Singer’s Story

By: David Divers
(© 2008-2009 by the author)
Edited by: Madison Cole

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 5
A Big Step Forward

After we relaxed and cooled down some, Chris and I threw on some clothes and got out our guitars and wound up playing until after three in the morning. Although we didn’t know all the words to each other’s personal songs, we both were skilled at playing by ear. After a few bars we could follow almost everything the other could play. So, we rehearsed my song, “Ripples,” and then some other gospel classics in case we got to sing while doing the interview.

Both of us were trained to sing harmony as well as lead, and we could switch leads in the middle of a song. Our harmony really was as tight as those old Everly Brothers recordings were. You couldn’t tell which voice was singing the lead part unless you watched us. Chris played rhythm guitar and I picked out the lead on my acoustic.

That night we slept in separate bedrooms just for propriety's sake and, after a lingering breakfast, we crossed the bridge for the interview in Ocean Springs.

Chris had told me that right out of high school he had worked at this same radio station as a disc jockey/janitor/gofer before he got his big break. He was one of the first generation to join our record label and had been their top earner ever since. He had originally been part of a local Biloxi gospel group and his solo voice was discovered by the same man who had discovered my family. It would be like old home week when Chris interviewed. We walked into the building and he asked the receptionist if the boss was in … “Tell him Chris is here!”

The receptionist crossed the lobby to a private office and right away the boss came walking out, wrapped Chris up in a big bear hug, and began shaking his hand excitedly. The boss said, “It has been a long time since you were on the coast, Chris. We have been advertising your homecoming show for almost a month now. It’s too bad you don’t get back home here more often. All we get to hear are all those hits you keep pumping out.” With that, the boss turned in my direction and asked, “And who is this young man with you?”

Chris said, “This kid is Billy Ray Stone, and he’s going to be one of the biggest stars in gospel music one of these days. He is part of Stone Family—the one who sings ‘Ripples.’”

Immediately the owner began pumping my hand also and telling me how great my song was. As he kept on shaking my hand, he asked if I wanted to sit in on the interview with Chris. He said, “Y’all can do a half an hour if you want to.”

Of course we had brought our guitars with us, so Chris sent me out to the car to get them. By the time I returned, Chris was helping the station hands rearrange the main studio so it could accommodate both of us on stools side by side. Chris told me to give him my interview question list and he would personally interview me on the air. He said they were going to record it live and would play advertising excerpts from it several times that day before the show.

The owner served as the announcer for the interview. He talked first with Chris about the show and then we played one of Chris’s hit songs with me playing lead guitar. Chris then introduced me by asking, “I bet you can’t guess who it was that was playing that fine lead guitar, can you? It was none other than my new friend, Billy Ray Stone of the Stone Family.”

Chris went on the say that my family and I were one of the featured bands on his homecoming show at the convention center. Then he asked me most of the questions that were on my list. Naturally I plugged both my family’s recordings and the show as well. Chris then prompted me to sing “Ripples,” while he sang harmony and played guitar. Not to brag or anything, but the performance really was a knockout. It was so beautiful that the owner kept us on the air chatting and singing for almost a full hour. With the owner’s encouragement, every time there was a pause for a commercial, we would figure out another song that we both knew and could play live. At the conclusion of the interview, the owner walked us out to the car and said that if the family ever broke up, Chris and I could have the greatest duo career in the history of any style of music, bar none. He hugged us both and said that we had a standing invitation to perform at the station anytime we were in town.

As we crossed the bridge heading towards the convention center complex, we stopped for a minute to look at the beautiful Biloxi harbor and the shrimp boats. Then we headed on down Highway 90 to the Coast Coliseum and Convention Center Complex.

We arrived just as the buses were pulling in along with the semi-truck that hauled our sound system and lighting. When we tried to enter the center, the manager stopped us and said that the ticket sales were moving so strong that he and the promoter had decided to shift the show over to the adjacent coliseum. The manager already had crews hanging lights, speakers, and side curtains. As we were talking, we could see a line of people already standing at the box office to buy tickets and more cars still streaming into the parking lot. I said to Chris, “I guess our little interview got some attention, huh?”

As my family’s bus pulled into the bus security compound, I could see my Daddy smiling broadly from the driver’s seat. The minute his feet hit the ground, he swooped me up into a big hug and pounded my back with his hand. Daddy said happily that they had heard the whole radio show and it had sounded wonderful. He said he wished that he had recorded it on a CD so that he could play it back for the record label. I told him that the owner of the station had recorded the whole thing and he was going to play parts of it all day to promote the show. Daddy said, still grinning, “If that is how we have to sell out a show, maybe we will have to send you and Chris out more often.”

I smiled to myself, “I would be in hog heaven if that happens.”

I helped Daddy park and hook up the power and sewer to the bus and then went inside to talk to my Mamma and the rest of family for awhile. Daddy came in and said, “I’m going to call over there to the station and request a copy of that program because the family holds the copyright to some of the material that was broadcast. Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest so that you will be fresh for the show tonight, son?”

To tell the truth, my mind was on other things rather than chatting with my Mamma and them. So, as Daddy told me to, I took a shower and then went to my bunk and lay down. As usual, my emotions were conflicted ... I had feelings of guilt and remorse on the one hand, while at the same time I reveled in the memories of last night and this morning with Chris. In one way, I felt like a conquering hero because of the success of our radio interview and, at the same time, like the wretch that we sing about in the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” God had built me up to an incredible high and then I rolled around in the mud like a rutting hog ... or the other way around. No matter, I still savored the moments that Chris and I had been together.

Around four in the afternoon Chris came to the bus and asked Daddy if I could possibly do a guest appearance on his part of the show. He said that the radio station owner had called him and announced that he was going to personally emcee the show. The owner specifically asked if Chris and I would do some of the duets that we had performed on the radio that morning. The owner said the phone at the radio station was ringing off the wall wanting to know if we were going to sing together that night at the show. He was also going to bring several copies of the CD that he had recorded at the station.

Daddy gave his eager approval and Chris asked me if I could come over to the back stage area and run over a few things with his band. He turned and started to walk back towards the coliseum. I grabbed my acoustic and ran to catch up with him. Even though we seemed to be contemporaries in many ways, Chris was fast becoming my idol. What I was feeling probably wasn’t quite love, but it was at the very least a strong case of “heat.” As we walked along, Chris and I quietly chatted about our night together and the interview earlier. What was so attractive about Chris to me was that he treated me like an equal instead of a fifteen year old boy. In some ways, too, Chris seemed to be about my age ... I guess that is why we clicked as well as we did.

Ever since my voice fully developed, people sometimes seemed to treat me like a little boy playing an adult role—sort of like I was an actor just mouthing the words that somebody else wrote. I wasn’t! My Daddy knew me to a “T"—after all, he trained me. Every song Daddy wrote for me was tailored to my vocal and emotional range and abilities. Sometimes he did make me stretch a little bit, but that was what made me grow as a performer. Chris sang with the same expressive kind of style. That is why in the opinion of many folks Chris was the best of the tenors in gospel music.

Chris and I moved around a couple of stools while the other musicians adjusted and got comfortable. Then we jammed for a little while and finally picked out two songs to focus on. We couldn’t do the songs from either his or the Stone Family shows because that was part of our individually scheduled acts. Chris and I ultimately settled on some of the classic tunes we thought would go over well with the audience.

After I went back to the bus and got my stage clothes, I went over to the dressing rooms backstage at the coliseum. Promoters always set out buffet meals of some kind for the performers, so I fixed myself a plate and sat alone to eat. I then changed into my stage outfit and went to the wings of the stage so I could watch the two opening acts perform. The first act that went on was the quartet that Chris had first played with there in Biloxi. After they sang their first two numbers, Chris joined them to do two more songs. Then a trio came on and sang and played for the next half hour. Finally, it was time for Chris’s solo act. When he strode onstage, the crowd went wild ... it was truly a case of the local boy making good. Chris sang for about 45 minutes and then he turned towards where I was standing in the wings and introduced me.

When I walked out onto the stage, the young people in the audience screamed and cheered. Many shouted right away for my song, “Ripples.” Some people hadn’t realized how young I really was until they saw me on the stage. I was newly tall—I had been very gangly until I was fourteen, and then my body finally grew to fit my long legs. I had at last filled out and was now almost six feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds. My dark Welsh-Irish complexion and coal black hair and eyes made a startling contrast to Chris’s fair complexion. A stage hand brought out two stools and discretely set up the mikes for us. Chris and I quickly checked our guitar tuning and, with a nod from Chris, the steel guitar kicked off our first duet. We began with one of the gospel classics that we had performed on the radio that day. The number brought down the house—so much so that it was difficult to get started on the second song because of the continuing applause and cheering. Chris and I finally launched into the second song with the same result at the end, except now the girls were screaming as if we were Elvis or the Beatles or something.

Posted: 07/10/09