Radio Interview W/Country Singer John Conlee
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM) North American (US West Coast - California, Portland) North American (US Western)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
your country. See 106.1. The blue clear sky. There's George Strait. Well, I promised I was going to get a chance to talk with John Conley. And out of the blue clear sky, John makes a call from Nashville. Good morning, John. Good morning. Glad to have you on your this morning. My pleasure. Great to be there. Well, you know what? I was looking forward to you being in minor Thursday night. Got a big show of the minor convention center. Tickets are going well, and I think we're gonna have a good show. Aren't good with that. That is our plan. And, uh, that's the reason we're coming to Dio, you know, get many hedges we could possibly get to that night. There you go. You know, it has been a while since you were in the sights to near the last time. Well, I guess the last time I saw you was that Kenny Rogers Children Center telethon, and that's been a long time ago, but yeah, way past through it. Or but of many times on our way somewhere else, it seems so It'll be nice to stop, you know, never see 106.1 Studios and Cape Girardeau, which is 30 miles north of the Cape of Sandstone in mind. If you are ever through this part, we're just right off the interstate and its open door Bring a guitar in Let's have a little fun on the year. Okay? Right. Well, I could come and be a destructive to from. And you were you were this jockey win back in the early seventies, drying in the early seventies. Uh, late sixties is when I started at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and radios What brought me to Nashville. And that's the only reason the hobby of music ended up into a career because I got that job. Wll see, Onda worked with a fella. I mean, he he opened all the doors for me to get going here. And that was **** Kent Withers. Oh, my gosh. **** Kent. He's been He was a friend of C one of 6.1. The cousin Carl. I had the pleasure of getting to talk with him on the year two. Oh, yeah, **** was great. And we just lost him in the last some months. And you know what a great talent. He was on the air to great great broadcast. I wish I could have heard you on the years a disc jockey. I mean, you would. You went from playing the records to make in the records. That it? Yeah, I did. But you know, I didn't leave the day job at the radio station until we'd had, uh till rose colored glasses came out. Which was two years after I started recording. And the 1st 2 years that we were recording while we were trying to attack the charts and have some success, I decided not to leave until we it looked like we were gonna have ah one keep going. You don't need to eat, don't you? You do need Teoh because of my Destry AKI days. I have witnessed a lot of people start and never get started. You know what I mean? Daddy Stringers never happened, so I didn't want to leave until we looked like we had a good shot. Radio was a little different world back then. You know, I was totally A lot of radio stations are automated. You believe it or not, John, we still have turned table here in Studio by heart. Well, some of some of the music that is great is only available on those Oh, vinyl disc. And of course, vinyl has now come back. Oh, yes, it is. It is the most popular thing. There's a there's ah, maybe the only person A company in the country pressing vinyl is in national and they stay busy 24 7 365 days a year. It has become so much popular, so more popular late now. You grew up for sales Kentucky on a tobacco farm. And I guess you you didn't didn't take long for you realize that's what in what you're Colin was, I guess, Well, I had so many different interests. Uh, you know, I love the farm, and I still have the farm. I was raised on it there. We don't do tobacco anymore, but we run. Ah, you know, a handful of cattle and feed him Hey, in the winter and that kind of stuff. But yeah, I wouldn't trade that raising for anything, but I had hay fever pretty bad. You know, when you get in to drive the back of dust and hey, dust and all that it just tore me up. So I started looking for other things to do. And, you know, one of those things was, Ah, six years in the funeral profession have all things I will. Their radio I've got I've got an uncle. That mortician had another one that was a mortician. So I understand you still have your license in effect. I do. I just renewed him a couple of weeks back, as a matter of fact, so Yeah, I'm a I don't practice. Of course you know yet if we have a dead crowd, I'm your guy. I knew something was gonna be said like that. I know anyone. That was that. She had her hair dressers, licensing. And she always said, John, I had to go back to that so I can you never know, you know? Well, here's the other deal about that When you get those licenses for what she was doing or what I was doing, you have to take a big old long 1000 questions asked 100 questions. And if you let him go, you have take that again. I don't want to do that. I'm a real estate broker, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. So you got into radio and then then started recording. And I guess after rose colored glasses, both things really took off from there, Didn't They? Did? Yeah, 78 is when it came out. Although I recorded in 1976 alongside Backside of 30 and a couple of other songs, First backside was the very first release we had. But it didn't make it that time. Make it when it was first released, okay to other songs that didn't make it. Then Rose came out and hit. And of course, later we re released back side of 30. As a result, based on request from radio. Yeah, well, you've had a string of hits. You've had a string of LP's ever since then and and, you know, I remember you were talking about the early days of radio. It's not like that anymore. I remember hearing a comment from you one time after video started coming out. It was really, you know, everything. Everybody and their brother were making videos, and I remember a comment that you had said one time, and it is so true that that did your dislike of videos at the time was the fact that it removed the imagination from the music. Exactly the thing when I fell in love with radio, I fell in love with the theater of the mind, right? The aspect of radio that makes it work. And, uh, the same is true with music and another temptation that the industry has when when they concentrate on the video aspect, whether in those days, the videos themselves And nowadays these talent shows and so forth that take place on TV, they they ignore the music and the distinction of the sound Just because it looks OK. And, you know, I don't mind the video aspect, but I think you should still stick to song and sound and then take a picture of that. Yeah, you know it Well, like you said, you know the music Now, how much of your music have you written? Uh, are you a real big songwriter? I know you've written quite a bit. Well, a little bit. I a backside of 30 and rose colored glasses. I wrote within about six weeks of each other, and I wrote Rose with a friend of mine, another friend and from radio as a matter of fact. And, uh, but once the career took off, suddenly you know all of the full time great songwriters who do it so well. Harlan Howard's in the Sunday Throckmorton is and those kind of folks all of a sudden there pitching your songs and, uh, so writing was never my main deal of singing has always been the thing I concentrated on the most. I just sort of got out of the habit of trying to write. You know, I got to tell you to One time I was talking with a friend of mine we were talking about Your music is a matter of fact that I was talking about how John Conley's boys is so unique. You are there with you here, Loretta Lynn, you hear Loretta Lynn, you hear Morrow Haggard. You knew. It's Merle Haggard. You hear John Conley, and that's the same way you got such a unique voice. It is a blessing that I didn't create. People ask me about that all the time, and I'll tell you, Here's another thing that radio did for me because using my voice to speak ended up influencing, um, kind of under the current the way I phrase in the way I sound when I sing, because my voice singing prior to radio is very different. I was kind of a soft something much softer folk sound, but because I was hanging around deputy while I see the big r and B a big stick with John our in house Alan playing all that blues and and talking on the radio, it that's ended that ended up being how I got the sound I have. And it wasn't on purpose. I mean, you know, it's in spite of me, basically. Well, you know, speaking of W L. A. See, that was the blue station back then was Oh, yeah, I got to work with John R. And? And if people don't recognize John, are that name? If you recognize you remember Wolf Man? Jack, you were here in John Archos. Wolf Man freely admitted he copied John R. O there, Right? Yeah. Yeah, John R. Was the original sound of that. That style of voice and hostile in And those guy I got to work with all those guys for a little while. Every you ever have any thoughts of owning your own radio station or maybe getting back in the radio. Well, you know, not these days. Unnecessarily again. We've already kind of around the edges, talked about the changes in radio taking place. And it wouldn't be the fun that if it was once before, maybe the only way I could probably do it and have fun doing it is if I did have total control. Otherwise, I don't think I could work for one of the big corpse. Yeah. You know what is matter of fact, you were your singing her song here. See one of six point ones. Cousin Carl, radio station. Cousin Carl owns radio station, is not corporate owned restaurant alone station because has worn his own hat for years. And we're talking on the early morning and I said, You know, I've worked for those stations where they have consultants, and I never could understand how consultants with a tie in San Francisco could tell us what kind of music we like to listen to in Tallapoosa, Missouri. Exactly. I agree. And that is what that was the beginning of the end when all that stuff started of which was right at the end of my time in radio. I was frankly, if music hadn't worked out, I probably would have had to look for something else to do because broadcast had stopped being the fund that it was when I started. Oh, no, not 10 years before. So, uh, and you know, it hasn't gotten better on a national level, you know, they're still just a handful of folks controlling everything. You know, It's just not good. But I got to tell you what we enjoy playing John Connally's music. So you're gonna be in concert Thursday night is you're gonna have time to sign any autographs or anything. We'll be hanging around after the show. We always do that and, you know, be glad. Take a picture. Although your take a chance on breaking your camera. You pointed it may. But that's up to you way. We've already seen report and autographs and then everything we've seen yet The Kenny Rogers Children Center telethon. So we were already prepared for that. John been so nice talking to you. Thank you so much. And that I'm planning on being It's filling. I'll stop. I'll come up and say howdy to you. I look forward. Thank you so much, John. All right. John Conley in Nashville. And he still has his mom and dad's farm there for sales. Kentucky. What a great guy. All right, I got to do this. Had some requested music early on. What does he hear? Some John Conley. I knew I was going to be talking with John this morning. Got my heart set on you on your country. See? 106.1.
Tags
Announcer, DJ, Executive, Interviewer, Lone Ranger, Authentic, Authoritative, Believable, Booming, Conversational, Friendly, Husky, Mature, Uplifting, Versatile, North American (General), North American (US General American - GenAM), North American (US West Coast - California, Portland), North American (US Western)