"The Inside Dope"
Good people do bad things to good people, and vice versa.
One excuse is: Business is business.
I'm using real names today. It's all true, so what the hell.
Here goes my lovable image.
There was a recurring character in our life named Rusty Diamond,
a singer/con man with a talent for getting rich girlfriends.
On the Starday album: "Country Music Goes To War",
he sings "The Lonely Sentry",
a song I wrote and produced.
We used electric pedal banjo and church bells,
and Misty sang duet harmony under the name Marianne Mail.
It's probably the best country record ever made in Florida,
but I'm too modest to say so.
Tommy Hill relayed to me that the company was only going to offer me
a half cent royalty deal, because they didn't think much of the song.
It was the first one to be released and distributed.
In those days, Bob Montgomery, a publisher,
used to pick me up after the Starday sessions and we'd hang out,
like buddies.
He liked my songs, and I like that in a person.
I had a song called "Pass Around The Apples"
that he guaranteed me an immediate Norma Jean cut on,
or he'd give it back in six weeks.
I don't remember how the song went.
About a year later I asked him nicely to return the publishing to me,
if he had no plans for it.
He sent me to his lawyer.
His lawyer said: "I can't just hand out copyrights to everybody."
No hard feelings. I get the songs free.
Another year and Misty and I were shopping our first recording together.
We took it to Bob Montgomery, and apparently we weren't buddies anymore,
because we've gotten more warmth from the I.R.S.
I still don't know what he was mad at.
Buck Owens' manager once told us he'd love to have us as Buck's regular openers,
but Buck said he didn't want to follow us.
That compliment gave us as much joy as a good eulogy.
A guy named Barry McCloud wrote "The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Country Music",
and told the world Misty and I were divorced.
This at a time when we were busy trying to convince everybody we weren't dead.
He told me to stop calling him, it made him mad.
I know there may be someone in the world who might even say a bad thing about me,
but I can't imagine why.
Who are the good guys and the bad guys?
It all depends on who you ask.
Copyright © January 31, 2001 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission.
