back. I love the fact that he rehearsed like that. I can’t imagine him walking in and me sitting on the couch playing with an X-Box or watch- ing TV with a whole ranch out there and beauti- ful sunshine. Honey, he would have given me something to do, I tell you! He’d say, “You look bored. How about going out and painting the entire fence?” Something like that, you know. Sounds like a meanie, but he wasn’t. He just wanted us to be doing something all the time, out in the sunshine. And in the rain! What’s wrong with rain?
It’s only water. Yeah! Water won’t hurt you. Viruses hurt you, not rain. So we learned to ride in the rain, play tag in the rain- he was such an outdoors guy. I miss that too. People say, “Oh its a rainy day, I’ve got the blues.” Okay then, write something about it! And the only way you can write some- thing about it is to go walk in it. I mean, rain doesn’t cause the blues, it brings life to the earth, and to you! Remember when I sang “I Love it When it Rains” for your benefit in Nashville? (Note: A benefit show that helped me with medical bills, assembled by Rick Broyles and staged a few years ago at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville. Thanks again to all in- volved.)
Are you kidding? That meant the world to me. It’s still my favorite of your songs. I saw it on You Tube the other day, when I was wearing your little Buffalo shirt. (Laughs)
Oh, I loved that little black shirt that you hand painted “Buffalo” on. You brightened my spirits so much that night. Did I ever give you that?
No, but I still want it for my museum. I asked you for it before. Yeah, but I was wearing it! I wasn’t gonna give it to you then! (Laughs)
(Laughing) Well I didn’t mean while you were wearing it!
I have to find that for you. You know, I painted that right before I left the house. I painted while it was on me.
Really? I stood in front of a mirror. And I remember driving over there with the windows down and the air on, trying to make it dry so it didn’t get on nothin.’ But I don’t know why I did it. I guess I was just feeling you.
Well it was just sweet. Everything you did for me was sweet. And the guy who played with you, John, he was just amaz- ing. John Coleman, yes he is! What’s so cool is he’s one of those cats that - my Dad would have loved him - he has such focus, you can play him a song one time and he will know it. That’s how Daddy was too. But that song we were talking about, I wrote it with Gordi Sampson. I am such a fanatic over him. He’s my writing hero, and such a singer and everything. When I met him, he’s such a nice guy, like everybody’s cousin or something, and real easy-peezy to get along with and all that. Everybody had been telling me that Gordi and I needed to write to- gether. So when I met him, I told him I wasn’t giving up until we wrote a song together, and he said he’d love to. So we met at his publishing company to write, and it was raining. Big, fat rain drops. Somebody said, “I’m so sorry it’s raining.” And I said “I love it when it rains.” He just started pickin’, and he said I love that, and I said I do to! And that’s when we wrote that song. And Johnny Coleman was kind enough to play it, just like he wrote it himself too. He was just amazing. And I love you and I knew you told me you love it when it rains too. So ...
That was the sweetest thing. You know my Grandfather taught me years ago to love the rain. He’d say, “I don’t under- stand when people start running for cover when it starts to rain. Are they afraid they are going to melt?” He said “ I don’t run away from it, I run toward it and go out into the rain, and stand there
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