In 1974, John Knowles, Dick Roby and myself came to Nashville to visit with
Chet about arrangements that John was helping Chet with when he was
preparing to produce his "Chet Goes to the Movies" album. We met in his
office down on Music Row at the RCA Building prior to going downstairs into
the studio where he and fellow guitarist, Pete Wade, were working to put the
finishing touches on a Hank Snow single. We spent the entire afternoon
watching the two of them put a couple of guitar tracks on the completed
recording and then went back up to his office for a rather lengthy visit. As
usual, he was very polite and asked us a lot of questions and talked about
John's work on the upcoming album. Not long after that visit, John moved to
Nashville and as they say "the rest is history".
Needless to say that meeting was very special to me because I had watched
Chet many times when he was doing the Festival of Music programs with Boots
Randolph and Floyd Cramer, but was never able to get to meet the Man
afterwards or before any of those performances. Since my involvement with
CAAS however, it has been my pleasure many times to visit with Chet over
lunch and at concerts and no one has been nicer to me, than he.
One outstanding memory I will always cherish is when he played with the
Dallas Symphony at the Mort Meyerson Center and in the middle of the concert
he dedicated a song to me. Interestingly enough the song was the
Entertainer, one of the numbers we talked with him about in 1974 while in
his Nashville office.
Chet, you bless us all with your great music and your interest in all of us.
Thank you.
- Bill Spann
The FULL LIST of "When I Met Chet" stories
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