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Sweet Memories

From: Roy
Email:
Remote Name: 64.12.96.238
Date: 30-Sep-2002
Time: 12:34 AM

Comments

It was 1971, Sammi Smith came knocking on my door about two in the morning with a sealed copy of "It Looks Like Rain" under her arm. The joke at my house was that I played lousy guitar, but I gave great stereo. "You've got to hear this", Sam said and I did. I must have played that album, front and back, four times that night. I knew then I wanted to do everything I could to let the world know about Mickey Newbury.

In 1972, I tried several times to book Mickey on various shows I was promoting, with no luck. Then in the spring of '73, I called him and told him to name his price...I was doing a big package show and he was going to be on it. I'll never forget that he asked for $4,000.00 and a plane ticket. It was more than I was paying anyone on that show, but I said ok and I think it freaked him out a little. Then I said I was sending him a cashier's check for the entire amount along with the plane ticket. I knew he couldn't back out then.

I sent Johnny Darrell and Sammi to the airport to pick him up and when he got to the venue he came right up to me and gave me a long hug. "Stamps, you are one crazy (beep)! I would have come for half that amount!". I just laughed and told him that he could have milked me for more. He did about thirty minutes that day and then after the show sang for five hours in the hotel room. In that room were Sammi, Darrell, Larry Gatlin, Bobby Bare, Ferlin Huskey and Rick Nelson...not another person even picked up a guitar.

A year or so later Mickey, Bill Joe Shaver, Rodney Crowell and Guy Clark did a songwriters gig at the Granada Theater in Dallas. The other guys on stage kept moving their stools around so they didn't have to follow Mick but once.

I saw in a couple of times in Austin, at little clubs and then had the pleasure of playing golf with him at Willie's once. I lost him in '90 and didn't find him again until two years ago.

We talked a lot on the phone and he told me many little secrets (some I'm sure he shared with many of you). I had the great opportunity to visit with him for several hours on his Texas Trip this year and met Susan for the first time. I now wish I had spent more time with him, but I saw how it tired him out.

His music changed my life. The Reader's Digest used to have a section called "The Most Unforgetable Person I've Ever Met". To me that was Mickey Newbury. We were long lost brothers in some way. The music business was in my blood, but God only knows how much I have lost feeding my habit. Mickey told me how, if I would play the game, I could be a winner. I think I told him the same thing. I could never play that game and he couldn't either.

My friend Mick...I will miss you...God will welcome you with open arms...you came to face the music and by God, you did! I will see you again, in this, or another lifetime. I told you that you were an "Old Soul", and those Old Souls never leave. Four hundred years is a long time!

Love & Light

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