Larry was born in Texas in 1948, and as his father was an oilfield
worker, the family moved around a good deal. He
heard gospel and country music, growing up, and he and his two brothers Steve
and Rudy, performed in church, singing gospel as kids.
In 1966, he went to the University of Houston and played
college football. After joining a gospel music group, he met the singer Dottie West,
who admired his singng and song writing skills and she found him work as a backing
singer for Kris Kristofferson. In the 1970s he released his own records and began
to include his brothers in his act. In 1979, the name was officially "Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers. His hits included “Houston Means I’m One day
Closer to you”, and “All the Gold in California”.
He and his brothers
had a farewell tour in 1992, before retiring to their own theater in South
Carolina.
A year or 2 ago,
I was at the Grand Old Opry, and Larry was one of the funniest most charming
people on that stage. So much so, that I had to go to the next Opry performance,
where he was playing, just to see him.
He was funny, lively and utterly delightful, and was at his funniest, dancing with the Opry
dancers…
This is a short blog, but he was one of the people
I’ve enjoyed most on stage.. ever….and I wanted to write about a hapy
experience
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