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Friday, July 24, 2015
Willie Nelson, Part II: the gentleman and musician’s musician country song and best male country vocal performance of the year for “Pancho & Lefty,” I was unable to attend. Willie was on a high note in his career and the requests for bookings came in every day for top-paying venues around the world. When Willie would come to Nashville Jeannie and Frank still wanted him to meet Lindroth so they arranged a “Welcome Home Willie” celebration at “Twitty City,” owned by Conway Twitty at one time, in Hendersonville only a few miles outside of Nashville. Jeannie was telling me about a new TV network that Willie wanted to open and, remembering when he saw Lindroth at the hotel with Merle Haggard, Willie requested for Lindroth to be there for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which just happened to be on the same day as the “Welcome Home Willie.” The network was to be called “Willie’s Country TV.” We were all there and there so was The Honeysuckle Rose bus. Lindroth was in theatrical
JOHNNY CARSON
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News Bites continued from page 3
Kansas City man charged in woman’s murder
A 20-year old Kansas City man is charged with two felonies in connection with the shooting and death of a woman on the south side of Kansas City July 18. Charles L. Austin is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Misty Marion, 31. Court documents state Kansas City Police were dispatched at approximately 10:45 p.m. July 18 in response to reports of an armed man in a black Lexus threatening to kill people. The man was later identified as Austin. Court documents state Austin and Marion were acquainted with each other and a witness told police he and Marion attempted to stay away from Austin because of past altercations with Austin, including one in which Marion reportedly stabbed Austin in the neck
RAY CHARLES
out of self defense. Marion was shot and killed approximately 35 minutes after police responded to the first call, police documents show. She was found face down on the sidewalk at the Express Mart on Longview Road, according to court documents. Marion was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the back, the Jackson County Medical Examiner reported. A witness told police Austin said he was looking for Marion because he reportedly smoked PCP and wanted to kill Marion and one of the witnesses she was with. Austin was taken into custody two days later. During police interviews, Austin denied shooting Marion. He is in custody on a $250,000 cash bond.
GAVIN MACLEOD
RONNIE TURSO
PEARL BAILEY
SARAH VAUGHN
Photo courtesy of George Michaud Willie Nelson, left, sits with Llyod Lindroth and his harp.
BUDDY HACKETT
Traffic redirected for bridge construction on U.S. 69
Beginning July 25 crews will make traffic changes to the northbound lane on U.S. 69. Northbound traffic will be redirected into the southbound lane, making
While making hits like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “On The Road Again,” “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” and “Pancho and Lefty,” the mid-80s Willie joined a group called “The Highwaymen,” which included Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. That proved to be a big hit and helped revive the careers the four of them. It was the perfect combination
PAT MORITA
DON RICKLES
for one-lane traffic flow in each direction. The rerouting is part of the project to build a new northbound bridge over the Fishing River.
dress, ready to play, awaiting Willie’s arrival. When Willie stepped off the bus, a throng of fans surrounded the entire area, even with barricades set up. They didn’t help one bit, but Willie made his way to where Lindroth was waiting with his harp and right away Willie said, “Lloyd, I’m so happy to see you again. You did a beautiful job on the recording sessions of Merle’s two albums. I would like you to be on my next one”. With that, Lindroth agreed and asked Willie if he would have a seat at the harp and take a few publicity photos. Willie not only sat at the harp but strummed it. He tried out a tune and the crowd went wild. Willie
that country folk loved, and they traveled fast and furious. They achieved quadruple-platinum sales and literally traveled the world. Willie’s managers, Jeannie and Frank, were keeping me filled in on Willie’s schedule and told me they wanted Willie to meet Lindroth again, the harpist of mine who was packing them in as Nashville’s biggest attraction at the Opryland Hotel because Lindroth was becoming such a talked about name in Nashville and was so unique. The 25th Grammy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles along with the cooperation of the television network and although Willie won for song of the year, best
LLOYD LINDROTH
JIM WEINBERG
Producer’s continued on page 5
Wiffle ball – the most dangerous sport
Jason Offutt There are times you’ll do something so embarrassing you think, “I’m glad no one I know was here to see that.” Not me. I do my embarrassing stuff in front of peo-
ple I see all the time. Keeps life interesting. The family gathered at my brother-in-law’s house, which is normal, and the children challenged the adults to a game of Wiffle ball, which is not. Usually we sit around and eat and watch TV. I like that. I’m hesitant to do things that require sudden bursts of energy, not because I’m lazy, but because I just turned 50 and I’m afraid I’ll break a hip. If I knew at 50 I’d be afraid of lawn mowers, shovels, and Wiffle ball bats, I might have gotten all that activity out of my system earlier. I wanted to say “no.” No, I needed to say “no,” but there’s something in the male
psyche that won’t say “no” to a challenge on the battlefield, even if that battlefield has a swing set. “Sure,” I said, and went out to play Wiffle ball against a group of kids whose ages added up were less than mine. And the adults, well, our cumulative age was 274. Kids are punks. All of them. I don’t care how smart, or nice, or polite they are, as soon as they get pitted against their parents for a friendly game of Wiffle ball/ Uno/ gladiatorial combat, they turn into that kid you told yourself they’d never turn into. “We’re taking you down,” the Boy told me as they took the field (lawn) and manned
the bases (two trees and a fence post). They all grinned. Punks. We adults should have done better. We hit the ball harder than the children. We hit the ball farther than the children. We hit the ball more often than the children. But by the agreed upon fifth inning Game Over and Grab a Soda, the adults were losing 6-5. How do things like this happen? “What’s the score?” one of the kids asked. “Six to five. Guess who’s got six?” Punks. Two runners were on base when I got up to bat. I was going to bring them home
with a hit between third and second because the shortstop was a stick. I positioned my feet to pull the ball. It came, I swung, I hit. Like there was ever any doubt. It’s when I dropped the bat and ran that the game changed for me. A sudden pain lanced through my right calf like someone struck me in the back of the leg with the bat. I let out a yelp (yes, people yelp) and fell to the grass. The pain, I would later discover, was from a pulled muscle because it was Wiffle ball, and I’m old. A shadow grew over me as I lay in the grass writhing in pain. I looked up. It was the Boy. He had the ball. Grinning, he dropped the
ball on me and tagged me out. I’m lying on my back with an unknown injury, a broken leg or heart attack, for all he knew, and his head was still in the game. He didn’t ask how I was or show concern for my injury, he got the out. I’ve never been so proud of the punk. Jason Offutt’s latest book, “Across a Corn-Swept Land: An epic beer run through the Upper Midwest,” is available at amazon.com. A native of Missouri, Jason currently teaches journalism at Northwest Missouri State University and has earned many humor writer awards throughout his career. His racy first novel, “A Funeral Story,” is available at amazon.com.
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