Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story

23. Closing Out a Career

23 Closing Out a Career During the period before the divorce trial Faron appeared in November 1985 at a small nightclub in Frederick, Maryland. Eddie Stubbs, who became a Grand Ole Opry announcer and WSM deejay a decade later, sat at a table directly in front of the stage. “He came out and he opened up with ‘Step Aside,’” Stubbs recalls, “and it just about blew me out of my chair. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. It was absolutely wonderful. . . . There were only twelve people [in the audience], but he entertained and worked as hard as if there’d been twelve hundred or twelve thousand.” Faron had no recording contract, and certainly no current hits, but one must wonder why so few people attended the show. Was it because of Sunday evening, or poor advertising, or a location with- 15 out a fan base? It didn’t matter. “I believe you owe somebody if they pay to come see you” was Faron’s philosophy of entertaining. “They worked at a job somewhere to get that money to see you do your job, and I think you owe them that much.” Although enjoying the entertainment, Stubbs cringed at Faron’s racial jokes and sympathized with steel player Cal Sharp when Faron kept after him to “play it country.” He would say, “That’s not country enough” and make Sharp play it again.1 “Faron used to mess with the band all the time,” Sharp explains. “It was never a set-up thing; he just did it on the spur of the moment. Weird shit would occur to him when he was drinking and he would go with it. He was a spontaneous and witty guy. . . . Racial jokes and fat jokes were part of the show. He was very politically incorrect. But when he was in the mood he would put on a great show, no matter how many people were there.”2 T. G. Sheppard recalls touring with Faron: “I always loved watching him onstage. If somebody in the audience hollered out something, he’d holler right back at them.” Sheppard admired Faron for always having time for those who approached him and wanted to talk. “Faron was not friendly to people because of who they were or what they had,” he continues. “He really appreciated his fans.”3 When Faron played a packed Peterborough, Ontario, ballroom in 1988 he made diehard fans of John Morris and his mother, Gerry, who sat at a table near the dance floor. Faron did a memorable first set, even though his jokes included many ex-wife stories. During intermission, someone offered to introduce Morris, who is blind, to Faron. Morris soon heard a voice behind him: “Hi, I’m Faron Young, and I’m really proud to meet you.” During the second set the Morrises danced to “It’s Four in the Morning .” As they moved in front of Faron the song came to the instrumental break, and Faron called for a second turnaround while he talked to them and then announced, “I’m gonna do this next song for my friend John.” Faron’s attitude impressed the Morrises. “It wasn’t like, oh, I gotta do this; this is part of my job,” Morris recalls. “He was very happy to do it.”4 One way in which fans showed their admiration was by naming children after the singer. Faron Cordrey, born in 1963, owes his name to his grandmother, “a huge fan of Faron Young.” As a child he despised the name because other children called him Fahrenheit or Fairy, and he often wished to be named Mike or John. But he learned to appreciate the name and the value of being different. What started as a curse turned into a blessing as Closing Out a Career live fast, love hard 1 his name led him to be more adventurous in choosing priorities. “Being a Faron,” Cordrey says, “has made me a Faron Young music fan. With an awesome name like Faron, his music had to be great!”5 The name traveled to Great Britain, where the mother of Faron Hartley went into labor at four in the morning on August 27, 1972. The parents couldn’t decide what to call the baby, and the father suggested Faron because “It’s Four in the Morning” was currently popular. “I absolutely hated being called Faron,” Hartley...