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My family is a very musical family. Three of my first cousins as kids had a trio and were regulars on the Tennesee Ernie Ford Show on NBC. This was in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was on NBC radio and originated from Nashville Tenn. So my cousins Joe, Martha and Osie knew a lot of people in Nashville when I was just a baby. As I grew up they introduced me to lots of people.

There was a teen age guitar player on the Ford show with them. He played lead for my cousins as well as Ernie on the Show. His name was Chet Adkins. Every time I saw Chet he always asked about my cousins.

Early in my radio career I was the country D.J. on WKOV Radio in Jackson, Ohio. There were two stations in Jackson and Bobby Bare was the Country DJ on the other station.. WLMJ> It was before Bobby got drafted. While in the Army Bob met Charlie walker who introduced him to chet and .. Detroit City was the result.

There were 3 very good singers in my area when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Bobby Bare of course and Donny Lytle later known as Johnny Paycheck were good. There was a very good girl singer .... Connie Smith who was from Adams County Ohio used to sit in with all our bands.

There was a great Guitar player who lived about 50 miles south of my home. His name was Dean Porter. Dean had been a top guitar player in Nashville in the late 30s and 40s. Dean was on all the early Jimmy Dickens records and on a few Red Foley records as well. Later in life Dean ran the Gretch Guitar plant. Chet got Dean that job. I have a Gretch Country Gentleman guitar that Dean made for me. I also have a 1957 fender tele that I got from my Cousin Joe.

My home town, Chillicothe, Ohio, produced a very good steel player named Sonny Curtis. Sonny played for George and Tammy for 17 years.

In 1962 Sonny had just gotten his job playing steel for George Jones. In the late 50's Sonny had played steel for a few gigs with my band. The rest of George Jones band then consisted of Donny Lytle(aka Johnny Paycheck) playing Bass and singing Tenor. Lead Guitar was being played by Gary Adams. His brother Raul was playing drums. The Adams brothers are from Greenfield Ohio which is about 25 miles from where I grew up. Donny Adams is a great singer.. but he never made it. He had on hit that got to number 20 on the charts but that was it. Darrel McCall was also a great local singer. He is still working as a side man for Willie Nelson. Darrels sister is a session singer in Nashville. During his career Darrel has worked for many of the major country names... including Faron Young, George Jones, and Ray Price. The Adams Brothers and the McCalls were faithful listeners of my country show on WCHO. Before they went to Nashville they like Lytle hung out at the radio staion a lot.

Another local guitar player and singer is Mike Cartright. Mike worked for Marty Robbins for several years.

Lisa and I went to hear Mike last Staturday night. He and his family were playing at local club.

I worked as a side man for several tours in the early sixties. It didn't take long to get acquainted with lots of people.

Each year in the early 60s, during the D.J. convention Paul Angel(a buddy of mine) and I got the rooms next to the Hospitality suite used by Capital records. We always took the beds out of one room and set up amps, mics, and instruments and had a 4 day long jam session. It ran around the clock. We would play country one day, rock another, Blue Grass a third and Jazz another.

Lots of great musicians and singers came to our room to jam. In 1962 we had lots of names stop by to play. The night we did rock, Glenn Campbell, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Joey Lemon(from Brenda Lee's band) stopped by to play. The union rules are pretty strict in Nashville or were back then. But during the D. J. convention none of the rules applied. And lots of guys came by to play a bit. I had the pleasure of playing bass as Carl Perkins did a wide range of songs from spoken tear jerkers like Old Shep to Blue Swede shoes. Roy orbison was passing by when Carl was singing and stopped to listen. I asked him to sing and he did. Glenn Campbell and Roy Clark had just signed with Capital records. They were next door so they stopped over to jam a few times that week.

I did a couple of my songs and Roger Miller sang tenor for me. It was country night and the Texas Troubadoors were playing for an hour or so. Buddy Emmons, and Buddy Charleton took turns playing steel. That was a real kick. Bob Bare of course stopped by to sing some old tunes. And of course Paycheck and I had been playing together for years.

I guess it would seem stange to some people. But I really didn't think much about it at the time.