'The Night Red Foley Passed Away' By Luke The Drifter, Jr.

September 19, 1968 was going to be one special night in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Three of the biggest star's in Country Music would take the stage for an evening of the greatest country music of the time! Billy Walker, Red Foley and a nineteen year old Hank Williams, Jr.

But as fate would have it, that night would be memorable for a whole different reason, a sad and tragic reason.

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According to information on Wikipedia, before the second show, according to Walker, Foley came to his dressing room and Walker shared his faith in Christ Foley said, "Do you think God could ever forgive a sinner like me?" He began to tell me all the rotten things he had done in his life, and I looked him in the face and said, "Red, if God can forgive me, He can forgive you." I prayed with Red. He went out, and the last song he sang was "Peace in the Valley." He came over to side of the stage and said, 'Billy, I've never sung that song and feel the way I do tonight.' Foley suffered respiratory failure that night and died in his sleep, prompting Hank Williams, Jr. to write and record (as Luke The Drifter Jr.) I Was With Red Foley (The Night He Passed Away). According to the song, which charted that November, his last words were, "I'm awful tired now, Hank. I've got to go to bed."

The Blue Lick, Kentucky native and Country Music Hall of Famer was just 58 years old.

And here's that song, the one where Hank Williams Jr....oops, I mean Luke The Drifter, Jr...immortalized that sad and fateful night.