A Legend…My Dad
You can never prepare for something tragic to happen. Never. Even if you have an idea that an event will take place soon or, possibly not, you still will want more time to prepare.
On Tuesday May 21, 2019 at 8:19pm I received a text from my mom Cathy saying “Call me ASAP” after trying to call twice before, which I declined, as I was laying down with my son Jackson trying to get him to sleep. “Jacksons asleep. What’s up” was the text I sent back. She immediately called and I answered. She told me that they were taking my dad to the hospital and that he was unresponsive. My dad would have been 66 only nine short days later on May 30th. Rock…meet bottom.
Jackson, Allison and I were just FaceTiming with them a few hours before at 6pm…what the hell happened to my dad in that period of time. Mom told me that he had been feeling sick for the past few days, but nothing serious and that he didn’t want to go to the doctor. I was absolutely shocked and had no idea, we literally talked almost every morning on my hour and a half commute.
I ran downstairs, told my wife what was going on and before I could even get my full sentence out, she was booking me a flight. I called my mom as soon as I got in the car and headed to the airport. He passed before I even got there. When I arrived to Nashville my mom was still in the room with him; she had been with him this whole time. My heart broke and so did I.
My dad was and will always be one of the most important and influential figures in my life and also my best friend. A lot of people know him best for the songs he wrote. “If Your Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)” which was #1 on country music’s Billboard for both US and Canada. Throughout his songwriting career, he managed to receive greater than 30 multiplatinum, platinum, and gold records as well as a recent four million airplay award for his number one hit as well as other popular songs such as, “Rodeo Romeo,” “Only If There is Another You,” “Sometimes the Rain Won’t Let Me Sleep,” “Louisiana Moon,” and many more. Most recently, dad was inducted into the North American Country Music Associations International Hall of Fame on March 16, 2019 for his legendary contribution to country music. But I remember him taking me fishing in Lake Erie, listening to The Doobie Brothers albums on the way to Nashville from Coshocton in our blue 1982 Fleetwood Cadillac, seeing him hold his grandson for the first time and lighting up every time he was around, and for all of the songs we wrote and sang together.
My point in writing this blog is for one reason. Take time and tell the people in your life that you love them, even if you know they know it, tell them anyway. Even if you told them yesterday, tell them again. When someone says “lets go here” or “lets do this” don’t say we’ll do it later, say “yes” and “lets do it now!” You never know when that person wont be here anymore.
As of now there is a lot of things to go through, but one of the most important things to do is go through his songs, poems and even children books that he wrote. With the help of some friends in Nashville, I will be releasing all of these things in his name. It’s important for me the help him get his last work out there. If you would like to be notified, please fill out the contact form below.
Dad,
“I love you more no recalls. Your my hero.”
-Jas
