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Transcript from "Nashville"

That was ’57. You continued on, though. You got the ABJ degree. Graduated in 1959. Did what your mom and dad asked you to do.

Yeah, had to.

I hear ya. I hear ya. And then you moved to Nashville. And…and then…you…you had…it...it…it just burst. It exploded, did it not? You…you got a contract with Decca records.

Well, you know, when you look back on it now it…I guess it’s easy to say it exploded. It didn’t feel like it exploded at the time.

Right.

Felt like it imploded a few times.

(Laughs)

But…yeah, I guess when you really look back on it…it…it…it did happen fairly fast. It really did. Because I went there to stay. I permanently moved there in January of 1960. I graduated here in August of ’59. I went on a couple of little tours that fall and moved back to Nashville to stay in January of 1960. And…a year and a half later – 1961 – I was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry and in 1962 I had my first number one record as an artist. In 1963 I had a career record with a song called “Still” that crossed over into the pop field and the country field and sold…a million records or so I guess looking back on it now, that was kinda fast but it…it seemed kind of slow and agonizing at the time.