Country music royalty visited Ville Platte, Louisiana, July 10, when Sammy Kershaw and Lorrie Morgan passed through town as a stop along his campaign trail. He is running for the office of lieutenant governor for his home state and has been making the rounds. One of our local Rotarians happens to be one of Sammy’s campaign volunteers, and he was able to get the couple to visit the lunch meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. For our small town, that was very big news indeed, and as a reporter for my local paper, I got to cover the meeting and visit with them for a few minutes before and after Sammy’s presentation. As a huge country music fan, that definitely rates as one of the most exciting things I have ever been able to do at work.
Now, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the couple as I had read and heard many things about them over the years, so I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly and personable they both were with everyone. They casually walked around the restaurant introducing themselves to the Rotarians who invited them to the meeting, and I was almost taken aback when they actually sat down and ate with everyone. The restaurant owner dressed up and decorated the place to welcome her special guests. As Sammy is a good ole Cajun boy from Kaplan and Lorrie loves Cajun and spicy food, she put together a fantastic Cajun menu for them to chose from, including gumbo, etoufee and many other staples.
As a general rule, Rotary meetings are not supposed to be political in nature, so Sammy spoke more about his personal and career background. Everyone had a great laugh when he recounted how his producer played him this one song while they were looking for songs for his first album and he thought it was the “biggest piece of crap” he ever heard. Then he sang the opening line to his first huge hit, “Cadillac Style.” Then he talked about the honor and privilege of performing with the legends of country music, such as George Jones and Loretta Lynn. He shared the story of when he was asked to participate in a tribute album to George Jones. He recalled he already had a song picked out, but the label told him they had another one in mind. Sammy then sang the opening line to “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” and he said he told his label, “Are you kidding me? That’s career suicide!” He also shared several other anecdotes about his career, which everyone enjoyed hearing.
Sammy did briefly touch on his campaign goals, emphasizing his love for his home state and how he wanted to help improve the quality of life in Louisiana. He proclaimed, “I am sad to see Louisiana in the state it is in,” and that one of his goals as lieutenant governor is to make the entertainment industry in Louisiana a viable, permanent industry for the state. Sammy noted the state has missed many opportunities in this area in the past, and asserted the entire state should be promoted, not just certain big cities like New Orleans. He urged citizens to demand strong leaders and a clean government and to settle for nothing short of a new life. He also encouraged citizens to make their leaders accountable and know who they are representing.
After touching on his campaign, Kershaw focused the rest of his talk on his childhood growing up in Kaplan, his love for his family and the long road he traveled to becoming a “21-year overnight success in the music business.” He said he made a promise to himself that if he made it, he would never forget his hometown and would promote Louisiana every chance he got. He said through his success, he has been able to touch many lives, and he has been welcomed into many small communities like Ville Platte across the country. His success has also allowed him to effect change in Louisiana, and he has established the Sammy Kershaw Foundation, which benefits his hometown. He said at the beginning of his career, he vowed to care for those who worked for him and their families, a promise he keeps to this day. He also said God has been good to him and has blessed him with a great wife, great kids and great grandkids.
During a question and answer session following his speech, Sammy was asked what his wife thought of him running for office, and he admitted she was a bit leery at first. However, he said she knew how passionate he was about his home state, and once she saw how serious he was about it and that this opportunity would be a dream come true for him, she jumped right on board with him and became very supportive.
Once Sammy completed answering questions from the crowd, the Rotarians presented the couple with a gift to thank them for attending the meeting. When Lorrie saw the basket of Cajun seasonings and sauces, she cracked with a laugh, “That will get used, believe me.”
After the meeting, Sammy and Lorrie graciously hung around for a while and signed many autographs and posed for photos with everyone. I took the photos I needed for the paper, and of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take my picture with them before they left. I brought along my prized copy of “Finding Her Voice, the History of Women in Country Music” for Lorrie to sign. Good move on my part. Lorrie asked me what I was holding, and when I showed her, she thought that was the coolest thing and thumbed through it. I told her I was a huge country music fan and had many other artists sign the book over the years, to which she replied, “That’s awesome!” Of course, she and Sammy both graciously signed the book (next to her picture and article) and posed for a couple of photos with me after that. I even got an autograph for my father-in-law who is a big fan of both - Huge brownie points for me!
I have to commend Lorrie for being a good sport that day, playing along with all of the guys who were dressed to the nines and shamelessly flirting with her in front of Sammy and their wives.
After the meeting, Sammy and Lorrie remained in Ville Platte for a town hall meeting later that afternoon at the civic center, where he discussed the issues and his campaign platform. They also stopped by the paper’s office to say hello.
Now, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the couple as I had read and heard many things about them over the years, so I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly and personable they both were with everyone. They casually walked around the restaurant introducing themselves to the Rotarians who invited them to the meeting, and I was almost taken aback when they actually sat down and ate with everyone. The restaurant owner dressed up and decorated the place to welcome her special guests. As Sammy is a good ole Cajun boy from Kaplan and Lorrie loves Cajun and spicy food, she put together a fantastic Cajun menu for them to chose from, including gumbo, etoufee and many other staples.
As a general rule, Rotary meetings are not supposed to be political in nature, so Sammy spoke more about his personal and career background. Everyone had a great laugh when he recounted how his producer played him this one song while they were looking for songs for his first album and he thought it was the “biggest piece of crap” he ever heard. Then he sang the opening line to his first huge hit, “Cadillac Style.” Then he talked about the honor and privilege of performing with the legends of country music, such as George Jones and Loretta Lynn. He shared the story of when he was asked to participate in a tribute album to George Jones. He recalled he already had a song picked out, but the label told him they had another one in mind. Sammy then sang the opening line to “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” and he said he told his label, “Are you kidding me? That’s career suicide!” He also shared several other anecdotes about his career, which everyone enjoyed hearing.
Sammy did briefly touch on his campaign goals, emphasizing his love for his home state and how he wanted to help improve the quality of life in Louisiana. He proclaimed, “I am sad to see Louisiana in the state it is in,” and that one of his goals as lieutenant governor is to make the entertainment industry in Louisiana a viable, permanent industry for the state. Sammy noted the state has missed many opportunities in this area in the past, and asserted the entire state should be promoted, not just certain big cities like New Orleans. He urged citizens to demand strong leaders and a clean government and to settle for nothing short of a new life. He also encouraged citizens to make their leaders accountable and know who they are representing.
After touching on his campaign, Kershaw focused the rest of his talk on his childhood growing up in Kaplan, his love for his family and the long road he traveled to becoming a “21-year overnight success in the music business.” He said he made a promise to himself that if he made it, he would never forget his hometown and would promote Louisiana every chance he got. He said through his success, he has been able to touch many lives, and he has been welcomed into many small communities like Ville Platte across the country. His success has also allowed him to effect change in Louisiana, and he has established the Sammy Kershaw Foundation, which benefits his hometown. He said at the beginning of his career, he vowed to care for those who worked for him and their families, a promise he keeps to this day. He also said God has been good to him and has blessed him with a great wife, great kids and great grandkids.
During a question and answer session following his speech, Sammy was asked what his wife thought of him running for office, and he admitted she was a bit leery at first. However, he said she knew how passionate he was about his home state, and once she saw how serious he was about it and that this opportunity would be a dream come true for him, she jumped right on board with him and became very supportive.
Once Sammy completed answering questions from the crowd, the Rotarians presented the couple with a gift to thank them for attending the meeting. When Lorrie saw the basket of Cajun seasonings and sauces, she cracked with a laugh, “That will get used, believe me.”
After the meeting, Sammy and Lorrie graciously hung around for a while and signed many autographs and posed for photos with everyone. I took the photos I needed for the paper, and of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take my picture with them before they left. I brought along my prized copy of “Finding Her Voice, the History of Women in Country Music” for Lorrie to sign. Good move on my part. Lorrie asked me what I was holding, and when I showed her, she thought that was the coolest thing and thumbed through it. I told her I was a huge country music fan and had many other artists sign the book over the years, to which she replied, “That’s awesome!” Of course, she and Sammy both graciously signed the book (next to her picture and article) and posed for a couple of photos with me after that. I even got an autograph for my father-in-law who is a big fan of both - Huge brownie points for me!
I have to commend Lorrie for being a good sport that day, playing along with all of the guys who were dressed to the nines and shamelessly flirting with her in front of Sammy and their wives.
After the meeting, Sammy and Lorrie remained in Ville Platte for a town hall meeting later that afternoon at the civic center, where he discussed the issues and his campaign platform. They also stopped by the paper’s office to say hello.
That was such a fun day for me, because as you can imagine, we don’t get many celebrities stopping through our small town, much less two at the same time. And I guess my article for the paper could technically count as my first official published country music article. It’s not often I get to write anything remotely related to country music for work, so that was really exciting for me.
1 comments:
WOW! What an awesome write-up. It felt as if I was right there among ya'll.
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