The Chillicothe Prison Project With Johnny Paycheck and Merle Haggard by Billy Don Burns: Gladiator With A Guitar “The first time I went to the warden, Arthur Tate, of the maximum security prison,(C.C.I.) Chillicothe Correctional Institution, and asked him if I could come in and record an album on Johnny Paycheck, he told me there was no…
In 1995, Hank Cochran wanted to produce an album on me. We recorded some sides. We decided to release an album together called Desperate Men: The Legend and The Outlaw. We were recording a song that Mack Vickery and I wrote called “Outlaws At The Cross” one day at Hank’s studio on 17th Avenue. Bruce…
I had been friends with Tanya for about three years before her 16th birthday. Billy Sherrill was the hottest producer in Nashville. He was producing all those hits on George Jones, Tammy Wynette and Tanya and everyone else on Columbia/Nashville at the time. I was living in an apartment off Harding Place in Nashville and…
I was out of the army and back in the world. I moved to California and put together a four piece band. The year was 1970. I was playing joints in the Coachella Valley. After a gig one night at the Desert Bar in Indio, I told the guys in the band that I was…
Billy Don Burns Gladiator With A Guitar Vol II – Playing Hank Sr. At Opryland When I played Hank Williams, Sr at Opryland, I did my first audition for the part at WSM Radio Station in Nashville. I did my second audition at MTSU Murfreesboro, Tennessee. My third audition was at Vanderbilt University Nashville. Over…
I liked Waylon Jennings the first time I heard him on the radio. It was about 1966, I was still in high school. The song was “Silver Ribbons” from his RCA Nashville Rebel album. I bought the album and learned two songs off of it, “Silver Ribbons” and “Nashville Bum”. The first time I met Waylon…
