WEBVTT - Ep. 46: Jerry Clower - Southern Identity, Raccoon Hunting, and Comedy 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.680 What did it look like? It was red red suit. 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:11.400 It had on the lapels like on lapel, the stitching 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.520 was white, so it stood out against that white cowboy 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.160 boots yea, and red pants. Had a big white belt 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.280 with a belt buckled size of a student Baker hubcap. 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:23.720 And he had an embroidered coon on the on the 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.880 left lapel. Yep, coon face right there. On this episode 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.760 of the Bargaras podcast, we're diving deep into Southern culture 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.880 and identity to get a view from the captain's chair 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.040 of Jerry Clower's mind. Does that name ring a bell? 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.879 Jerry was thrust into national fame in the nineteen seventies 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.120 when a story he told about coon hunting topped the 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.160 country music charts. I'm interested in those odd places where 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:56.960 rural culture and specifically hunting, touches the mainstream. Old Wilson 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.520 Rawl's bridge the gap with this book where the red 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.319 fern rows, and Jerry did it with comedy about hunting varmouts. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.160 He's been gone for a long time, but I was 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.400 able to go meet up with his old neighbor in 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.000 East Fork, Mississippi and a Mitt County, and he'll give 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.600 us a behind the scenes look into who Jerry was, 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.200 and some of it will surprise you, and believe it 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.600 or not, Old Brent Reeves met Jerry Clower and saw 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:28.000 his famed gold Cadillac that Brent swears was as long 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.959 as the battleship. Trust me, boys, you're not gonna want 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.320 to miss this one. It was beyond my comprehension that 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.680 somebody in my family didn't know him, because the stories 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:43.759 that he told were stories that I could identify with 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:55.840 as far as how he grew up. My name is 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.480 Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.560 will expe lord things forgotten but relevant, search for insight 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.360 and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:12.079 Americans who lived their lives close to the land, presented 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:17.160 by f HF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.680 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:31.280 places we explore. First of all, I want you to 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.600 know that I come from right four Liberty, Mississippi. Now 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:40.840 that's twelve miles west of McCombe, Mississippi, sixty five miles 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.200 due northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a hundred and 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:50.400 sixteen miles due north of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:52.519 that that I first saw the light of day out 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.480 of a nick Countess September nine hundred and twenty six. 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:07.760 I was born there. If you recognize that voice, many 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.720 assumptions could be made about you and your history. You're 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.960 likely over the age of thirty, have some tie to 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.440 the Southern United States, are a fan of old country music, 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:23.400 and I could likely guess your political leanings. Throughout any 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.000 culture in the world, there are insiders who represent a 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.000 sector of the population. These people are significant and carry 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.720 the values of their people, but their interpretation of those 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:39.920 values is amplified through time. My friend Steve Ronella recently 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.040 said that if you can ice fish in your state, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.160 that state isn't in the South, and I completely agree 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:50.080 with that from a geopolitical boundary standpoint, But I'd like 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.640 to add a second layer of analysis. If your family 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:59.280 listened to Jerry Clower, you're likely culturally Southern, and I'll 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.960 make a definitive statement. If you don't know who Jerry 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:08.680 Clower is, you aren't Southern. I'm sorry, or you've been 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.720 locked at a chicken coop your whole life. We've been 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.240 talking about hunting raccoons with hounds and exploring the cultural 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.760 impact of the book Where the Red Fern Grows. We've 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:23.120 pontificated on that time. Coon Hunting did a tomahawk dunk 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.640 on mainstream culture and they loved it. I'm looking for 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.760 patterns on how to positively portray rural life to a 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.719 sector of the population that may not understand it. Wilson 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.279 Rawls did it with his book, and we'll see that 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.720 the brilliant humorist Jerry Clower did it by telling a 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:46.320 human story. You see, Jerry was catapulted into the national 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.800 spotlight in nineteen seventy one because of a short tale 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.480 he told about a coon hunt in Mississippi. The story 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.200 was so intriguing producers from New York City traveled to 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.360 meet him with, in Jerry's words, a pocket full of money, 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.160 and the following contract launched the forty five year old 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:11.000 fertilizer salesman into immediate stardom. Jerry wasn't a musician, but 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.360 recorded seven full length recordings through m c A Records, 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.800 producing two gold albums and a platinum record, and he 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.840 became a member of the Grand Old Opry, wrote four 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.720 books and hosted multiple television shows. Jerry's first album made 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.360 more than ten million dollars in the first ten months 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.839 and stayed in country's top twenty on the chart for 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:39.000 thirty weeks. Author Willie Morris said Clower's comic art demonstrates 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.320 the richness of the spoken language in the South and 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.520 all its inwardness, nuance, and sweet. He described it as 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:51.400 extravagant Southern talk. Jerry would become known as the mouth 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.880 of the South, and in a time of racial upheaval, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.120 he was outspoken in his support of racial integration and 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.800 support of our Frican Americans. Jerry has been gone since 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.880 n but I traveled to East Fort, Mississippi, in a 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.160 Mitt County to meet with Jerry's longtime neighbor and fellow 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.560 East Fort Baptist Church member, Mr John Newman, who will 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.279 help us unraveled Jerry's life and comedy. Mr John is 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.040 a clean shaven, handsome feller in his early seventies with 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.680 a headful of white hair, mid lenked side burns, and 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.400 a worn pair of leather boots. But most importantly, he 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:34.200 knew Jerry well and loved him like a brother. So Jerry. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.680 He was born in nineteen twenty six. He passed away 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.039 in nine at the age of seventy one. What do 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.200 we know about his early life that probably had some 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.279 impact on just who he was. Tell me about his 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.240 early history just as a kid, Jerry was born doing 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.040 some real hard times in the history of the country. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.560 Depressions were pretty common. We went through two of them, 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.960 went through a couple of World wars. Jerry and brother's Sonny, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.880 both served in World War Two, and his mother told 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.120 me that one of the saddest stories that she could 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.560 relate to in regard to her children and that at 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.160 one time both of them boys were missing. They didn't 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.280 know where they were, but she prayed that God would 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.720 look out for him bring him back home safely, and 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.200 it did. But Jerry was brought up in some pretty 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.760 tough times. His mother was a sole provider. They didn't 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.200 have a lot of the luxuries of life, just like 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.760 a lot of people, a lot of us that were 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.040 lived in this part of the country that grew up 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.960 in the south during some pretty tough times. Jerry said 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.080 that his county was so poor people couldn't afford to sin, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.280 and that he ate so much slick shiny boiled ochre 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.360 that when he was a boy, he couldn't keep his 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.200 socks up. Once, when asked if he hadn't been poor, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.040 if he would have achieved what he did, he said, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.240 quote no, because I probably would have been arrogant and 0:07:55.280 --> 0:08:00.800 I wouldn't have had a coon dog. He was a 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.560 joy to be around. He loved everybody. He never let 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.040 his fame or his fortune go to his head. Many times, 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.840 uh different occasions, he would call me up asked me 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.000 what I was doing. This was after he had moved 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.360 back into the East four community. He did said, John, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.080 come on over, We're gonna put on some coffee. I 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.040 want to tell you about where I been, who I saw, 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.760 but ever where he went, anybody that he had in 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.080 contact with, and genuine a lot of people. He knew 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.360 people all over the country, politicians, athletes, people from every 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.760 walk of life, business characters, so many people that he knew. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.560 He had a he had an influence on. Now tell 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.760 me how you knew Jerry. I knew Jerry when I 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.000 was just a small child. Jerry was a few years 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.880 older than me at the time. He lived in Yazoo 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.360 City and became a fertilizer salesman day for Mississippi Chemical Corporation, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.360 and it was just by coincidence and an accident. As 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.480 Jerry has told me before, and as he related in 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.600 some of his stories, he kind of backed into show business. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.160 But he was all he's a big talker. He was 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.959 a good salesman. He had a lovable style character. If 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.760 you met him, you never forgot him. And I think 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.960 he was on a sales pitch over in Texas and 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.400 somebody asked him to Jerry, what to tell him that 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.280 you've got you need to use that you older Michael record. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.640 So so Jerry was selling fertilizer. He started using just 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.600 some stories just to kind of loosen people up. That's right, 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:29.319 I mean, just just like sales pitch and somebody heard 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.920 it and said you are so funny and the guy 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.360 the guy said, hey, I want to record you tell 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.760 one of these stories, and he did. In nineteen seventy one, 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.720 at the unlikely age of forty five, the fertilizer salesman 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:48.000 recorded his first comedy album titled Jerry Klower from Yazoo City, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.800 Mississippi Talking with Lemon Label out of Texas. The album 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.600 was a series of stories of Jerry just talking. Each 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.000 was titled like a song on an album, and they 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.520 sold over eight thousand records for five dollars each, and 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.840 some radio stations started playing it. Then he got the 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.920 attention he needed. The next day, I got a telephone 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.200 call from New York City, said Mr Klawa, I'm vice 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.280 president of a major record company. You have some talents, 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.840 and the next time you're in this vicinity, would you 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.600 drop by, we'd like to talk to you. I said, 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.520 I ain't never gonna be in that vicinity. I said, Man, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.560 you don't leave Yeah City, Missippi, and just dropped by 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:41.439 New York. If y'all want to see Man, you're gonna 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.920 have to send for man. Two days later the telephone, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.000 the Decca label would sign Jerry to a recording contract. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.480 The album would later become one of his two gold 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.800 record albums, selling over five hundred thousand copies in just 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.600 one month. A gold record is one that sells over 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.560 a half million albums. If you remember Robert Morgan's quote 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.880 from our Boon series about how most great artists, explorers 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.880 and writers do the best work of their life in 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.000 their thirties, you'll see that that must not apply to 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:20.280 fertilizer salesman. Well, that's what's so interesting is that he 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.120 he didn't get into it until you know, he wasn't 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.040 born into it. I mean he was, it was later 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.679 in his life. That's very rare, I would say it 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:33.880 is usually people have show business in their targets. From 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.840 a young kid, that's something they pursue. That was he 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.720 backed into it. It wasn't what he was trying to it. 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.920 And then so he this guy recorded this record or 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.679 recorded him telling some country story. Do you know what 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.080 story it was, by chance that he told originally? Yeah? 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.280 I think it was knocked him out, John, Oh really 0:11:55.320 --> 0:12:00.319 it was the coer. Okay, here in lies the reason 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.160 we're talking about Jerry Clower. His all time most popular 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:09.520 story was about raccoon honey with hounds. Very interesting. We'll 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.720 hear more about this story later. I've heard it said 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:17.240 that he was he was a humorist, not necessarily a comedian, 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.400 which you know, to me, you know, to say, to 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.360 say someone's a comedian just means that they're funny, which 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:25.600 I think he would, you know, qualify for that. But 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 the way he described himself as he said, I don't 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:33.440 tell funny stories. I tell stories funny And That's what 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.200 I'm so struck by. As I've listened to so much 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.640 of his stuff is that the stories are often just 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.439 kind of it's it's the normal life of it that 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.440 sometimes is what's so interesting. But he has this cast 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.600 of characters that he always goes through. So almost all 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.000 his stories, all his all his routines, have this cast 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.079 of characters. Can you name most of them? Well, that 0:12:56.240 --> 0:13:02.520 was my sale. There's Eugene Rdal Ray Noll Burnell, M L. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.439 New Gene, Eugene, Uncle Versey, ain't pet old man zays 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.400 that was my great grandpa, Mr Versey. Quite a few 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.240 of those characters, and so were those real people. Some 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.199 of them were that I know of, and he used 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.800 their real names or not. In some instances he did 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.840 tell me what you know about some of those characters 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:23.920 and some of the some of the things that he 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.920 talked about, well, one in particular to my great grandfather, 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.520 The story Mr John is about to tell is the 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:36.160 real story that Jerry titled The New Chandelier, and you 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.319 can listen to it on any streaming platform. It was 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:44.720 included on Jerry Clower's greatest hit album. The Magnolia Electric 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.079 Association had just begun to establish rural electric service here 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.640 in our county. That was back into late forties. All 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.240 you had to do was sign up, be willing to 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.040 pay for the poll to be put up in electricity 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.760 run from that pole to your house, and they took 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.920 care of everything else. So they had notified our church 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.280 that while they were in the community, they would be 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.000 glad to provide our church with electrical service. So the 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.200 church had a business meeting monthly business meeting, and it 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.120 was brought up said hey man, look at here, here's 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.240 a golden opportunity for us to have electricity lights at 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.000 our church, and we need to think about this. It 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.080 was brought up and voted on that we go ahead 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.880 and let them put up to power polls and have electricity. 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.880 And the moderator, which was a pastor, said is there 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.960 any amendments or is there any discussion before we vote, 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:36.320 and my great grandpa said, yeah, he had something he 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:38.960 would like to share. But before that, one of the 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:40.920 ladies in the church said she thought it would be 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.400 a marvelous idea for the church to go ahead and 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.240 get a chandelier since we was gonna have electricity. As 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.640 the amendment was brought up, my great grandpa stood up 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.240 and said he was against that. The moderator said, is 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.680 there any discussion and our conversy that better said, Sir, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:02.120 I'd like to speak. I want all of you to 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:07.480 know that if we're gonna buy a chandelier, there ain't 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.120 nobody in our church. You got enough education that when 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.160 we order it from seas and Roebucket, they could spell it. 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.600 Then if we ordered the chandelier and it got here, 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.400 there's nobody in our church it knows how to play it. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.160 And what I'm concerned about is we don't need to 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:38.320 spend this money on no chandelier as bad as we 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:46.520 need lights in the church. So that actually happened, happened, 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.480 I'll be there. But then technology wasn't like it yesterday. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.760 Most people have never been no further than fifty or 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.600 sixty miles now. They wasn't exposed to education like we 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.320 are today, didn't have access to uh advancements in technology. 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.560 And he didn't know he was speaking his heartfelt convictions. 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:12.040 He honestly did not know. In this story, Jerry told 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.880 it almost exactly as it happened, but he told it funny. 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.200 And because many of the stories were true or almost true, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.440 they were relatable and showed the character of the people 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.080 all the while poking a little fun at the stereotypes. 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.120 But because Jerry was at the wheel, because he was 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.360 one of us, it was okay. It made us feel 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.560 okay about being Southern and strangely, maybe even a little 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.600 bit proud of our quirks. You know, the South seems 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:45.960 to be known for these big characters like storytelling, and 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.800 maybe if you're deeply embedded, and it's hard to see that, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.320 maybe in other places it's not as it's not as prominent. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.960 But was Jerry surrounded by people that were like him? 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.680 And I know nobody else made it in show business, 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.600 but was he impacted Probably by people that taught him 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.240 how to tell stories and be funny. I think a 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.080 lot of that just came to him naturally. He associated 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:11.840 with a lot of people that were of the same 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.360 character makeup that he was. I guess in regard to that, 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.800 they just did not have the people orientation to be 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.240 able to express themselves and connect with people the way 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.760 he did. Yeah, but I don't think that Jerry ever 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.399 realized until he got into show business the impact that 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:35.760 he did have on people. Yeah. I think there are 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.879 three components to Jerry Clour. Number One, he was undoubtedly 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.879 gifted at collecting stories and delivering them in unreplicatable, funny 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:50.440 and compelling ways. However, number two, no man is an island, 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.000 and I believe he would have learned components of his 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.520 storytelling when he was a boy by listening to others 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.400 in rural Mississippi. I'm sure he collected dialects and picked 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.480 up on where to put the emphasis. He learned how 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.359 to use sound effects and put it all together to 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:11.280 create this unique style. And that brings up number three. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:16.399 Jerry Clower's style affected the way the South would and 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.960 still does tell stories. Up until researching this podcast, it 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.720 had been a while since I listened to Jerry years actually, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.919 and some of his stuff I had never heard. Coming 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:33.159 back into his comedy, I clearly saw his cadence style, dialect, 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:38.440 mannerisms echo through the way that people now tell stories. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:44.679 He helped interpret for us what was funny. You know 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.560 a lot of people that are comedians are extremely intelligent 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:54.359 number one, and are extremely socially aware. For him to 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:59.480 be able to find the nuance of funny stuff inside 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.880 of his every day culture, the stuff that other people 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.879 were like walking right past, I mean, just shows what 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:09.800 alert aware intelligent guy he was. Would you agree with that? 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.159 I would Jerry. He had a way of relating to people. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.400 He was a very comical person. But to me, knowing 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.720 him as well as I did, he appeared to me 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.159 to be a lot more ease in a in a 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.679 private climate. We've been to his house on numerous occasions, 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.080 and he was a lot more comical because I think 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.280 he was a lot more at ease with people that 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.359 he knew and in a setting that he was familiar with, 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.479 or his church, So he was more funny when he 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.840 was with people. Yes, definitely, definitely. One thing that, uh, 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.720 I've always been quite proud of. My wife had got 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.160 her master's degree over William Carey Cottage and Jerry gave 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.080 her this plaque and recognition of it and it's from 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.760 the Knock Him Out John Foundation. He gave this to 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.000 my wife. When he gave this to her, he told 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.480 her how proud he was of her, and he looked 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.879 at me and he said, you know, it's a miracle 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.879 that you were able to accomplish make the Dean's List, 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.000 these honors that you have received. It was a miracle. 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:11.880 And with what you have to put up with at 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.280 home and you. He was making reference to me, and 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.360 I said, Jerry, let me tell you what a miracle is. 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.320 I said, I can't sing, and I know that. And 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.800 I said I know you can't either, because I don't 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.600 sit with you before in church and other services. And 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.160 you can't sing. I said, you couldn't carry a tune 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.320 in the bucket. And I doubt if you know the 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.000 difference between a guitar and a piano. Yet you have 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.439 been inducted into the Grand Old Opery. That's what you 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.800 call a miracle. And he grabbed me around the neck 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.080 with his right hand and with his Bible clanched in 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.400 his left hand, and he looked up in the heavens 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.240 and tears run down his face and he said, John, 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.399 ain't God good? Ain't God good? So it was a 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.840 real moment for him. It was just even while you 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.760 were trying to be funny and just and said, you know, 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.320 making a joke about him not being able to sing, 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.040 but being in the Grand Old Opery, it impacted him 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:08.240 just in that moment. He was just grateful. It's moments 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.240 like this with no cameras or recorders that you can 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.199 see inside of someone. Jerry grew up dirt poor. He 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.320 didn't hit the big time until he was in his 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.200 mid forties. He truly appreciated what had happened in his life. 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.400 I think it hit him hard on October nineteen seventy 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.840 three when he was inducted into the Grand Old Opery. Now, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.199 if you're familiar with country music, there's no need to 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.520 qualify that statement. But if you're not, this is a 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.240 big deal. The Grand Old Opery is a weekly country 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:41.879 music concert show held in Nashville, Tennessee, that started in 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.800 the nineteen and has played almost every Saturday night for 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.320 the last one hundred years. It's the longest running broadcast 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.680 in US history. It's been called the home of American 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:57.160 music and country's most famous stage. The Opery in ducts 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:01.200 certain people as members who are people of influencing country music, 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.760 but usually they're musicians, but Jerry was one of the 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:09.080 rare inductees that wasn't. Members are required to perform at 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.520 the opera a certain amount of times each year, and 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.840 in its history, the Opery has inducted over two five members. 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.400 You guys know Old Brent Reeves. He is Bear Greece's 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:25.800 goodwill ambassador of the South and our chief corn bread contesseur. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.439 He grew up in the heyday of Jerry Clower's career, 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.399 when listening to the Grand Old Opery was one of 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.520 the highlights of the week. And wildly Brent got to 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.719 meet Jerry. Can you imagine a young Brent Reeves meeting 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.520 Jerry Clower? And I had to laugh when I heard 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:49.760 what Jerry called him. We had what was known. I'm 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:51.600 not even sure if he's still there. But there was 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.639 an event center and it was called the Bradley County 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.600 Cultural Center, cultural hub of the universe as far as 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:02.880 far as the cultural love of Bradley cow exactly. And 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:04.960 this is in warn Hearts at War in high school 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.720 and it was on the campus of the high school there, 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.480 and it was an auditorium and for our junior year 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:17.160 fundraiser we got Jerry Clower that booked him to come 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:22.160 and put on the show that would have been about 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:25.879 the peak of his I mean, inside the peak of 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.520 his career. Yeah, And I have no clue what it 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.280 cost us to get him. But when he left, he 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:34.600 handed the check back and said give me back to 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:38.119 the school. He came from his home. He drove up 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.600 there himself in the biggest, longest Cadillac I ever saw 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:45.800 by himself. He had. All he wanted was a place 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:48.960 to change, to change into his that suit that he wore, 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:51.720 that signature. What did it look like? He was red 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.400 red suit. It had on the lapels like on wappel, 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.280 the stitching was white, so it stood out against that. 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:00.960 And he had an embroidered un on the on the 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.600 left lapel. Yep, coon face right there. And I got 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.560 to meet him and he was so nice. Now, how 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.560 did you meet him? Since it was our class and 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:12.680 it was like ten or twelve of us that were 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:14.800 selected to go over and help set everything up and 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:17.600 to be there to help them since it was our project, 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.679 our fundraiser. So I got out of class early that 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:22.840 day to go over there and help him. Plus I 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.120 wanted to meet him. I mean, this is somebody who 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:27.919 I had seen on television and heard these stories. My 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:31.679 uh we had the records old operation. Oh yeah, the 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:34.280 whole the big it was a big deal. And uh 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:37.160