Roadsick blues with old school country balladeer Gene Watson

Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2020, the “Fourteen Carat Mind” country emperor plainspokenly probes stage fright, tough crowds, lucky charms, sycophants, guitars, COVID-19, and 35th studio album “Outside the Box.”

Jeremy Roberts
6 min readFeb 1, 2021
The back cover of Texas cowboy Gene Watson’s second greatest hits compilation — 1981’s “The Best of Gene Watson, Volume Two.” Willie Nelson’s mentor Ray Price placed the mutton-chopped Watson “right around the top of the list” of his favorite singers. And T. Graham Brown pulled no punches when he exclusively divulged, “When Gene Watson sings a country song, it’s been sung.” Image Credit: Discogs / Universal Music Group

The Gene Watson Interview, Part One

You’re a natural entertainer, but does stage fright ever rear its head?

It’s not a problem for me. Way down deep inside I’ve always been a people’s person. The audience makes up so much of my show. I go onstage and be myself. I never plan out a show or what song will be next. I always play it straight off the cuff and take note of whatever vein the crowd’s in. We try our best to do what the people wanna hear, and it usually works pretty good.

Was that always the case?

You do have to go through a learning curve. No doubt about that. When I first started out, I used to play guitar onstage. I would hide behind it so I had something to do with my hands. About all I had to do was concentrate on singing the song and strumming. As I moved along, I eventually put the guitar down.

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Jeremy Roberts

Retro pop culture interviews & lovin’ something fierce sustain this University of Georgia Master of Agricultural Leadership alum. Email: jeremylr@windstream.net