In It for the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey

Life after Forerunner

280 THE LONG RUN and they wanted to show him how much he meant to them. In spite of everythingJohnandhisfanswoundup“sittin’onarainbow.”Itwasgood to be alive. LIFE AFTER FORERUNNER Happy as I was to have successfully completed In Spite of Ourselves, this was a bittersweet time for me. Once we made our decision to sell Forerunner , the hard work started. From the time we made the decision until we completed the sale, it took us eighteen months. As it turned out, if we’d waited another year or even six months, that door would have closed, and we would have been stuck. The business was changing that fast. It was difficult. We had a staff to tell that they were going to lose their jobs. They genuinely loved their work, so it wasn’t just about how manymonthstheywouldcontinueonorwhattheseverancetermswere. We also met with every writer individually and went over our reasons for selling, so that they would be absolutely clear about why we felt we had to do this. In spite of all the emotional upheaval, however, I still had no doubt in my mind that we were right in our judgment. I didn’t know then how right we were. When you sell a publishing company, the buyer comes in and does what they call “due diligence.” They look at your books, all of your contracts for all of your songs, looking for anything that might be out of line. Now we did everything we could to insure that the sale would go smoothlyasfarasallthepaperworkwasconcerned.Wehadabout2,500 songs! With so many split copyrights because of multiple writers and publishers on a single song, there were bound to be mistakes, and Terrell and our living saint of a secretary, Mary Todd, did their best to find and correct them, and then we hired an outside accounting firm to take a second look. Only then, after more than a year, did we engage Mike Milom, one of Nashville’s most respected music attorneys, to bring the company to market. Pat Higdon at Universal Music expressed an interest early on. They alreadyhadabsorbedsomeofHalKetchum’sandPatAlger’ssongs,and theyalsohadtheoldJackMusiccatalogue,sowedecidedtoselltothem. ThetimeTerrellhadtakentogetourbooksinorderturnedouttobetime 281 LifeafterForerunner wellspent,becausewhenthelawyersandaccountantsfromUniversalin Los Angeles came in, they were finished within three weeks. They told Terrell that they hadn’t found as clean a catalogue in years. Although Terrell hadn’t wanted to sell the company, it was her thoroughness as an administrator that made it possible in the end. She could be proud of the job that she had done. Looking back, all of us were proud of what we had accomplished. From the beginning we had remained steadfast in our belief that an intimate, independent, and creative atmosphere would enable writers to fully express themselves and to bring into the world songs that would become part of the fabric of literally millions of people’s lives. We had set our own standards and done business on our ownterms.Whenweunderstoodthattheforcesofthedigitalrevolution were irresistible, we chose to capitalize on the success of the company rather than watch its value steadily diminish. We wanted Forerunner to go out on a high, and we had achieved that. TherewasdefinitelygoingtobelifeafterForerunnerforme.Ikeptmy office in the basement of Jack’s Tracks, so I still had a base of operations inNashville.However,Irealizedthatwiththepublishingcompanygone and with me spending more time in Vermont and Ireland, there was a dangerthatIwouldlosetouchwithmymusicalcommunityinNashville if I didn’t structure something. I booked a gig at the Station Inn and called up a bunch of my favorite pickers. Pat McLaughlin, Pat Alger, Pat McInerney (the “Pat Trick”), Stuart Duncan, Jelly Roll Johnson, Richard Bailey, Dan Dugmore, and Gene Libbea all showed up. There was no rehearsal! We all knew lots of songs between us. I knew what I’d start with and what I’d finish with; the middle was up for grabs. Later, Gene LibbeamovedtoColoradoandDavePomeroysteppedinonbass.Shawn Camp, Pete Wasner, and Bill Kenner joined in. After each gig I’d book another one two or three months later. One morning after one of these gigs I was flying somewhere. I was dozing, and an image of the band on stagecameintomymind—PatMcLaughlinhunchedoverhisguitar,Big Bill Kenner towering over his little mandolin, Jelly Roll Johnson’s bald headcrowninghisharmonica.Theword“Irregular”cameintomymind. Icameto,anditwasclear—“Rooney’sIrregulars.”We’vebeengoingsince 1999, with no end in sight. Still no rehearsals! The band did just what I hoped it would. It kept me close to those in Nashville I loved most. I didn’t miss the business a bit, but I would have missed them terribly. [18.116.239...