Sometimes people are able to achieve great things, even though they come from humble beginnings. That was the case with a group of four young men, who just so happened to meet Johnny Cash in 1963.
Johnny Cash was at the peak of his popularity at the time and his song, Ring of Fire was at the top of the charts. When he met these men, who call themselves the Statler Brothers, he immediately hired them on a handshake and toured with them for almost 10 years.
This was something that deeply affected the members of the Statler Brothers. In fact, they wrote the song, “We Got Paid by Cash” from the experiences they had during that time.
It was in 1963 when those four boys, Don and Harold Reid, Phil Balsley and Lew DeWitt were on a tour and were looking for a new name for their band. They had earlier been called the Kingsmen, but there was another popular group by that name, and they wanted to separate from them.
Don said that he was looking around the room and saw a box of tissues that was made by the Statler brand. He suggested it and the name has been there is ever since.
On that same year, they were playing at the Roanoke Fair in Salem, Virginia when Johnny Cash took notice of them. They have a unique blend of music that brings country music into gospel.
In 1965, they wrote the song Flowers on the Wall, and that became popular in both the country and pop music charts. They were even able to beat out the Beatles ‘Help’ and Stop in the Name of Love by the Supremes. They also won a Grammy award, and would eventually go on to win another.
In 1994, they saw another increase in their popularity after the film, Pulp Fiction was released. Bruce Willis is sitting in his car and listening to that song right before he ran over Samuel L Jackson.
Since it was included on the soundtrack, more than a million copies were sold and they gained a lot of new fans.
They were also very happy that they had Johnny Cash helping them. The years that they spent with him was an education in the music business and they learned what to do and what not to do.
They would go on to release 40 albums and earned a number of nominations and awards, including being named nine times as the Country Music Association’s Vocal Group of the Year.
They had a variety show on the Nashville network from 1991 until 1998. They released a song during that time called More Than a Name on the Wall, and people absolutely ate it up.
Jimmy Fortune, who came into the group to replace DeWit wrote the song. It is the story of the Vietnam Memorial, which contains 58,381 names of fallen soldiers.
“You look at it. You look at each one of those lines from a distance, you look at it and see those lines stacked on top of each other, and they seem like they go on forever, and forever, and forever,” he said of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. “I realized that was a mother’s child. That was someone’s husband. Just all the stories and all the memories of that child…It just hit me that they are more than a name on a wall. It was just such a profound statement. I made a mental note. I’ve got a write that.”
I think that many people have at least one memory of the Statler Brothers and many of us have more than one memory. It’s nice to look back on these things and enjoy them.