Leigh and I are the same numerical age for a couple of weeks each year. Leigh celebrated his birthday at the Ark on Friday night in Ann Arbor, MI. It's been so long since any of us have gotten him a present that he joked on stage, "I know it's going to be big. It's been building up for so long. I wonder what they have in store for me?" Leigh's practicing his guitar right now in a Nashville hotel room with me. Here we are rooming together again. I guess eighteen years in the same room on the farm and a couple years together in a Plattsburgh State dorm room weren't enough. We get along quite well for a couple of brothers who spend a ton of time together.
Ol' Clayton's getting married in a couple of weeks. Smart move. She's a wonderful girl with a postive attitude and great sense of humor. We're happy for him. We're playing his dad's venue, the Kentucky Opry, on Friday night. Clayton just seems so happy lately. It's a great feeling to make a life decision you're sure about. I know. Marrying Corina is one thing I'm absolutely sure I was right about. There are not too many things I can say that about, but I'll go to my grave knowing I was right one time.
This has been a busy fall for us so far. I'm not complaining. If the phone quits ringing, we quit playing. I read an article about Merle Haggard where he said that he was proud of his accomplishments but that everything he'd done had been difficult and had taken him forty years. Even Merle gets frustrated sometimes. I love that he never covers anything up with BS, always telling it like it is. I read interviews with others where everything's sugar-coated, everything in their world is just perfect, let the good times roll. I want to hear the good with the bad. I like surrounding myself with people who will tell me the truth. I've said before that he's my ultimate hero, writing a body of work that's been so consistently good for so long. He's STILL writing great songs. He's still restless, even with all he's accomplished. We've accomplished nothing compared to him, but I see it. We'll do something we've never dreamed we'd get to do, but we'll wake up the next morning dissatisfied, ready for the next thing. I wrote a bad song a while back called "Stay Hungry" about that very thing. Bad song, good motto.