In 1979 I had the opportunity to interview Ronnie Milsap.  What makes it so amazing is: Ronnie Milsap was among the biggest country music star's in the world.  And I was working for KKAA in Aberdeen, S.D.  By then he had already topped the charts a dozen times (he would go on to have 40 #1 hits) with songs like 'Pure Love', 'What A Difference You Made In My Life', 'Daydreams About Night Things' and 'It Was Almost Like A Song'.

So why would one of the biggest star's in country music doing an interview with a young radio guy from Northeast South Dakota?  Was he coming to the area somewhere and need the publicity for ticket sales?

No.  That's right, Ronnie Milsap was not coming to the area, he didn't have a new single or album to promote (heck, he was probably already at #1 with 'Nobody Likes Sad Songs' or 'Back On My Mind Again').  So why the time for an interview?

Because I asked him.

Seriously, it was simple as that.  We were a country music station at KKAA in those days and i wanted to put together a 2-hour radio special on Ronnie, featuring all his big hits and intersperse the show with our interview, have him talk about his life and about the great songs.

So he did.

I don't remember the exact sequence of things, but I probably called his 'people', who called me back and said 'Sure, Ronnie would love to do that, how much time do you need?'  As I recall, i recorded about a half hour or so with Ronnie, talking about everything about his youth in an orphanage to his love of the blues to his move into country music to his rise to superstardom.  'Was that OK'? he asked me at the end of our chat.

'Uh....yeah, that was OK'.

Back 'in those days' I talked with most of the big stars of the day, and often it wasn't because they had something to promote, they weren't coming to town....but they did it anyway because they appreciated that radio stations (and fans) wanted to hear what they had to say and it gave them an opportunity to say 'Thank You'.  If I picked up the phone today and asked to do a half hour interview with whoever are the biggest star's today, I wonder how many I could get?  Times are different now.

But Ronnie isn't.  Let's sit down for a few minutes and listen to the newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Mr. Ronnie Milsap, one of the good guys.

 

 

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