Country and gospel legend Larry Gatlin gets candid with the Cowboy Poet about his country roots and musical inspiration.
Legendary country crooner and one-third of the Gatlin Brothers trio Larry Gatlin has been touring the nation for decades, showcasing his sweet sound and love for the classic Western lifestyle. Red Steagall sits down with the singer-songwriter to get the full story and shares another one of his classic cowboy poems.
Red Steagall: Larry, I want the folks to know where you came from, where your family came from, what your background is.
Larry Gatlin: Well, Dad was born in East Texas and his father was a sharecropper. His mother passed away when he was 15 ... with tuberculosis. His father was kind of sick and puny most of his life. Bless his heart, Dad went to the war, was actually in the USS Wakefield on his way for the invasion of Japan when Harry Truman had the wherewithal to do what needed to be done. Came home, married mama.
Couple years later I was born, and he was a driller out in the oil field and we moved around a lot. Finally, kind of parked there in Odessa, went to Odessa High School. Everybody, when they hear about Odessa, they say, “Well, Permian and the Mighty Mojo Friday.” Well, I’m two and one against him, the only quarterback in history two and one against Mojo. But the brothers and I sang. That’s that side of the family.
And mom’s side of the family. Our mom is a Doan. We are direct line descendants of John Donne, the great English poet: “No man is an island.” And Deacon Doane ... And that family is actually the largest documented family in America. So, Doan’s Pills, Doane College, Doan’s Crossing up on the Red River.
And Papa was a great singer. The day he passed away, he could sing — he had a high B flat, just like a bell. Taught us to sing out of the old shape notes, Stamps-Baxter songbooks. We grew up singing in church, listening to the great gospel singers, the Blackwood Brothers, the Chuck Wagon Gang, the Statesman Quartet. And it’s just been our love. And it came natural to us. We never knew anything different.
So, I come from good stock, from good God-fearing people who worked hard and taught Steve and Rudy and me to work hard. And that, like I say, that legacy that our papa worked for Sinclair Oil Company for 50 years and having the last name Doan, D-O-A-N. In the ’20s and ’30s during the Teapot Dome oil scandal with Harry Sinclair, Papa worked for Sinclair. So, everybody started calling him Teapot. The guy who preached his funeral said, “Well that old boy, that casket right there. That ain’t Cliff Doan, that’s Teapot Doan right there.”
Hard work, clean living. We come from good stock. And I’m grateful during all the epidemics and things. I mean, you’re lucky if you can choose your ancestors. ... I could go out and play golf. Good, strong, hardworking stock and good DNA. Grateful for them.
Find the full episode of Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, featuring the conversation with Larry Gatlin, at watchrfdtv.com.
Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music
My yellow rose of Texas packed up
And left this morning.
I don’t know where she’s gone,
And most of all, I don’t know why.
I only know I’ve got the blues,
I’ve never been this lonesome.
It’s enough to make a man,
Lay down and die.
Lone Star beer and Bob Wills music,
When I hear Faded Love, I feel at home.
Lone Star beer and Bob Wills music,
Have kept my heart alive since you’ve
been gone.
Got a pocket full of quarters
To feed to that old juke box.
Bob Wills music helps
To keep that woman off my mind.
Excerpted from the 1976 album Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music.
TV And Radio Schedule
Episodes of Red’s travel show, Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, air Mondays at 8:30 p.m. Central on RFD-TV. Find out more about the TV program at watchrfdtv.com and keep up with Red’s radio show, Cowboy Corner, at redsteagall.com/cowboy-corner. And be sure to visit Red’s new YouTube channel.
From our July 2023 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Absolute Publicity
