A Hayride Memory
by Tillman
Franks
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.
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