I Played Guitar and Sang in Nashville
The things we do in our youth.
You can laugh and be skeptical if you like. You can even say I made the whole thing up or dreamed it while in a drunken stupor. But I have indeed performed in the country music capital of the entire universe. It was many, many, many years ago and it was only two songs. I think. It could have been three.
I was visiting Nashville with my family to tour the homes of the stars and take in a night at the Grand Ole Opry. I was slightly over 18 years old which I know for two reasons. The legal drinking age then was eighteen and my father had invited me to the hotel bar for a drink.
Great Jumping Jehosaphat! My father invited me to have an adult beverage with him. That was a new and somewhat scary development.
We were in the process of settling into the hotel room when my father stated his intention to go to the bar. Then he dropped that bombshell by telling me to come on down and join him after I unpacked my suitcase.
Now, I must point out that my father never drank at home. Unless you count the random bottle of whiskey that he kept hidden in the barn or chicken house. Occasionally I would find one of those bottles. It was always an empty one that he had not got around to throwing away. And if I tilted the bottle and looked at the crease where the bottom…
