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David Frizzell talks about being on the Country Music Cruise, his lengthy career, touring, and more.
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0:00
Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash
0:02
here with David Friselle. I am so glad
0:04
we get to talk to you.
0:05
Nice. Nice to nice to meet you. Um,
0:07
absolutely.
0:08
How is your country music cruise
0:09
experience so far?
0:10
Well, you know, we've always had a great
0:12
time, you know, and what what's really
0:14
nice, I think, for me is that I get to
0:17
see all my friends that I don't get
0:19
chance to see all all the time, you
0:20
know, out around the out around the
0:22
country. So everybody's usually here. So
0:24
I get a chance to say hi to Jimmy
0:27
Fortune, you know, and T Graham and
0:29
Moan. I love all these people, you know,
0:32
and so it that's one of the reasons why
0:33
I like coming out.
0:34
You know, it's funny. We talked to Jimmy
0:35
yesterday and he said the same thing
0:37
that one of the best parts is seeing the
0:39
people who come to hear the music, but
0:41
also other artists.
0:42
That that's that's it. And everybody's
0:44
here like for a particular part of it,
0:47
whatever. But it's just great to be
0:49
around with everybody again. And to see
0:51
him like that and to see him, you know,
0:54
here uh see Jim Inc. He's just, you
0:57
know, he's just he's just one of the
0:59
best people all the way around. He's
1:01
just one of the great Moy, you know,
1:04
everybody's here.
1:05
They're all great
1:05
and it's just great to be be to be able
1:08
to talk, you know, see him and run up
1:09
and see him and or see him doing a show
1:11
because they're all great, you know,
1:12
and there's so much music.
1:14
I love music. Talk to me a little bit
1:16
about your path because you started with
1:18
your brother Lefty and then you did a
1:19
solo thing. Give me the trajectory.
1:22
Well, I started out obviously I was kind
1:24
of born into it, you know, and from the
1:27
time I can remember anything left you
1:29
singing, you know, doing something and I
1:32
I remember him writing as much as
1:35
actually getting on the stage and
1:37
singing, especially in those days. But
1:39
he was such a writer. Good grief, that
1:41
guy could write a song. And um uh so I I
1:46
learned all of that. He he didn't teach
1:48
me he well there was a time uh when in
1:53
those days when I was working with Lefty
1:55
back in the 50s and 60s and some uh we
2:01
would go out and we all live in
2:03
California at that time. Now, of course,
2:04
we're all moved to C to Nashville bunch
2:07
years ago. But anyway, uh we'd go out
2:10
and work Texas, Oklahoma, just every
2:12
place.
2:13
And uh in those days, you might work a
2:17
Friday and Saturday night someplace, but
2:19
uh on Sundays, it's almost always a
2:22
package show. And Lefty was invited to
2:24
every one of those package shows. If he
2:26
went, David went.
2:28
I love that. I love that. So, uh, so I I
2:31
remember that's when I I first met
2:33
Johnny Cash, June, Carl Smith, uh, just,
2:38
you know, all the all the all the great
2:40
ones. And, uh, and and I remember one
2:43
time we we've been out, we just got back
2:45
and so it was about 10:00 in the
2:47
morning. I was sitting in the house in
2:49
the den with the pool table and all that
2:51
and I was playing the guitar in there
2:53
and he got out of bed, I guess, and he
2:56
came and he stopped. I didn't know he
2:57
was there 10 o'clock in the morning. I
2:59
didn't expect to see him, you know. So,
3:02
u anyway, and I noticed he was and I
3:04
looked up at him. He said, "David," he
3:05
said, "you're doing the right thing." He
3:07
said, "You're just doing the right
3:08
thing. It's rude to the way that he
3:10
said, I got to tell you." He says, "You
3:12
know, uh, Johnny Cash, you know, he
3:16
said, you know, it's it's nice you're
3:17
able to get out and watch him and see
3:18
him and everything. You learn so much."
3:20
He said, "But I just got to tell you, we
3:22
don't need another Johnny Cash. Johnny
3:24
does very well with Johnny. He says, "We
3:27
do." He said, "We need a David Friselle.
3:30
We want a David Friselle." So he says,
3:33
"So just do everything you do because
3:35
it's really nice. We just remember at
3:36
the end of the day, we need a David
3:39
Friselle."
3:39
Oh, I love that.
3:40
So then he So he went on in the the
3:42
kitchen and I was just I don't know what
3:44
I was just playing something. I don't
3:46
know if it's kind of riding that not
3:48
these days, but I remember I was playing
3:50
the guitar. I said, "And uh" and he
3:52
walked back through about 10 15 minutes
3:54
later. He walked back and he stopped
3:56
again and I looked up at him. He said,
3:57
"And we don't need another Bob Dylan
3:59
either."
4:02
He walked and never forget that. And he
4:04
he would tell me, not all it, but he
4:06
always tell we we needed David. He'd
4:08
tell me that forever.
4:10
Well, you did a good job at David
4:12
Friselle. And you're still performing
4:13
today. And you are 84, I think.
4:16
Oh, who said that?
4:18
I mean, but you're still performing.
4:20
you're still making music. That is a
4:22
really successful career.
4:23
Well, I don't know what you do if you
4:24
don't make music because that's what
4:25
I've always done. Now, my probably a few
4:28
other things I've done in my life, but
4:29
making music was it was basically the
4:32
only thing I concentrated on or wanted
4:34
to do. And uh so I remember grabbing the
4:38
guitar when I was about 10 or 11 years
4:40
old. I don't even know whose guitar it
4:42
was. I hope I gave it back to him.
4:45
And u but uh I've always played music. I
4:48
don't know. There's probably going to be
4:50
a retirement time. I don't know. But
4:52
what would I do?
4:54
I've got to play music. I've got to play
4:56
music somehow somewhere to somebody. And
4:59
so that's that's the only way I look at
5:01
it.
5:01
So what are you going to do this year?
5:03
Make more music.
5:03
Oh yeah. We got tours. My my wife
5:06
Joanne, you met Joanne? She's uh her and
5:09
her and the girls and got it all
5:11
together and we're going I know we're
5:13
going to Texas. I know we're going to
5:15
New York. I know we're going to where's
5:18
that other some other places? Who knows?
5:21
But we're they got the You're pretty
5:24
much tacked out for me there.
5:26
Not slowing down.
5:27
So that's No, I No. And I don't like I
5:30
don't like I used to fly all the time.
5:31
might even own a plane one time, but and
5:33
and but I don't like to fly quite so
5:36
much anymore. So, we're going to be
5:38
driving to a lot of those and our rig,
5:40
you know, and uh we got some great
5:43
people going to be with us. Great
5:44
musicians. You know what? I have met
5:46
some incredible in my lifetime. I've met
5:50
the best musicians ever ever picked an
5:52
instrument up and I love them all and
5:55
it's just so great.
5:57
Merl Hag is one of my became a brother
5:59
to me. Uh was a great player. He could
6:02
play too, but he could write a song as
6:04
good as anybody. And he sang the fool
6:07
out of them.
6:07
Yeah, he could.
6:08
And he did. There was one song I I
6:11
remember one time we was playing uh I
6:14
was playing in Reno and he was he was
6:17
working uh downtown Reno. I was working
6:20
just outside of Reno, that place. And um
6:25
uh he called me one afternoon was there
6:26
for week or two a week at that time you
6:29
know and I was working at Buck Owens in
6:31
those days I remember uh but we travel
6:35
from there going up to wherever we want
6:37
to go play and so there was a call for
6:40
me and I got it and it was Merl. He said
6:43
hey he said come on downtown. He said I
6:45
want to get with you for a while. So I
6:47
hung up and I head off downtown and him
6:50
and I was took the guitar and was
6:52
passing passing the guitar. He'd sing a
6:53
lefty song he me and I'd sing one. Had
6:56
them lefty songs going. And uh and u
7:01
so I told him I said, "You know what?
7:03
I'm getting ready to do an album." I
7:04
said, "And I need I got to have a hit
7:07
song. And I know you write them, but you
7:10
ain't never given me one yet. I want you
7:12
to give me a hit. It got to be a hit
7:15
song. I don't want just a song. I want a
7:17
hit song." So he he said, "Let me sing
7:19
you something." He sang me a song and he
7:22
sang it and I couldn't believe it. I
7:24
said I said Merl, I got to have that
7:25
song. It's called That's the Way It Was
7:27
in 51.
7:29
And I said, "Marl, I got to have that
7:32
song." God love that song. And he said,
7:34
"David, I can't give you that one." They
7:36
said, "Of all them I got I can't I can't
7:38
give you that." I said, "What? What are
7:39
you singing to me for?"
7:43
And he said, "I can't give it to you." I
7:46
said, "He said, that's my next single.
7:51
But later on uh there was a TV show that
7:54
we was going to do and it was a tribute
7:55
to Merl and was all going to do it all
7:57
his sons and Marty and all of them and
8:00
everybody and uh and Merl's going to be
8:02
there and everything but he passed away
8:04
just before we did the show the show.
8:07
And so finally I got a call from from
8:09
the producers again they said Dave would
8:11
you please make the show you know Merl's
8:15
gone we understand but we want to do the
8:16
show anyway. So I said, "Well, yeah, I
8:19
guess I can do it." He said, "What song
8:21
you want to do?" I said, "That's the way
8:22
it was in 51." And I finally did the
8:25
song. And I tell you, it's one of the
8:28
people know me by that song as much as
8:30
Oklahoma Wo.
8:32
I love it.
8:33
That's a what is a great song.
8:35
That is a great song.
8:36
And as Hank left and I got I love all
8:38
that stuff. So, but anyway, so Merl was
8:42
one one of my best friends in the world.
8:44
And I miss all those, you know. I miss I
8:46
miss everybody dog. I'm glad. I guess
8:50
they're waiting for me up there. I guess
8:52
up there.
8:52
We want you here for a while longer.
8:54
Okay. You stay.
8:55
I hope it's up there.
8:57
Dave and Priscil,
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