The Greatest Lessons from a Country Music Legend: Rudy Gatlin

In this engaging podcast episode, host Kent interviews Rudy Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers. Rudy shares insights into his music career, favorite performance venues, and the gospel influences that shaped his journey. He discusses the evolution of the music industry, emphasizing the importance of talent and perseverance. Rudy recounts memorable encounters with icons like Johnny Cash and Roy Clark, and reflects on his disciplined upbringing and early gospel performances in Texas. The episode highlights the camaraderie within the country music community and offers valuable advice for aspiring musicians.   Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze Speaker 1 00:00:00  This Kent Hance, I hope you enjoyed part one of the interview with Rudy Gatlin. He's a great interview, a great American, and you're going to love. Part two. What's the worst place you ever performed? You know what I mean? Just a a dive. We were fortunate that. Speaker 2 00:00:21  We didn't work too many of those because we started had enough success. And we're making a little money on the road. And we I mean, we weren't taking a lot of money. We weren't making a lot. We were existing. We were living paying the bills, but we didn't have to work, and that wasn't our deal. I love, you know, good country, western, two step and honky tonk music, but. And Houston and lady takes the cowboy and but we we cut 28 records, 28 albums of other types of music. Great ballads write wonderful songs. Larry wrote a bunch of great songs, and we made a bunch of great records. But we thank you, Lord. Because they'd have been throwing beer bottles at us. Speaker 2 00:01:06  What Roy started doing done. Enough dying today. I've done enough dying today to get back to the honky tonk songs. We needed the chicken wire. Speaker 1 00:01:17  That. That's when, Roy Clark tells about the time that it threw some beer bottles at him and some other things, and he finally, we went. He refused to go back to that place, and they said, won't happen anymore. And they had the they had chicken wire in there so people couldn't throw things at them. You know. Speaker 2 00:01:36  When he was doing what he was doing yesterday when I was young, I remember that hit record. Speaker 1 00:01:41  That was a great song. I mean, one of the best that was rent. Speaker 2 00:01:46  They said, get back to Good God and Greyhound. You're gone. Speaker 1 00:01:50  Yeah. Thank God and Greyhound you're gone. But yesterday. Speaker 2 00:01:54  Song. Speaker 1 00:01:55  Yesterday was, written in France and, recorded French. And then somebody got Ahold of it and decided to do it in the United States. And then several people recorded it. And Roy Clark was the the most famous of the ones that did. Speaker 2 00:02:13  Great. Speaker 1 00:02:13  Songs. I know a little about music, not much, but, Speaker 2 00:02:17  And I do know that Porter and Dolly are your favorites. Speaker 1 00:02:20  Yeah. That's right, that's right. You got me up two tickets, I said at one time in class, I said I wouldn't take my dog to see Porter and remember it. Speaker 2 00:02:30  And I remember. Speaker 1 00:02:31  Y'all went out. Speaker 2 00:02:32  And bought. Speaker 1 00:02:32  It. You went out and bought tickets and some dog food and a leash and put it up on the the table where I came in. I came in to teach, and there it was. There's one of those, large classes that was in the small auditorium, and, I could look and there was 100, 150 people in there, and you were the only one that had written on your forehead. Guilty. I mean, I could just I could tell that you had been involved, but I liked it. And it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Speaker 2 00:03:05  Yeah. I thought I was smarter than that. Speaker 1 00:03:08  No, you had Gilti written all over you. I got it early on. What? What's the best place? You know, I asked you the worst you could, but what's the nicest place? Speaker 2 00:03:19  Dallas, Texas. Anywhere in Dallas, Texas. Speaker 1 00:03:23  Was always nice. Speaker 2 00:03:25  I'm in Dallas right now at my daughter's. We have a love affair with this city. Going back to when we sang gospel music as a gospel quartet. Right. From Odessa, we traveled to Dallas and Fort Worth and Mesquite and all over Texas. But we came to Dallas to sing in Oak Cliff, Oak Cliff, Assembly of God church. Sure. See? Noah. Whoa, man. Speaker 1 00:03:50  Hey, hey. When the religious music. When you were gospels and everything. What were some of your favorites? Because there's a lot of people listening, and they remember when we used to sing hymns instead of being bop of Jesus. Speaker 2 00:04:05  Well, our first song was I Woke Up. I wish I had my guitar. I've got my guitar in there. Speaker 2 00:04:10  I woke up this morning feeling fine. I woke up with heaven on my mind. I woke up with joy in my soul. Because I knew my Lord had control. I knew I was walking in that light. Because I'd been on my knees in the night. I pray to the Lord gave me sight. And now I'm feeling mighty fine. Yes, I'm feeling mighty. Speaker 1 00:04:34  That's good. Speaker 2 00:04:35  So first song we ever learned. In fact, I think we won that talent show. Singing that song. Speaker 1 00:04:40  That's good. But the standbys are amazing grace. And what a friend we have in Jesus. And y'all, y'all would sing all kinds of. Speaker 2 00:04:51  Well, we sang a lot of those songs, like our heroes, the Blackwood Brothers Statesmen Quartet that came through Abilene, Odessa, Lubbock. We bought the records, took them home and put them on the high five and played those. And mom got up on the piano and we just started singing. Joe knew how to, you know, God just said, y'all sing. Speaker 1 00:05:16  And you. Speaker 2 00:05:17  Know, he he gave you the ability to to understand law and all that stuff. You I, I, like I said, I can't spell be much less understand, you know, lawyer doctors. How do they understand all the, Michael Jordan can shoot a basketball? Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler can hit a golf ball. Speaker 1 00:05:41  A long way. Speaker 2 00:05:43  now I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a better golfer. I'm than he is a singer, I guarantee you that. But God just gave everybody a talent because. And we developed it a little bit, you know, worked, sang in school And. Speaker 1 00:06:00  One year when, Alan White, he had that big party in Dallas headed out to Cowboys Stadium, and, y'all performed in. Your mom was there, and we we left. I was with y'all in a bus. They were taking us to to another part of the city and, had a great visit, and told your mom that you were a great student and everything. And she kind of grinned at me and said, you don't have to lie. Speaker 1 00:06:34  She she had a good sense of humor. Speaker 2 00:06:37  Yeah. I think she found out about that first semester away from home. Well, see, that was my first semester away from home. Curley Gatlin was a firm disciplinarian. Love. I love my upbringing. Mama, you know, wouldn't take anything for it. But, you know, they were firm. And I had to go to Odessa College and live at home for two years. And when I hopped in my 68 Volkswagen In 1972, headed north through Andrew. Boy, I was I was up all the way up to 65 miles an hour, probably on my way to Lubbock. I was free as the first time I'd ever been on my own. So. And like I said, I took too many hard courses, learn how to drink beer and play poker. But I made up for it and graduated and all that. Thankful for them. And they're there. You know, I try to a lot of people say you're just like your daddy. Speaker 2 00:07:29  And I say, thank you. Speaker 1 00:07:31  Sure. Speaker 2 00:07:32  Thank you very much. Mother drove us from Odessa to Dallas on Highway 80. Chancellor. Odessa. Midland. Big spring. Sweetwater. Abilene. Speaker 1 00:07:48  Eastland. Cisco. A Ranger. Ranger here in Weatherford. Speaker 2 00:07:56  Weatherford. Fort worth. Dallas. She one time we sang at Oak Cliff Assembly of God Church nine Sundays in a row, one. Speaker 1 00:08:06  Summer, and she'd take you back and forth every, every Sunday. Speaker 2 00:08:10  Before. Larry had his driver's license. And one night we stayed and did Sunday night service. The next day, I woke up in my bed in Odessa. On highway 80. Trucks, cars. You know how much. You know how much you miss cars going that way about like that. Speaker 1 00:08:34  Yeah. Speaker 2 00:08:37  And she drove us home and put it. Got us to bed. Got us up for school the next morning. Speaker 1 00:08:43  You were lucky. You you were fortunate. You had great parents, great parents. Speaker 2 00:08:49  And daddy was an oil field. He couldn't go with us. Speaker 1 00:08:51  Yeah. Speaker 2 00:08:52  Momma drove. We went to California a couple of times. New York one summer. Yeah, that. Great parents. Speaker 1 00:08:59  Well, it's a great training for you. What? What would you say to any young person that's looking to go into the music business today? Speaker 2 00:09:11  Bless their hearts. I'm. I'm so glad we came along when we did, because. But I can go pull a guy off the street and say, hey, man, we can get a guitar around you and you can start singing and make you a record and get you a website, get you a publicity agent and get you an agent and get you down here singing at so-and-so and do all this. Guess what? So can everybody else. There are just there's no gatekeeper anymore. There used to be a gatekeeper, and that was the A&R artist and repertoire person at the record company. If you couldn't sing and play your butt off, they weren't going to spend 100, $150,000 on making a record because they had to sell them if they didn't think they could sell them. Speaker 2 00:10:02  And they got money back. You weren't going to get a record deal. So there's. And the internet. Thank God. I mean, everybody's getting to live their dream and fulfill, you know, chase their dream and and everybody all chase your heart and. Yeah, we did. We did too. But if it hadn't worked out, I guarantee you I'd. I'd have gone and done something else. I'd I'd have taken that business law, by golly, diploma and walked right into First National Bank. Speaker 1 00:10:33  Well, you you could have been an accountant since you loved accounting so much. Hey, talking about performers. Who were some of the best people that you got to know and got to know well, and that recognized you the minute they saw you and and that were good people and encouraging type people. Speaker 2 00:10:51  Johnny cash. June Carter cash. Roy Clark. Speaker 1 00:10:57  what kind of guy was Roy Clark? Speaker 2 00:11:00  Great guy, great talent, great singer. Very entertaining. Entertaining, a great entertainer, good guy. John and June Cash. Speaker 2 00:11:09  Dottie West brought Larry to to Nashville. Roger Miller. Well, you name all those old guys, and we know them, and they know us. Speaker 1 00:11:18  Roger Miller was, originally from Shamrock. Or somewhere up in between, Shamrock and Eric, Oklahoma or something like that. And, you know, he he can't roller skate in the buffalo herd was one of his big ones. Speaker 2 00:11:35  But you can be happy if. Speaker 1 00:11:36  You if you if you have a mind to trailer for sale or rent, you know. He had a bunch of them. Speaker 2 00:11:43  You know what Roger said? Speaker 1 00:11:44  What? Speaker 2 00:11:46  You know, it don't make sense. That common sense don't make much sense anymore. isn't that good? Speaker 1 00:11:54  It is. Rudy, thank you so much. you've you've been great. You've done so well. And and you really inspired those students when you and you didn't talk with about 7 or 8 minutes and you told them how much the school meant to them and how much it meant to you and what you wanted to do. And I think the only thing you said, you wish that your mom and dad could see you walk across that stage, and that would have been neat, but, well, in anything. Speaker 2 00:12:22  They had the best seat in the house. Speaker 1 00:12:24  They did an ending. What the the thing that kept you from walking across the stage. I was going to ask that. Explain to the listeners what happened that caused you from not being able to walk across the stage. Speaker 2 00:12:40  Well, I had 64 hours when I went to from Odessa College. four of them didn't transfer, so 60. And I was I guess I was close to being a junior or whatever. The one of the semesters we had a couple of concerts in LA at the old Palomino Club in LA. And then we went to Vegas for a week to work in the Vegas Lounge, which was a great lounge. And Glen Campbell was in the main room. Well, I said, good Lord, I can't take that. I can't take that much time out of school. So I took two courses. One of them was Doctor Bowling Corp. Finance, and another one was another. So I just took eight hours that semester and I made a D in Corp. Finance. Speaker 1 00:13:29  That's easy. Speaker 2 00:13:30  To do. I told you the story. He wouldn't give me one point. Speaker 1 00:13:34  I had to. Speaker 2 00:13:35  Take it again. So I just passed three hours. That one semester I got behind. I was behind 12 hours. I made it up the next couple of semesters, but in the spring of 74, I was still 12 hours short. I took four, I was going to take four summer school classes. I took the first two. I'm going to take the next two. And they cancelled that real estate course and I went, oh no. And at that time, you remember, you could not take any correspondence to your last 30 hours. It had to be on campus. Right. And I said, I'm going to Nashville. I'm going to sing, I can I'm not I can't stick around here for three hours. They said they made an exception. I thank them, thank you, Texas Tech. I took the course. I went to Nashville, sent my lessons in, came back home in December, drove to Lubbock, took the test, passed it, finished all 130 hours. Speaker 2 00:14:37  Right? Speaker 1 00:14:38  Right. Speaker 2 00:14:40  And so it's December 74th, but I got them all in. That's why I didn't get to walk. And those turkeys that taught me how to drink beer and play poker, they graduated on time and walked that May. I just got through talking to them a couple of days ago. Speaker 1 00:14:57  Well, they had learned they had those first two years to learn how to do it. And you didn't have those two years you were still at home. Speaker 2 00:15:05  I was ready. I was a rookie. They were they were. Speaker 1 00:15:09  They were. Speaker 2 00:15:09  Professional veterans. Speaker 1 00:15:11  That's the reason you got to be careful on New Year's Eve, because the amateur drunks will be out and they'll run over you. You know. Speaker 2 00:15:17  They'll screw up the weave. Speaker 1 00:15:19  That's right. They'll mess up the weave. Speaker 2 00:15:21  That's that. That's why straight people don't go. That's why I don't go drive. Because when I'm driving straight, I'm going to mess up the weave. Speaker 1 00:15:28  Yeah, mess them up. Rudy, thank you very much. We've enjoyed it. Speaker 1 00:15:33  And thank you. Tell your friends to listen to the Ken Hance, best storyteller in Texas. And they'll get to hear people like Rudy Gatlin.