A Hayride Memory
by Tillman Franks

Webb Pierce

     Webb Pierce was really trying hard in the music busines about the time Slim Whitman came along. I really could have managed either of them, but I chose Webb. Managing Webb was my first big job in the music business.
     Webb and I got to be good friends. He and his first wife, Betty Jane Lewis from Leesville, La. would visit our home often.
     Horace Logan wouldn't let Webb on the Hayride. Webb had made a complaint about the Hayride to Steve Grunhart at the Musicians Union.
     I was on the Hayride staff band at the time along with Felton Pruitt, Dobber Johnson and Buddy Attaway. Webb asked me if I could get Horace to let him play rhythm guitar on the staff band. I talked Buddy into playing sick one Saturday night just at showtime.
     I went to Horace Logan, producer and director of the show, and told him we had an emergency and we needed a guitar player quick. I told him I could get Webb to fill in that night and that he was a real good rhythm guitar player. Horace went along with me. Webb did so good that night on the Hayride that Horace booked him back the next Saturday night as a singer. He became a regular fixture on the show after that. Webb also went down and bought Buddy a new western shirt.

Main Page