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October 29, 2024 44 mins

On this episode of The Bobbycast, the legendary Brenda Lee sits down with Bobby Bones to share the truth behind childhood fame. She talks about playing The Grand Ole Opry for the first time at 10 years and going to Japan at 14 years old. She also shares how the movie Home Alone helped launch her success with "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," and why she never thought that was going to be her biggest hit. She also talks about meeting Elvis and hanging with Patsy Cline. She also admits why she doesn't record anymore, what she thinks when she listens back to her young recordings and more! 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
And I'll never forget it. Got through playing and the
President stood up and said, Brenda, we're very proud that
you brought this in. This look will never happen and
this sound won't either. Next year, they were playing the
ballpark stadium, filling it up.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to Episode four seventy eight with Brenda Lee. Brenda
is almost eighty years old and super vibrant and has
quite the history, like the Beatles open for her way
back in the day. It's super cool to hear that story,
you know. She has songs like I'm sorry, so sorry,
just so many stories, and I think I kind of

(00:48):
realized how cool she'd be to talk to when she
came in when we were doing her Christmas song. Yeah,
she was trying to make that go number one, and
I was like, holy crap, Like, she has so many
stories that she wants to share, rocking around the Christmas tree,
having boo to do, but it had never been number one.
And to me, I guess I thought that song had

(01:08):
been massive for like fifty years. I didn't realize what
kind of relaunched that song like twenty five years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
I mean, I was famous my whole lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, and I thought that it had just been famous
forever since she put it out. Not the case. We
talk about that, but then Mariah Carey put out all
of them up for Christmas. You and that song just kind
of was at number one and hers was at number
two forever until this year. It's super cool. I think
you're gonna like this. Brenda Lee. I had a great time.
Here she is episode four to seventy eight. You can
follow her on Instagram Official Brenda Lee. Her Brenda Lee

(01:38):
Greatest Hits is out digitally so you can stream it
and on vinyl and support her. Listen to the podcast
and here we go. Hello miss Brenda Lee. Hello, it's
really good to see you again and you as well.
The last time that we talked, we were trying to
get that Christmas song up to number one. We were
boy did it go to number one?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
And you did it?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh, I didn't do anything.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, you helped with it.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
That rocking around the Christmas Tree went number one. Yeah,
that's really exciting.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
When you think of how old it is, it truly is,
and when you think it was written by a Jewish man,
it truly was.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So what's remarkable about that song? And then I definitely
want to get onto the greatest hits. But what's remarkable
about that song is that it has been around for
a long time, it has sustained and also it even
sounds like the audio quality sounds like a song that
was recorded many years ago. Yet it's so good. It

(02:39):
continues to not only just linger around, but again it's
always in the top two or three, and it went
number one. Finally, like the sustained success of that song
is unlike many songs. Ever, at what point did you
realize this song is going to just stick around for decades?
You know?

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I never dreamed in the world that that would be
my signature song. I always thought I'm Sorry would probably
be it. And that song was written by the great
Johnny Marks, who is Jewish, who wrote all the great
Christmas songs. And I said to him one day, I said, Johnny,

(03:20):
you don't even believe in Christmas. I said, how are
you writing these songs? He said, I don't know. But
when I sit down to write, that's what comes out.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
When it first came out, was it a hit, was
it a holiday hit? Or did it take a while.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Before it It took a minute, Yes, it did.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
And that's surprising because usually a song has its biggest
when it's released, usually has a shot, and then if
it does a hit, it's kind of done.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, well, especially back in those days. But no, it wasn't.
I mean it was played, but I'll tell you when
it really took off. One of my friends called me
night and said, Brenda, have you seen the movie Home Alone?
And I said no. They said, well, your song's all

(04:09):
over it. And I said which song? And they said Rockin'
And that was really the catalyst that brought it to
where it is.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
So that means it had to have been out twenty
five or thirty years before the Home Alone? Right?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Probably?

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, And you're right, I guess even for me, that
was when I and I was a kid. Yeah, that
was my introduction to that song.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
I'll we darn.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
So you grew up. You grew up as a young
young kid in Atlanta. Correct. Did you ever have roots
in Atlanta? Because I felt like you were traveling so
much so young.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I was. Actually I lived in a little town called Lithonia,
which is maybe eighteen miles from Atlanta, and I used
to do a show called John Farmer and the TV
Ranch Boys, and that was out of Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
You would drive into Atlanta, which your par uh huh.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
My mom would take me. My dad died when I
was very young, and then there was a big, huge
ballroom at that time called the Sports Arena. People would
go there and dance and they It was just a
really fun place. And I used to sing there every
Saturday night with the band from the TV station.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Where did your music passion come from?

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I don't know. I've often wondered that myself. My mother
could sing, but it wasn't like she sang to me
or sang all the time. We had a little radio,
and I remember my daddy he loved the Yankees. Mama
loved the Dodgers, so they would keep enough battery where

(05:51):
they could do that, and then I could listen to
my music. So I started listening really early.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
And you think hearing your favorite songs and hearing the
I'm assuming AM radio, that's what motivated you to start singing.
Did you have a bunch of friends, because I feel
like I watched a lot of TV because I don't
have any friends. Like That's why I think that's kind
of why I'm funny now too, is because I don't
have a whole lot of friends. But so I had
to develop that if you're listening to a lot of music,

(06:22):
would you just sit at the radio and listen and
memorize songs and sing long? And was that what you
would do in the evenings?

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, I loved it. I had friends, you know, I
was in regular school and I had friends, but it
was it was just, well you probably know, it's something
that drew you and you really had no control over it.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
And when you tell your mom you want to sing publicly,
what is her reaction and how does she immediately help
you try to?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Absolutely? Yeah, I think they saw the talent, especially my mom.
My dad died when I was really young, and I
think she saw the talent and she saw the want
in me to want to do it. She was not
the kind of person or mother that would say, Okay,

(07:15):
got it, you gotta sing tonight, blah blah blah. She
wasn't that at all.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
So she didn't push you to do.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
It, No, not at all.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
But she encouraged you to follow your passion absolutely. And
how did she do that At first?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Well, radio, she let me listen to what I wanted
to listen to on radio. And then there was a
place called the Sports arena in Atlanta. It was, like,
I said, big old, huge ballroom.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
But how did she get you on stage there? Like
what she just asked?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
She was very brazen. She would say, my little girl
can really sing. Would you let her sing tonight? And
finally the band said yeah, and I did, and I
became a regular Saturday night singer. I was ten years old.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Were you ever full of stage fright at that age
or did it feel so natural?

Speaker 1 (08:06):
It just felt natural.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
What singers did you like as a young kid that
you would emulate.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
I don't know that I emulated anybody, but I loved
Hank Williams. I think he was probably my favorite. I
loved Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Ella Fitzgerald. I loved all

(08:35):
the older singers, not that they were old then, but
they were older than me, and I got to meet
all of them, and that was a dream come true.
And I just liked I never could identify with Kitchie songs.
I liked the good songs.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
You liked the mature adult songs. I did, which had
to be a little weird for a kid to like.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
The Yeah, and everybody wondered, why do you like those?
You're ten years old? I said, I don't know, but
I do.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
How long did you perform in Georgia before he started
to travel around?

Speaker 1 (09:13):
We moved to Okay. We were playing the Fox Theater
and Red Foley came to town, and somehow or another he
let me sing a song on the show. And at
that time he was the host of the Ozark Jubilee

(09:35):
out of Springfield, Missouri, and he asked if I would
like to come and do the show, and of course
we said yes. So it wound up we moved there
and I became a regular.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
So you moved to Missouri? How'd you like that? Do
you remember it?

Speaker 1 (09:53):
I do. I liked Missouri. It was fun and I
was doing absolutely what I loved to do, going to
school to Mama always made me go to school. It
wasn't like, oh she sings, she you know, No, that
wasn't the case.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Your mom moved for you.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, wow, Yeah she really did.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Like looking back now, is there a gratefulness to something
old sacrifice?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I couldn't. Of course, I couldn't be here without her,
But I couldn't be who I am without her either,
because she was my best publicity person, my best Okay,
you can do this. She was my everything in my singing.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
When did you start to come to Nashville?

Speaker 1 (10:42):
I came to Nashville when I was I think I
was eleven or twelve, So.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
That's pretty quick then.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, So you're singing in Georgia at ten. Yeah, you're
in Missouri at eleven. Yeah, and about a year later
you're in Nashville. Yep, move here? Or do you come
here at first just to kind of see what it's about.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
We came, but we moved really quick. Why Well, because
there was more opportunity, there was more interest. People weren't
afraid to record a child thinking their voice might change,
and you put all that energy and finance into it,
and then it turns out their voice changes and they're

(11:26):
not good anymore.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
You know. I never thought about that, but I can
tell that was actually a thing by how you're describing it.
So there must have been reluctance then to invest in
you as a kid, because they thought as you grew
your voice would change and maybe you would not be
able to sing. Yeah, that's what they would say. So
who believed in you then? To invest in you and
go I still believe that even if there is a

(11:48):
voice change, she'll be great readfully so same red fully,
same red fully. What do you think you saw on you?

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Goodness? Nobody's ever asked me that question. I think the
thing that he really saw me in me was the need,
the need to be able to help my family financially
and the need to be able to sing. I love
to sing.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Did you start to feel a pressure at eleven, twelve,
thirteen years old to support your family? No, you never
felt the pressure. It was never put on you. No.
Did you feel like you needed to do even if
there wasn't a pressure. Do you feel like that's something
you wanted to do?

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yes? Always?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Why?

Speaker 1 (12:28):
I mean, I don't know. I would have sang for nothing,
you know. The money was just good, too bad. I
just love to sing always. And where that came from,
I have no clue.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
When you moved to Nashville and recorded. Did you soon
start touring regionally or nationally?

Speaker 1 (12:49):
All over the world, all over the world.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
I don't like flying now.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
I don't either.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
I can imagine flying over the ocean.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Well you know when you're twelve. Yeah, that's true, you know,
and you don't think about that. I don't like it now,
so I don't go as much as I used to.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
So you go all over the world, all over the world.
Did you feel safe as a kid singer?

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah? My mom was with me, my manager, so yeah,
and the band guys would protect me. I was like
their little sister. Sometimes they protected me too.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Much, like a little sister.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, like I couldn't get in any trouble.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
When did you play the opry for the first time.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
I was ten years old, so that would have been
fifty four or fifty five when we moved to Nashville.
I just went to the operation.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Is seamlessly slid in at the rhymen. Any other performers
that you listened to or liked in that first year
so they were playing the opera, that they would play
the opera and you think it was cool to be
able to see them.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I loved Patsy Kline, loved her, loved her heart, loved
her talent, loved her generosity. She was not affected at
all by the industry. I loved that about her, and
she just kind of took me under a wing, as

(14:28):
did Dottie West, and we were friends forever.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Did you ever get to see Hanks Senior at the Opery?
Because I know he got some trouble and they were like, hey,
don't come back around here no more. But did you
ever get to see Hank Senior at the opery?

Speaker 1 (14:47):
I did one time?

Speaker 2 (14:48):
And how was that experience.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
A dream?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Really?

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Because you know I sang all his songs and had
hits with a lot of them, and to meet the
guy that wrote him, it's surreal almost.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
And he had to be in his early twenties, right.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Young at that point, very young.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
What about Elvis?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, Elvis was a trip. I loved Elvis, but he
was he was almost like a pretend person because he
was so good you couldn't believe he was real. He
was sweet, but he was firm. He knew what he wanted,

(15:33):
knew what he liked. He wouldn't really if he really
truly believed in it. Don't try to convince him of
something else, because that's what he was going to do.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Did you see him in town much? In Nashville?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Not a whole lot. Went to his sessions and watched.
And that's back, gosh, late fifties, that's back when we
didn't have all the knobs to turn to make you sound.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
So good, so you had to sound good.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
You either sounded good or you were asked to leave.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
And he was really good, really good, pure voice, pure voice.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
No knob turning, no nothing. That was him.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Who else lived here that you're like, you were excited
to see or run into it because I had those
people when I moved here, did you Yeah, for sure.
I moved here and it was you know, for me,
it was all the guys like the Chestnuts and all
those not late eighties and nineties got oh yeah. And
so you know, listen to the radio my whole life
growing up and listen to the station down a little Rock,

(16:40):
Arkansas on Hot Springs, Arkansas. And when I moved here
that Joe Diffy. I got to spend a lot of
time with Joe. Yeah, and I got to know him
pretty well before he died. Like we would spend time
together because we'd perform I think before we got to
know each other. The best was performing together at the Opry.
Not at the same time, but we'd be on the
same night multiple times.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
And so you know, how does it the Opry? Yeah,
doors are just open, they are and you just spend
time with the people that are there. Yeah. And so
for me that was exciting to get to see, like
the diffies. Kicks Brooks my first time ever playing the opry,
came into the room and was like, this is what
we do here. I'm Kicks and I'm like, you're Brooks
are done. This is crazy. So I wonder like those

(17:18):
stories for you because I had my version of that.
It sounds like you did too, Oh I did.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
It was like I was like the little sister you
know and Dotty West and.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
We're the youngest by far? Were you the youngways kid?

Speaker 1 (17:32):
But Dotty West, Tammy Patsy, all the greats. They just
took me under their wing and I just loved them.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
When you were twelve and you signed a record deal,
how much did you understand what was happening with the business?
And how much do you think your mom understood with
the business.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
My mom was pretty savvy. All I knew was I
want to sing and I want to be heard and
if this is my avenue to do it and they'll
let me do it, I'm all in.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Did you ever sign one of those deals that maybe
wasn't the best deal and you learned later that what
you had signed.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I had Really I was lucky because I I had
people around me, not that many, but I did have
people that truly cared and loved me, which wasn't always
the case with artists.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, it seems like with young artists as well, like,
oh yeah, they're pretty vulnerable. They are business, they are personal.
But it seems like you have a pretty good experience
because you had good people around you.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yes, that truly cared about me, that weren't just in
it for the book and whatever. They really cared about me.
Starting with Read Foley, when.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
You would sing I'm sorry with the whole crowd singing back,
was that a man sometimes? Is that the coolest thing?

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah? That was cool. What was cool.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
To me.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Was if you started a song and they started it
was like, oh lord, this really was a good song
because you don't expect it. You know, you want it,
but at least I never did. I never expected it.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Growing up in a small town in the South and
then living in the Midwest to bed in Nashville, that
type of persons pretty similar. But when you're traveling the
continental the United States and you're in a Boston, you're
in a California and you're going while they or you're
in Japan and you're going, I can this is so weird.
They know my songs. Yeah, I mean that had to

(19:52):
happen to you pretty young. There are people that you're
not like at all that love you and know your music. Yeah,
I had to feel strange but yet amazing.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
It was like surreal. I remember the first time I
went to Japan, I was maybe fourteen maybe, and we
landed at the airport and all these young kids were
standing out there and they had these little hats on

(20:22):
and it said b LFC and I thought, oh lord,
somebody's coming in because I'm just such I love all that,
and I thought so when I got off the plane,
it meant Brenda Lee Fanclub and I was like, oh,
cause I never dreamed I was known over there.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
How do you think you became so well known in Japan? Specifically?

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Well, I sang in their language, plus I spoke in
their language, but I sang in English too, And I
went every year to let them know I appreciated their support,
and that's.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
They reciprocated it.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, big way, in a big way.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
When did you start to learn Japanese?

Speaker 1 (21:20):
When? Let's see, I well, I went over there the
first time because I had a big hit in Japan.
My first big year was one rainy night in Tokyo.
So oh, and Bradley, my producer, he said, you know
what would be good if you sing half in English

(21:40):
and half in Japanese. And that's what I did and
it They loved it, and all of a sudden, I'm
invited to tour and I went, gosh, I bet I
went forty times.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Wow, yeah, you've been to Japan at least I've been
once and I was blown away.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Isn't it great?

Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's great, It's so great. It's clean. Oh, it's safe. Yes,
people are kind. There are no trash cans because there's
no litter, and if you have trash, you just keep
it until you get to it. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
And if you go into a department store or a
drug story store for that matter, and you're lost, they'll
take you to where you're supposed to go. They'll say
in their language, they'll take your hand. Now, I don't
know if they still do that, but that's what they
did when I was going every year.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
I also felt like I was seven feet tall and
that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh yeah, I felt right at home.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
So you put out the Brindaly Greatest tits. It's digital.
People can stream it. It's also on vinyl. Why are
the greatest Tits? Why? Now?

Speaker 1 (22:52):
I don't know. The label thought it was a good
thing to do, and I was proud that they thought
enough to do it.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Couple of things that I would think. One is the
song obviously Rocker around the Christmas Tree went number one again,
But also I'm sorry I went completely viral. Yeah, TikTok.
What is old as new, as old as new, as
old as new again?

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:12):
And so that song was getting millions and millions of
stream Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
The Beatles open for you. I read that. Yeah, must
have been I don't know, had to be the fifties, right.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Late fifties, early sixties.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, how did that come together? It's your man, your
mom or right now?

Speaker 1 (23:45):
It was a big tour. There was Dusty Springfield, me,
the Beatles.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
What were they at the time at this time we're
talking about specifically, I'm assuming they're very young and not.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Very yeah, and really kind of like a I don't
know that polished, not just raw. But I saw the
greatness in them and you would have too.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
And this is pre ed Sulomon.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh yeah. So I go back to New York and
I go to my label, which was Decca, which is
now MCA, which I'm still on.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Same contract.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, And I said, I took a picture of them
and they looked like your normal teddy boy would look.
And I took a little tape and I'll never forget.
They walked in rank and file like they do, and
it got through playing and it was very quiet, and

(24:55):
I thought, this could be bad, could be good. And
I said, okay, what do you think? And the president
stood up and said, Brenda, we're very proud that you
brought this sin, but this look will never happen and
this sound won't either either. Next year they were playing

(25:22):
the Ballpark Stadium, filling it.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Up like Shay Stadium. Wow. And when you saw them
the first time, was Ringo with them or was it
still Pea Best.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Pete was with them? But then Ringo came right along.
So I've worked with them.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
You've been there through all of it. Yeah, that's exciting.
Do you ever listen back to any year old music?
Like every once in a while, put something on you
haven't thought about in a long time.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
I do. I listened back to like when I started
at ten and I sound like Mickey Mouse on steroids,
and I thought, oh my lord, but I was ten.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
What would you tell that kid?

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Now, I would tell them, if that's what you want
to do, you don't give up. People might give up
on you, but don't you give up on you.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
And you would tell that to yourself as well. That's
the advice you'd give to yourself.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Because and I didn't know if I was good or not.
I just knew I loved it and that's what I
wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
So were you able to be a support for any
other artists like Patsy and you know you listed all
those wonderful women in the history of country music? YEA
be able to do that with any artists?

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I kind of repay that.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, And it was fun. And I don't know how
to put this back today with all the mechanical stuff
they have to use, you don't know if they're singing
or not. Even I don't, and I can usually tell same.

(27:04):
So if somebody asks me an opinion on somebody new,
I just have to say, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
There's We're lucky that we can take live performances off
of like somebody's phone or YouTube, because there'll be people
that want to come up and do my show and perform,
and we've not checked if they can. We've just listened
to the like that the studio version they come in,
and then maybe they're not as good. So what we
do now is we'll do like super research and try
to go find some like natural yeah, just to hear

(27:34):
if they can really sing, because when you get in
a studio, obviously, like you said, you can make anybody
sound pretty good. You can write a good song, make
them sound pretty good. There you go. Hey, that's how
it's does what I need to wish they do that
to me, make me sound good. When you listen back
to the songs from like the fifties sixties, can you
kind of hear the person you were? Like, if you

(27:56):
hear a song, for example, losing you early sixties little
you're not old by any means, but you're a little older.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, I'm a little older.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Can you kind of hear that song and put yourself
back to where you work?

Speaker 1 (28:07):
I can because as a teenager in those years, I
wasn't allowed to date and or anything like that, so
all I had was my music and that was my

(28:28):
heart beat, and I don't I never had the thought, oh,
I'm doing this because I'm going to be a big success.
I was doing it because I loved it and it
was my company. It was something that I could always

(28:49):
turn to that I knew would be there and it
wouldn't change, and that's why I loved it.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
What's your favorite song you've ever recorded?

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Gosh? Owen Bradley was such a genius, and I had
such wonderful songwriters. I mean they're writing great songs today too,
don't get me wrong, but they're not writing great ballads.
And you know when you and I had a lot
of foreign ballads like I Want to Be Wanted and

(29:22):
Losing You and those kind of songs were overseas songs.
So it was the a team of musicians. It was Owen,
it was Selby Kaffeen the engineer, it was the Anita
Kerr singers. It was Britain Banks and his strings. It

(29:47):
was a family, which doesn't happen today, and that's why
I stopped.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Recording, because it felt more like a business or a
machine in a family.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, I mean, you can't. I've been in the studio
and I'm just thinking it's going great, and I'm singing
good and all, and one of the musicians may say, hey,
everybody stop because they heard a clunker that I didn't hear.

(30:21):
And that's how it was back then. If you did
that today, you wouldn't be working that session anymore. But
it was. It was a cohesive thing between everybody. Everybody
wanted to be good, wanted it to be good. And
I think that's the difference in today and sixties.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Today, maybe mercenaries have brought end just to go and
do the job and get out, get to the next session.
More than you got it, invest themselves into the art.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
You still like music, still like just listening to music.
You get to like, just pick whatever you want to
listen to. What do you pick? Now?

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Oh lord, what my scope of musicians is is a
little bit weird. I like everybody from Ozzie to Frank Sinatra,
you know, as I'm all out there because I hear
different things with different people, and I try to figure

(31:25):
out two, Okay, why was that a hit? Why was
that a success? And of course it all boils back
to y'all too. Artists can't do anything unless you play it.
I mean, they can, but it's probably going to lay
on a table or lay somewhere. So it's to me,

(31:50):
we're all a family. We're all like, I want you
to do good, you want me to do good. It
behooves you, it behooves me, and it's not thought of
that way today in the industry, and it saddens me.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
I have two final questions. Not your song, but what's
your favorite song of all time? If you had to
pick a favorite song.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
It can't be that's too hard.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
It's too hard. You can give me a couple and
I'll vamp for you. I meaning I'll give you a
couple of mind. Whay you think about yours? Blue Eyes
Crying in the Rain is one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Oh that's a great song.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
It's perple and I love ballads. I'm big Valley g
I am too because the Balladspien. Yeah, I feel like
I can really experience them.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
But I'm one of those girls too. When I was
in France, of course I didn't speak French when I
first went over, but I heard this song and it
was love be Lovable? Who said this was of me?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
You know?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
And I thought, I don't really like that, and I'd
go up and down the sidewalk singing that song, and
finally somebody tapped me on the shoulder because I'm like thirteen,
and they said, don't sing that, and I said, why,
I like it. They said, you're singing about a toilet?

(33:12):
What was it?

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Like?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
No song? What was this? Do you even know what
the toy?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I don't know, but they said, you're singing about the
toilet on the corner. I said, oh, well.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
The melody must have been good.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah it was. I loved it.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Okay, last favorite song of all time? What is it?
That's not yours? You gotta pa, that's not mine? Not yours?

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Oh that's due.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
No, it's really hard. You don't have to commit to it.
You can just say one.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Now, okay. Oh gosh over the rainbow.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Judy Garland.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, I finally got to meet her.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
How old were you?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Thirteen?

Speaker 2 (33:54):
And what was the experience? Give me walk me through it.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
I followed her to the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
What do you mean you followed her?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
I mean I was next to perform. She was laying
out by the pool and I thought, okay, this is
my chance.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
How old was she at the time?

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Judy was probably early late twenties, early thirties. I thought,
if I don't go now, I'll probably never see her
again in my life. So I just brazenly walk up
and I said, miss Garland, my name is Brenda Lee,
and I am a huge, huge fan. You cannot believe

(34:36):
how you have influenced what I do. If you had
one piece of advice to give me, what would that be?
And she didn't skip a beat, and she said, don't
let them take away your.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Childhood, probably because a lot of hers we yeah taken away.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, so that's a memory I'll never forget.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
It's really kind of her to not just brush you
off and actually give you give.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Me a kernel of wonderful advice.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Brenda Lee's greatest tits it's you can stream it, you
get the vinyl. The vinyl is always really cool to have.
It has I'm sorry, it has sweet nothings. It hasn't
want to be wanted. Eleven of the tracks on the
album we're in the top ten of the Billboard Hot
one hundred. You are a joy to be Thank you
my friend. And I Brett who lives over He's an
artist too. He sings Brett Aldritch he sings Christmas song.

(35:38):
I know, okay, making sure we would always see a
drive around and we would be like, we just saw
Brenda run all. That was kind of our way of
like checking in on each other, and we just saw
Brindley driving around. So we'd always see a driving around.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
I love that. Tell m A.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
I definitely will now you know I'm southern. Hey, that's right,
Thank you so much. Congratulations on all your very recent
success too.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
It's really it's it's really amazing, rushing to see that
you went viral again and you had a number one song. Yeah,
and that is.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
That's who knew? Who knew after all these years after that,
that's what you That's what gets you in this business
because you don't know what's coming. That's true, and it's
the it's it's the wanting to know that just keeps
you there.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, I'm a big fan. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
This thirty forty minutes we just been together.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Thank you, ver and I love it too. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
I want to take a second and since we're talking
about music and talking about Keith Urban, for a second,
we Eddie nine. Eddie's in here now. We traveled to
Los Angeles. You went with me and I hosted a
Keith Urban album release party. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
I've never been to one of those, especially the one
in LA. I'd never been to that one yet.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
It's it's a long long road.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's a long trick on travel for sure, from Nashville.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
And I don't normally do those. I used to do
them in New York a bit because it was close
and I could get back for the show. But LA's tough.
But I do really like Keith and he asked me
to do it. So we go out. And I've been
with Keith a lot in the last seven eight years,
personally a little bit, professionally a lot. But it's the
first time for you to do something like that. What
did you notice about Keith Man.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
I'd never been there for a sound check. And I've
seen lots of soundchecks, you know, since I mean, we
just were around music a lot. So I've seen artists
come in, they sing half a song, maybe they adjust
a little bit of like hey, can I get some
more kick drama on my left ear or whatever, and
then they're done. But not Keith Man. I noticed because
we got When we got there, Keith was in the
middle of soundcheck. He probably did about three maybe four songs,

(37:50):
full songs, full songs, and then the he dismissed the band.
The band was like, all right, you guys are good.
Everybody left and it was just him and the crew
and they were working on lights. He was just saying, hey,
that light right there, like where does that go to?
And and you know they were adjusted over here, and
then it's like, okay, so if I went to this
side of the stage, am I gonna be lit here?
Am I gonna be lit there? And I'd never seen

(38:10):
that before. And I was with one of his record
people and they said, yeah, he does this all the
time because he wants to make sure that everything he
does is perfect for the fan.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah. And it was a one time show on a
small stage that was being broadcast, YouTube, radio, digitally in
every way. But also he wanted the people in the
room to really enjoy it, Yeah, to get all of it.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
It's perfectionist like that. I did not know that side
of him.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Man.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
I was so like just caught off guard by that.
And it's really cool to me because he's Keith Urban.
He doesn't have to stick around and do anything. He
could literally go and like farten the mic and they'd
be like, this is so good.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
What do you have to sound check? And it would
be he's so good. But he's that kind of he
is so meticulous about tone and lights. Why I spend
so much time like building his tour. So I just
set like it's his path to get to the crowd,
where the lights are, where the band members stand, the
clothes they wear.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
The tones of the guitars and all that. Hey, and
you know what's funny, It's like it made me think
of we've done sound checks with people and they never
showed up.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yes, like artists, you mean big artists, big.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Artists that were supposed to sound check and they pushed
us to the side, like I, they're coming to soundchecks,
so you can't sound check with him this time, and
then they never never come.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, it's different, so such a different different people have
different styles, but also there's a style that you understand
why they've been successful for so long because of how
important even the small details are. Boom. Also another thing musically,
I wanted to mention, I'm kind of getting jealous of
Morgan Wallen oh not because of his music.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Oh the girls.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
No, not because as girls, none of that, None of
that because I think, you know, I don't. I don't
really want to be a rock star, Like I kind
of like my desired path.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
There was a time though where that would have been cool, though, Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I never had a skill set that I thought it
was possible. So it's not like, Okay, there's the jealousy
of him crushing it as a rock store. I think
it's really remarkable what he Luke Combs and what Zach
Bryan have been able to do where they sell out arenas.
That to me does not make me jealous. What makes
me jealous is all like the cool athletes that he gets,
like to walk out with them during the intro when
they do the video, Mike, can you see these?

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Like when he did Vegas and Tom Brady came out
with them, I was like, that's so sick. Whenever he
did neland Stadium, which is his home show, is super cool.
He did two nights there and he got Peyton Manning
to come out with them. But not only that, Peyton
was dressed fully in his Tennessee football uniform. Do you
see any of this.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
I did see that I saw on TikTok, But I mean,
does he ask them.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
To I don't know. I don't know how that conversation
goes down. But like the sports part of it is
where I start to go, dang, that will be all
where I get to where I get like a I
think it's a healthy jealousy. Do you feel like it's
just people already coming to his show and he's like, Hey,
you want to do this with me?

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Because now it's a thing. Now he's been doing it
in a while.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I would compare it to Taylor Swift bringing somebody out
all the shows and it turned out ended up being
a big thing where she'd fly people in. Now I
think it has got to be a thing where he
and just ask somebody. He probably asked somebody that is
important to that area or that team where they're having
this state and he gets them to come out. Because
Brady now is going to be a part owner of
the Raiders, so he's very Las Vegas tied. Mike Tyson

(41:16):
was a part of that obviously. Peyton Manning, Yeah, he
got the second the first night maybe or second night.
He got the Tennessee baseball team to come out with them,
Like all, that's what's what I'm jealous of. Pretty Like
it'd be cool to be able to call athletes that
you like love and like loved as a kid and
be like, hey, you may be come to my show anyway,
I don't know, but do you want to come out
on the big screen?

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Like if you did that in Arkansas?

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Who would you want to walk out with you? I
was thinking about this. I mean, yeah, I thought about
it a lot.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Actually, it's got to be Arkansas related.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Right if I did, like to say, we we opened
for Garth there and it was super cool because like
we had coach Mauso might come on stage with us.
That was super cool. But it's a good question, Like
I if it were the same situation and I was
selling out a stadium, who would I choose to walk
out with me in Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
People Quinn Grovey, it's no quarterback, Probably.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Darren McFadden.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Oh well, that'd be awesome.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I'm trying to think of if they were like, it's limitless,
you can get anybody. It doesn't have to be an athlete, though,
I just get jealous of the athletes that he gets
here that not everybody's an athlete he comes out with.
But I would get Darren McFadden. Oh, Jerry Jones. He
hasn't lived there though, Yeah, I made you do that.
If I did that in Dallas, I would have Jerry Jones.
That's true, broh. It's a tough question. I would go

(42:38):
Darren McFadden. I would go Bobby Petrino, coach Cal. I
don't know him. I don't even know by Petrino. But
Cal hasn't even done a season yet, so yeah, I
have no like personal relationship, even like in my heart
even if huh, so I go Darren McFadden, I'll go

(42:58):
Bobby Petrino, who's offensive ordinator but was the head coach
for a long time. And I think I would.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Go Bill Clinton's cool. But there you want to go political,
right like I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
I would. I want to go Bill Clinton. I want
to go back Clinton. I'm just really, I'm really grinding
out here.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Cash like poss possibly John Daly.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
I like John we text a little bit, but I
don't want in Arkansas. They wouldn't, you know, he's so political,
But in Arkansas they can roll with him, so probably John. Okay,
So I'm gonna go John Daily Bobby Petrino, Darren McFadden,
anybody not in sports though I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
But who who is there from Arkansas?

Speaker 2 (43:53):
I mean I could go like, uh uh place with
Lakers Austin Reeves. Yeah he's in Arkansas, but he didn't
play in Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Okay, but I would, you know, I don't think that
people know that.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
I don't think he'd pop on the board like people
would just see his face and go like, oh my god,
I think that's my three, Mike, that's my three. Yeah.
Thanks to Brenda Lee. She was awesome. Thank you guys
for listening. If you don't mind, go give us a
little review. We appreciate that. If you will subscribe. If
you don't, although if you're listening to this, you're probably
a subscriber, and if that, thank you. We really appreciate that.
I hope you have a great day and thanks for

(44:26):
listening to the Bobbycast.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.
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Bobby Bones

Bobby Bones

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