Cowboy Corner: Barry Corbin

Barry Corbin made a splash with his appearance alongside Patrick Wayne at the 2024 Western Heritage Awards. We’re looking back at his chat with cowboy poet Red Steagall, where Corbin looks back at the filming process for his first movie, Urban Cowboy.

Patrick Wayne (left) and Barry Corbin (right) at the 2024 Western Heritage Awards.

Red Steagall: I didn’t realize that you were in Urban Cowboy.

Barry Corbin: That was my first movie.

Red: That’s got to be the most exciting thing in a person’s life.

Barry: Well, it didn’t really sink in on me that I had the part until I was down in Houston. We went in to Houston for rehearsal ... We read through the script, and then we went and hung around Gilley’s, which is not the most ideal place to hang around unless you’re 21 and like to fight, which I was neither. But it was a very exciting time for me because I was doing something. ... In a way it was kind of a letdown because in a movie, you sit around a lot and then you go do three or four lines and then you sit around a while longer. ... You have to learn to go on about half simmer all the time, kind of like that old coffee pot. You can’t boil, you got to just simmer there for a while. But the process really is the same for working on the stage or working on film or television or whatever. It’s just that there’s a different time value. You’ve got to be prepared to sit around.

Red: Movies like that take a long time to shoot simply because … what do they get, two minutes of film each day?

Barry: Urban Cowboy took from late June way up into October, nearly the end of October. ... We had some weather problems and other problems like that. It was originally scheduled to run 10 weeks and I think it ran nearly twice that.  

Red: You remember any unusual things that happened on that set?

Barry: I remember most of the people in that were locals that hung around in Gilley’s. They wanted this feel of a documentary kind of a thing, so they got these folks, and they’re not used to being treated like cattle, shoved around into holding areas and stuff. I was walking past this guy named Norman. He was an extra in the show, but he was actually a character – an actor was playing him. ... He said, “They don’t know who I am. Well, I’ll damn sure show them who I am. I’m not going to be pushed around by that little weasel no more. I’m going to damn sure show them who I am.” I went over and said, “Norman, don’t do it. They’ll sue you. These folks are not from here. They don’t understand this. If you hit the man, he’ll sue you and he’ll get you fired from your job and he’ll do all these mean things to you, but he won’t fight you. So don’t do it. It’s just not worth it.” The guy he was talking about turned into a hot shot producer. He’s a big producer and he gave me a job. He said, “Do you remember me?” I said, “I sure do remember you, and if it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t be here today.”

Climbin’ Out The Other Side

The boys were lined up on the hill,
a’givin’ hoots and howls.
I guess they must have seen the entire show.
I wonder what they’d think of me
if I’d stayed on the hill.
I didn’t, so I guess I’ll never know.

There were times I got so scared
I almost wrote it off.
I nearly quit the outfit once or twice.
You got to pay the fiddler
if you want to learn to dance.
That rocky ride was worth the fiddler’s price. 

The sorrel’s gone to glory
and now I’m the wagon boss.
My life’s been good; I’m thankful for the ride.
Tho’ there’s been lots of rocky slopes
to test a feller’s nerves,
The fun’s been climbin’ out the other side.  

Excerpted from Red Steagall’s book The Fence That Me and Shorty Built.

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 May/June 2018 issue.

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