn someone who has an alcohol problem, but try as best we can to help them Absolutely Encourage them, help them along. Life can be tough sometimes.
Speaker 1:
Well, and as we mentioned earlier, we're going to be doing a couple of shows about Willie Nelson and his incredible life, and one of the things that he talks about is as a songwriter and as a member of the country music world. There comes a train of thought that these country artists and songwriters have to live the life that a country song portrays, and that is addiction and divorce and all of those bad, negative things.
Speaker 2:
And well, that's what country music is. It's about life, real life. And somebody said I don't know who it was who said you don't have to be a drunk to write about it.
Speaker 1:
It may.
Speaker 2:
it sounds a lot like what Willie's talking about you know Willie gave up alcohol for marijuana and he said if he had not done that he'd be dead today.
Speaker 1:
Talked about that a lot in this series. Before we jump out of this story and this topic today, dave, I want to say I don't want to do a shout out to a listener of ours here on Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan, and that is Brad Duncan. Brad also listens to my morning show on WHKP where we play classic country every morning from six to nine am and Brad is the listener there and he has been enjoying the fact that I've been playing a lot of Hank Williams senior and he particularly enjoyed our podcast prior to this one about Hank Williams and that's no more, no more germane than anything to what we're talking about today.
Speaker 2:
Explain quickly why we can't play music on podcasts. I've had people ask me that Well, we'll talk about a song, and why don't you play that song on your podcast?
Speaker 1:
Well, I'd love to, I really would, but it's a copyright thing, it's a it's law, it's something we can't do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, songs are copyrighted, and if you use a song on a podcast, you're violating that copyright, right? That's exactly.
Speaker 2:
And you could be sued, Yep. Now there are others podcasts that my daughter Gina listens to and I can't remember what it is where he does play music and she asked me how could he play music and you don't? It's because he has like two million listeners to his podcast and he pays and he's paying. He's paying just like a radio station pays. A lot of people don't know radio stations have to pay, play the music A lot.
Speaker 1:
So you and.
Speaker 2:
I can't afford and until we get two million listeners can't afford to play music.
Speaker 1:
I like you thinking, gosh. Thank you so much for joining us on Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan and gosh in the year 2024,. Dave and I are committed more than ever to doing these podcasts and coming up with topics that we've found interesting in our years of broadcasting, and thank you so much for downloading them and listening and commenting on them, and, brad, we really appreciate you. We're going to take a break and we'll come back and and delve into the life and times of the great Willie Nelson here on Hot Mike.
Speaker 2:
With Hogan and Houston. You got it and Houston and. Hogan.
