Aww, that's nice of ya Dane to take up for me.
Oh Lynard, if I were to tell all my stories you'd think I was nuts. Way beyond what you think already...so who cares?
My uncle Robert started out playing fiddle with George Jones locally in Vidor TX with my grandpa, Willy on lead guitar. Uncle Robert left town to go play with Web Pierce in 1953 and they had 13 #1 hits in a row. That's still a record, btw. George has helped out a few local boys (Mark Chestnut, Tracy Byrd) and I could have done that IF I wanted to make it in C&W.
I tried it out in 1980 and it would have been easy to get in on "new country" back then. Ever heard of Buck Trent? Played in a country band for a year that opened for him, and we also backed him up. Though I had never played country before or since, they hired me and brought in a couple of guys from Bob Wills band to teach me how to play Texas swing. Heck, I could not follow those guys on a simple 3 chord progression, they were so freakishly good.
Ever tried to play Texas swing, Lynard? When you can, we'll let you say you're a man.
But it was driving me crazy and I was losing my self-respect as a rock guitarist so I hitchhiked home from a gig in Jena LA, then moved to Dallas in '81
.