From :
Robert Nix
Sent :
Saturday, July 8, 2006 7:07 PM
To : Robert Register

Subject :
A GREAT LADY

THIS MORNING A BEAUTIFUL, GRACIOUS, AND KIND LADY PASSED ON. DAWN BAILEY, WIFE AND SOULMATE OF BARRY BAILEY SUCCUMBED TO CANCER. EVERYONE PLEASE PRAY FOR BARRY TO HAVE STRENGTH AND THE KNOWLEDGE THAT DAWN IS WITH OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN WHERE WE WILL ALL SEE EACH OTHER SOMEDAY. I CAN STILL SEE BARRY AND DAWN KNEELING AT THE ALTER AT THEIR WEDDING. THEY SHARED A WONDERFUL LIFE TOGETHER WHICH IS GOD'S WISH. IT'S ALSO GOD'S WISH THAT WE ALL UNDERSTAND HIS WILL. PEACE BE WITH YOU BARRY, DAWN IS WAITING FOR YOU IN A MUCH BETTER PLACE.
YOUR FRIEND,
ROBERT NIX................
Visit Alison online!http://www.alisonheafner.biz


To:
"robert register"
From:
Buddy Buie
Subject:
Barry
Date:
Sun, 9 Jul 2006 06:51:53 -0500

RR,
I talked to Barry yesterday and he was doing ok considering the
circumstance.
The memorial service will be held Tuesday at Meadows Funeral Home in
Monroe Ga.
Visitation is at three o'clock and the service is at 4:00.

Buddy



From: "Robert Nix"
To:Robert Register
Subject: Fw: CMT OUTLAWS.....
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:50:24 -0500
ROBERTO,
OUR OWN JIMMY HALL WAS THE MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR THE CMT SPECIAL 'THE OUTLAWS' . CHECK HIM OUT. GET READY WORLD FOR 'DEEP SOUTH' AND ALISON HEAFNER!

I REMEMBER THE ORBISON/ SMALL FACES TOUR! RODNEY AND STEVE MARRIOTT TRADED A WHOLE LOT OF STAGE MOVES. RODNEY MAJORLY INFLUENCED STEVIE AND STEVIE DID THE SAME FOR ROCKER! I WATCHED BOTH OF THEM FOR YEARS DOING THE SAME SHIT ON STAGE. GREAT STUFF! TELL BUIE I MISSED HIS E-MAILS SOMEHOW. I WAS IN MEMPHIS FOR THE 4TH AND THEY GOT DELETED. PLEASE RE-SEND THEM.
THANKS,
ROBERT NIX AND ALISON HEAFNER.............

From: Jimmy Hall...................................
To: Robert Nix
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: CMT OUTLAWS.....
Yep cowboy, I was the MUSICAL DIRECTOR of the show too !!!

Robert Nix wrote:
JIMMY,
DID I SEE YOU ON CMT OUTLAWS LAST NIGHT PLAYING WITH BIG 'N' RICH? WHEN WAS THIS DONE? YOU LOOKED GREAT!
ROBERT NIX..................
Visit Alison online!http://www.alisonheafner.biz/

The July 7, 2006 Paul Finebaum Interview with BUDDY BUIE http://www.finebaum.com

Paul: And we bid you hello. As we set off for the weekend on a holiday week and what better way to kick back. If you're heading to the lake, coming back from the lake or to the beach or just chilling out on this afternoon talking to one of our favorite guests. We had him on a couple of months ago. Didn't have enough time. We said we'd get him back and he is here. Buddy Buie, the famed songwriter and producer trecked up here from the Dothan area.

Buddy: Eufaula

Paul: Excuse me, Eufaula area. The Dothan area going a little deeper into...
How far is Dothan from Eufaula?

Buddy: Dothan is about 50 miles south of Eufaula.

Paul: O.K. Well, you didn't have to go to Dothan then to get here.
[Laughter]

Buddy: But I was born and grew up in Dothan.

Paul: Something tells me you're near the lake.

Buddy: Yeah, I'm on the lake.
[laughter]

Paul: I had a guess!
Well, Buddy, of course, has a storied career and you grew up in Dothan.

Buddy: Yes.

Paul: I'll get that right eventually.
We hung around a couple of hours a few months ago talking about some of the great classics and you have a new release, which we will get to later on, entitled THE DAY BEAR DIED.
There's so much to talk about and I know we'll have a lot of phone calls as well. We're glad you're back.

Buddy: It's good to be back. It really is. I really enjoyed being here last time and brings back a lot of old memories coming back to Birmingham. We used to come to Birmingham so much. Made the first record I ever made in my life here in this town.

Paul: I didn't know that.

Buddy: Yeah. Heart Recording Studios. It was over a blood bank downtown.

Paul: What was that?

Buddy: It was just a little recording studio owned by a guy named Ken Shackleford and Bobby Goldsboro and all us came up from Dothan and made the first recording we ever made. You know, just a little band out of Dothan. Coming up here, being so excited about actually cutting a record. Nothing we cut there ever did anything but at least it was the first exposure we had to the recording industry so Birmingham is kind of near and dear to my heart.

Paul: Now you grew up with Bobby Goldsboro. Which one of you started in music first?

Buddy: Hmm, I think pretty much, probably simultaneously, I mean, we were in high school and we both liked the music. He played guitar and had a little band and I was a big music fan and so we kind of started our careers together.

Paul: You've had so many hits. We were chatting off the air with one of our younger guys, trying to see if we could connect the dots between your big hits and today and one of your songs which made the charts with two different groups. Made the charts with the Atlanta Rhythm Section in 1979 but it first hit the charts, got all the way up to I think #3 in '68 with The Classics IV. People will recognize this one.

Buddy: Yeah.

[SPOOKY plays]

Paul: When this song came out in the late Sixties, obviously Buddy, you did it again with ARS about 11 years later, was it much different in terms of the arrangement?

Buddy: Actually, not a whole lot of difference. Main difference was it was a guitar solo instead of a saxophone solo. You know we had one more. We had a #1 jazz record with David Sanborn.

Paul: I didn't know that.

Buddy: Yeap,we did. That was only about five years ago. It was a #1 jazz record released around Halloween, of course.

[cell phone rings loudly]

Buddy: My goodness! I forgot to turn my phone off!

Paul: That's the loudest phone I've ever heard!

[laughter]

Paul: I thought that was a new solo on SPOOKY or something!

[laughter]

Buddy: I am sorry.

Paul: It's Billboard saying you're back on the charts!
While waiting to hear......

Buddy: No I was turning it off!
I don't know who that was but I turned it off.

Paul: Wow!
It's interesting because songs like yours and we'll obviously go through the charts as we move thoughout the program and somebody out there has a special one they'd like to hear before we get it, go right ahead but they're timeless. Just a few minutes ago, we have a couple of music staitions here, I heard SPOOKY. I think it the ARS version, not that I could tell. Last night I'm driving home flipping around. TRACES. I mean you just don't have to look very hard to find your music.

Buddy: Well, those songs, that's one thing we're proud of is ,you know, like Spooky was written in 1967 so, God, that's almost 40 years. Lacking one year. Right?

Paul: Pretty close.

Buddy: That's scary. I started real young.

Paul: How old were you when you penned your first song?

Buddy: Actually, the first song I wrote about my wife, Gloria, and it was a song called IT SEEM SO STRANGE. It's never been released. Nobody's ever heard it.

Paul: In the vault.

Buddy: It's in the vault.

Paul: There's a reason you haven't come out with it!

Buddy: Exactly!

Paul: Is there something in there maybe that's not...

Buddy: No not really.

[laughter]

Paul: She's blushing by the way!

Buddy: I wrote songs in secret for a couple of years.

Paul: In secret.

Buddy: Yeah, because of the fact that,yeah, you just don't wake up one day and tell your buddies,"Hey, I'm a songwriter!"

Paul: No.

Buddy: I mean, they look at you eschew like, "Lord, you are what?!!!!"

"I'm a songwriter."

[laughter]

Paul: Right in the middle of football practice, you're in the huddle...

Buddy: Exactly! It's kinda....
So I wrote and would keep 'em to myself. Finally a boy by the name of John Rainey Adkins in Dothan. He and I started talking about songs and he played guitar and he took me seriously and we started writing songs so...

Paul: Who influenced you during that time?

Buddy: Well,of course, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, all the ones you would probably think of, oh, Roy Orbison. Fortunately I had a long....
I worked with him a long time but before I knew him, I was...

Paul: You got out of high school what year?

Buddy: '59.

Paul: As Elvis was really firing up the charts.

Buddy: He'd already in '55, '56, '57.
'57 was a big year.

Paul: So you got to high school about the time Elvis was ...

Buddy: Exactly.

Paul: Knocking 'em dead!

[Laughter]

I could see how he could be an influence!

Buddy: Yeah I wore pink and black. Back then, guys would come to school with pink shirts, black pants and a little white belt- little thin white belt and that was an Elvis fan.

Paul: We all know and I grew up in the same town that he was in and it's hard to get away from Elvis Presley but how important was that sphere to young people?

Buddy: It was The Holy Grail. It was...
I mean Elvis Presley impacted my life and I suppose everybody, most everyone, like my class in school. He was just...
If you were really into music, he was THE MAN!
I saw the Prime Minister of Japan and President Bush at Graceland. I thought that was cool.

Paul: In your career and obviously you started writing during this period. You had hits on the charts as early as the mid to late Sixties. Did you come in contact with Elvis at all?

Buddy: No, I talked to him. I had been fairly hot as a songwriter and a guy by the name of Red West...

Paul: Oh yeah! Sure!

Buddy: that worked for Elvis called me and said, "Buddy, E wants to say hey."
Just blew me away.
[Buddy imitates Elvis]
"Hey man, we'd sure like for you to write us some songs. We're going over to Memphis to record."
So that's when he went over and did the great work with my buddy,Chips Moman, over in Memphis.

Paul: He was on the phone?

Buddy: He was on the phone.

Paul: Red West, I remember him.

Buddy: Did you ever know Lamar Fike?

Paul: No, I didn't know these people. I just remember their names.
[laughter]

Buddy: I knew a lot of his people.

Paul: I knew one. My next door neighbor as an infant was a guy named Marty Lacker.

Buddy: Oh yeah! Marty Lacker, huh...

Paul: He was part of the Memphis Mafia. So I was two years old I didn't jam with him too often.

Buddy: I saw him in Vegas. His producer at that time when he was in Vegas at the Hilton was Felton Jarvis. This was after Chet had produced him.
By the way, did you know that Chet Atkins produced all the Elvis things.
Would you believe if I told you that Chet Atkins quit recording Elvis Presley?
You know what the reason was?
Because they recorded at night!
[laughing]

Chet says,"Elvis, I love you and we're making some great stuff but I can't handle this late night."
[laughter]

That's what you call CONFIDENCE!!!!

Paul: I guess at this point in your career....
This was not the peak of Elvis' recording career.

Buddy: You know, in retrospect, that trip to Memphis and those recording sessions at Memphis had SUSPICIOUS MINDS and IN THE GHETTO.

Paul: Late Elvis.

Buddy: Yes. Late Elvis. The best late Elvis. Elvis was really trying...
He'd done all those lame movie songs for so many years, you know, early Elvis is Elvis to me except for that brief period where he went to Memphis and Chips Moman recorded him on those great songs. Those songs now are....
I know the Prime Minister of Japan the other day, the songs he was singing...
SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Paul: Did people compose and write songs for Elvis? Obviously, he didn't....

Buddy: I didn't get a song on the session unfortunately. I'd loved to. I sent songs but they didn't do 'em.

I good at taking a "NO!"
You have to be thick skinned in my business.

Paul: You had to feel pretty good though. You had a few on the charts when he wasn't on the charts.

Buddy: Yeah and like I said, his producer in Memphis was good friend of mine so when he asked Chips about songwriters, Chips named four or five songwriters that he should call and he called some of the best around Memphis and I'd already had a hit with Chips for a girl named Sandy Posey. A song called I TAKE IT BACK. My first BMI award. It went to about #19 in the country. Yeah, you know that whole era of music and when Elvis came back strong, it really meant a lot to a lot of people and those songs today are big for him. I loved DON'T BE CRUEL. All those things that were playing while I was in high school '57, '58,'59.
Those are my favorites but he really did some good work late that a lot of people don't recognize.

Paul: It's interesting to wonder... What (laughs)
We're talking about Elvis Presley but if he had not done so much time doing movies, what kind of...
I mean to say he didn't leave a legacy would be the most ridiculous statement I ever made but there was a big gap.

Buddy: There was a gap between the early and he did all those movie songs. Those were such lame songs.

Paul: VIVA LAS VEGAS! (laughs0

Buddy: VIVA LAS VEGAS was one of the better ones.

Paul: BLUE HAWAII. What were some of the others?

Buddy: Yeah, BLUE HAWAII, but there were a lot of things he did that he hated and he would just go in and do 'em by rote. I know this from talking to people who were around him. Gosh, I don't remember the year. What year did he go back to Memphis? It was in the 70s and cut those things. You know those movie songs he made, everybody kind of laughs at 'em but do you know how big those things were? I mean...

Paul: I remember seeing some of them...

Buddy: I did too. I never missed one!
But we used to laugh a lot.

Paul: Well we shouldn't feel sorry for Elvis. He had a pretty good career.

Buddy: I'll tell you, you know, when he died...
It hit everybody.
I can remember the exact moment, the exact place I was. I was writing at Lake Eufaula, matter of fact, for the Atlanta Rhythm Section at Lake Eufaula. My buddy, Dean Daughtry went up....
We didn't have a telephone there. On purpose.
Back in the cabin, a little trailer where we wrote and we were working on Champagne Jam album and Dean went down to the store to get us some hot dogs and came back and said,"Man, you won't believe this. Elvis is dead!"

Paul: Umm.

Buddy: I never will forget it

Paul: Back with much more...

http://robertoreg.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant

Hey y'all:

Paul Finebaum will interview Buddy Buie tomorrow afternoon from 2 until 4 CT on his radio show.

You can call into the show at 866-741-7285
If you live in B'ham the number is 439-9372

The Paul Finebaum Show is broadcast on stations in Florence, Decatur, Huntsville, Winfield, Cullman, Gadsden, B'ham, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Tallassee, Montgomery, Eufaula, Dothan, Evergreen, Brewton, Mobile and Foley.

If you are near your computer tomorrow at 2 CT, you can hear Buddy and Paul live at
http://www.finebaum.com


Best,
RR http://myspace.com/robertoreg
http://robertoreg.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant



Rodney Justo with Roy Orbison with THE SMALL FACES featuring STEVE MARRIOTT[far left] http://www.teddwebb.com/showcase/where_are_they_now/rodney_justo.html
http://www.myspace.com/thsmallfaces
http://www.myspace.com/thesmallfaces

email from THE ROCKER:

Well,I've been looking at Small faces stuff for an hour now.

When I was In the Candymen.we loved those guys.We did a tour of England where they were the co-headliners with Orbison ( an unlikely pairing,but not as weird as the other tour that was going on at the same time with Hendrix,The Walker Brothers and maybe even Englebert Humperdink on the same bill)

The Small Faces were a great bunch of guys who LOVED to have a good time.

A couple of us went to one of their sessions at Olympic Studios while they recorded "Get yourself together" ( I think that I played tamborine on it)

I ran into Ian McLagen "Mac" in London in a small hotel about 3 years ago and we stayed up for hours reminiscing about that tour,Orbison,Ronnie Lane,

He mentioned in his book ALL THE RAGE the trick that we played on Orbison the last night of the tour where we tuned his guitar up a while step to make it harder for him to sing.
As soon as he hit the first note on his guitar he turned around, looked at us and said "Sons a Bitches"

He was beautiful.

RODNEY
[a.k.a. Rockin' Rodney, Rodney The Rocker, The Rocker, THE MEMORY CELL]
JUSTO


Roberto,

I thought you might get a kick outa this pic taken at the Robert E. Lee High School 40th reunion. L – R Rusty Crumpton, Steve Schieferstein, Ed Sanford, Sonny Grier, Bill J. Moody, Keith Brewer, Bobby Dupree, Ronnie Monroe.

Bobby Dupree

Hey y'all:

As always, lots of exciting news for all the inhabitants of CUBA,ALABAMA

It is my honor to announce that something
unprecedented happened when you opened this email.

YOU ARE NOW PARTICIPATING IN A GENUINE HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE!

Below you will find a link which will give the inhabitants of CUBA,ALABAMA'S little bitty piece of cyberspace acreage access to the premiere of the short film LIVING THE BLUES : The Canned Heat Story.

WE, THE BROKE DICK, BOGUS, NO ACCOUNT, PO' ASS, BAREFOOTED REBEL SONS OF BITCHES OF CUBA,ALABAMA WERE CHOSEN OVER EVERYONE ELSE ON EARTH TO BE THE FIRST TO WITNESS THIS HISTORY MAKING ROCK & ROLL DOCUMENTARY!

WHAT CAN I SAY?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS SUPERDUPER SUPERB!!!!

THOSE YANKEE-LOVING SNOBS AT CMT, GAC ,VH1 & TURNER SOUTH
BETTER HOLD ON TO THEIR MAKE-UP!

WE TRUE AMERICANS ARE
COMING AT YA,
& WE WANT ALL YO' BIDNESS!!!!!!

Best,
RR http://myspace.com/robertoreg
http://robertoreg.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
http://cottonkingdom.blogspot.com
http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com
http://snakedoctor.blogspot.com
http://academicshithead.blogspot.com
http://flowerpower2.blogspot.com


Dear Cuban Alabamanz :

There is another Bear.
Canned Heats Music Mountain Bob E. Hite Jr.
A sneak preview of LIVING THE BLUES
on July 3rd 2006
only here!
tune in on http://www.happytrailershd.com/flashmovies/livingthebluesflash/

Happy Trailers Hd ,Lance Miccio and Canned Heat's Fito de la Parra present
"Living the Blues " a 13 minute short film about Canned Heat , the Blues ,Woodstock , Hells Angels and rise , fall and survival of Canned Heat.

LANCE MICCIO http://happytrailershd.com









I had two long conversations today with THE RAMRODS Jon Adair. Jon is helping us to piece together to history of how Birmingham's RAMRODS evolved into Dothan's Wilbur Walton Jr. & THE JAMES GANG.

Thanks Jon! We look forward to posting your thoughts and building interest in that upcoming RAMRODS CD!!!!

this might be lucrative:


From:
bill connell
To:
"robert register"
Subject:
New Music Download Store Opportunity!
Date:
Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:33:05 +0000

Robert,
Bill Connell here...how you doing? Read your emails daily...kinda a relaxation part of my work grind. I've been introduced and have become affiliated with a new LEGAL download music organization.. My company is www.burnlounge.com/musictreasure. The whole concept and online presence just occurred two weeks ago, so it's very new. The main reason for my opening Music Treasure is that it creates a means for me to be able to disseminate instantly, around the world, a song or songs from one of my two music publishing libraries, Xaigon Music Publishing (BMI) & Fancy That Music (ASCAP), to artists looking for new material, instead of my having to make copies and mail them. I also get a portion of the money for tunes and albums by artists sold through my site. So far, we have over a million tunes and adding daily. Some of your readers don't know it, b ut they already have material on the site. What's cool is that anyone can partner with us (your next door neighbor, artists, producers, lawyers,etc.). This organization is also very instrumental in putting the "FREE' music download sites like Limewire & Kazaa out of business through legal means. This new company is what all us musicians, artists, writers, producers, etc. needed! We can own a part of the company that sells our music! By becoming affiliated, one also enters a musical pyramid type operation. Go to my site, www.burnlounge.com/musictreasure, and click at the bottom of the page on The Commercial. I've done research and if anyone of your reading audience would like some additional information or answers to questions, email me at http://us.f606.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=1billconnell@comcast.net.

Please pass this along in your daily. Ted Nugent and Molly Hatchet signed on this week. I'm looking forward to recording new independent albums and putting them on my site to offer for international sales. Also affiliated so far with this organization is Sony/BMG, Warner Bros., Universal, Amazon, even CDbaby. I already have a couple of independent albums that are packaged that I will be submitting with all the proper paperwork for getting paid the correct royalties due. That'll be something new, huh?

Take a look,

Respectfully,
BILL CONNELL

MUCHAS A LADY IN RED & DR. JON!!!!

Por favor, mis amigos, go to our http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant

& check out our almost 700 friends. We now have almost 2000 views. Listen to the song called THE DAY BEAR BRYANT DIED while you're there!

Dr. Jon from Bama has sent us some super BAMA NATION photos & the Lady In Red http://www.ladyinred.net/news

features US!

If you're around Tuscaloosa from now until July 13, you need to pick up a copy of PLANET WEEKLY

& read the interview Jerry Henry did with me.

I also want to thank Jerry for taking me to see the Robert Randolph Family Band http://www.robertrandolph.net/

& The Black Crowes

at Verizon last week.

Cherished memories!http://www.blackcrowes.com/

Robert Randolph makes man's soul immortal!

Take a few minutes & let me hear from ya!

IT WON'T HURT!

RR

BEAR BRYANT WAS A WINNER
By Evan Woodbery
Star Sports Writer 01-26-2003
http://www.annistonstar.com/showcase/2004/as-2003apme-0617-0-4f17m5450.htm

They couldn’t all fit into the sanctuary for the funeral, so they crowded on street corners and crammed onto bridges and overpasses.They said little. Some put their hands on the hearts. Some cried. But, as the funeral procession passed,
there was stillness.

At the cream-colored Calvary Baptist Church on Tenth Street, more than 100 small children sat on the front steps.
Silently.

Shoulder-to-shoulder, thousands lined the Tuscaloosa
boulevard, watching the blur of cars pass. Silently.At Druid City Hospital, doctors, nurses and orderlies - many still dressed in their work scrubs - stood outside, paying their respects. Silently.

As the procession snaked its way east on McFarland Boulevard and continued on the interstate to Birmingham, cars stopped. Trucks pulled over. Drivers stood outside their rigs, caps pressed to their hearts, watching the cars pass.
Silently.

People gathered on overpasses. Bed-sheet banners scrawled with heart-felt memorials were draped over the sides.

Some were fans, decked out in crimson and white. Others were dressed in more solemn hues. Some walked from nearby neighborhoods, others drove from across the state.

“It was,” said pastor Duncan Hunter, “an incredible emotional experience in this state.
“I could not believe that there were that many people.”

It’s impossible to know for sure how many gathered on that sunny January day, but most guess that hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life lined the roadways to watch the cars in the funeral procession pass by for a few seconds. It was an utterly unplanned, spontaneous demonstration.

And it was the perfect memorial to the life of Paul Bryant.


* * *The news traveled quickly on Jan. 26, 1983. Twenty years ago this afternoon, phones started ringing. Rumors started spreading. The greatest coach in the history of college football had died.

It was hard to believe at first. The day’s newspapers — including The Anniston Star — had reported that Bryant had been admitted to the hospital. But, the reports said, he was fine and would be released shortly. There was nothing to worry about.

Indeed, Bryant appeared fine on the morning of Jan. 26. He accepted visitors and joked with nurses. But at 12:30 p.m., he suffered a major heart attack. He was pronounced dead about an hour later.

The university’s president, Joab Thomas, got a call minutes later. It was early morning in Australia, where Thomas was attending a conference.

“He was viewed by so many as a super-human person,” Thomas said. “It was just difficult to believe he was gone.”


* * *Baby Boomers can tell you where they were the moment they heard President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

Today, most Alabamians possess equally vivid memories of Jan. 26, 1983.
Around the state, school children like future Tide quarterback Jay Barker heard the news over the school’s intercom or from teary-eyed teachers.

At businesses, co-workers huddled around radios or televisions to get the latest news. Phone lines were jammed with callers.

“It was a very emotional time for Alabama fans,” said Tom Roberts, a university broadcaster at the time the sports director of Channel 13 in Birmingham in 1983. “Everywhere you went, you’d see them on the street or in a restaurant, and they were in tears.
“I was around when President Kennedy was assassinated, and that was a sad time. In this state, Coach Bryant’s death was a much more emotional time than Kennedy’s.”


Bryant’s loss may have been much more personal because many in the state, even those who had never met the coach, felt like he was a member of their family — or at least a friend with whom they could share a Coke and a bag of Golden Flakes.
His humble background and rural roots resonated with Alabamians, and his emphasis on discipline and old-fashioned values found an enthusiastic audience.
And, of course, he was a winner.

That’s why the campus was so somber on the afternoon of Jan. 26. The university had lost more than a coach.

“If you had someone in your own family pass away, it would give you the feeling that prevailed everywhere,” said Irvin Fields, the university’s longtime police chief. “That went for those that just barely knew him to those who worked with him on a day-to-day basis.”


* * *If the state was solemn on Jan. 26, its citizens were also shocked.

No one had expected Bryant’s death.

Most knew that he was in far from perfect health, but few could have imagined that he was near death.

He was expected to have a retirement. To fish and golf and play with his grand-children. To help smooth the transition for his successor, Ray Perkins. To act as an adviser, mentor, consul and sage for the Crimson Tide nation.

He wasn’t supposed to die. How could a man who was larger than life be tamed by death?

“He had a mystique about him that made people think to some extent that he was immortal,” Fields said. “To face death would just be another victory for him.”

“There was a real sense of disbelief,” said Thomas, who was unable to catch a flight from Australia to get back in time for Bryant’s funeral. “No one expected him to die.”


* * *The loss was even more painful for Bryant’s friends, coaches and former players. After 25 years of coaching at Alabama, there was an elaborate alumni network of former Bryant players, many of whom kept in close contact.

Billy Neighbors, a star offensive lineman during Bryant’s first season at Alabama, got the news at his brokerage in Huntsville. He had talked to Bryant only a few days earlier.
“We talked about a lot of different things, mostly about finance,” Neighbors said. “He was an avid stock investor, and had been for years.
“It seems like it was yesterday, to tell you the truth. It don’t seem like it’s been no 20 damn years.”

Bobby Marks, who played under Bryant at Texas A&M and was a coach at Alabama from 1972 until Bryant’s retirement, also talked to the coach just a few days before his death.
Marks no longer had a job under Perkins, and Bryant insisted on keeping him on the payroll until he could find another.

“A few days before he died, he was still worried about me and the other coaches that didn’t have a job,” said Marks, who went on to a long career as an NFL scout. “He was the best friend you ever had. He was great to me, great to the coaches. He cared about your family and he cared about you personally.”


* * *Mary Harmon Bryant, the Bear’s widow, wanted his funeral to be dignified.
It would be conducted in a church, not a football stadium. There would be no band, no cheerleaders, no hoopla.

Some friends tried to convince her to have the services in Memorial Coliseum, which could accommodate thousands of mourners.

“She just withstood that, hands-down,” said Hunter, who was one of the pastors that presided over the services at Tuscaloosa’s First United Methodist Church. “She was not going to have a big spectacle made of his funeral. She was wanted it to be kept as traditional as possible.”
Mary Harmon was a longtime active member of the church, and Paul Bryant had attended until his celebrity made it impossible, Hunter said.

“She was a very devout person and she wanted the service to be one that would have a spiritual connotation,” Hunter said.

The logistics of the memorial were challenging, since the church seated only about 500 people.

That was scarcely enough room for the cast of dignitaries, let alone the throngs of fans that sought to attend.

Gov. George Wallace, newly inaugurated for his final stint as governor, was wheeled into the church and sat quietly near the front.

Coaches from around the nation arrived. Former Bryant players poured in by the dozen. The entire 1982 team attended.

For those who couldn’t squeeze into the church, the audio was piped into two nearby churches. The thousands for which there was still no room simply stood outside and watched and listened as best they could.

Regular people from around the country wanted to do their part to remember Bryant. The church was bombarded with phone calls and requests: Can you read my poem at the service? Can I sing this song? Could I just say a few words?

“We should have logged all that stuff,” Hunter said. “We did not, of course, it was just such an upheaval.”The day of the funeral, Jan. 28, was crisp and bright, and the brilliant sun warmed the mourners.

The service was simple. There were readings from the Old and New Testament, and some words to commend Bryant’s life and spirit to God.

“It was a simple, dignified service of worship,” Hunter said, just as Mrs. Bryant had requested.
As Hunter and two fellow pastors led the pallbearers out the church doors, there was complete silence — except for a thunderous snapping sound.

Cameras were clicking furiously. But that was the only sound. Thousands of people stood outside, not saying a word. Traffic had been stopped, so there were no noises, except perhaps a few birds and the chattering of cameras.

It was a surreal moment, seeing the crowds of hushed, stone-faced onlookers, Hunter said.But that was only the beginning.


* * *For those who witnessed it, the roughly 60-mile funeral procession from the church to Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham was one of the most moving and awe-inspiring tributes to Bryant imaginable.

Marks rode a bus with other former coaches and players to the cemetery. Tears started to well in his eyes as he passed the homemade banners and the sincere-looking onlookers.
“It was heart-rending,” Marks said. “There wasn’t a dry eye on that bus.”

Bryant biographer Keith Dunnavant said scenes from the procession are still amazing today.
“It was such an incredible site, the image of people standing three or four deep as the procession went by,” Dunnavant said. “It’s a great testament to how successful he had been, but what most people outside the state of Alabama don’t understand is the impact he had on our culture. He was a part of us in a way that transcended sports, and represented our best ideals.”


* * *Twenty years later, Bryant’s legacy still pervades Tuscaloosa, even though most freshmen at the university weren’t even born when the legendary coach died.
The Bear’s memory is in no danger of being forgotten. Students and campus visitors stroll down Bryant Drive, visit the Bryant Museum and bicycle past Bryant Hall.
Fans still cheer the loudest when Bryant’s gravelly voice is played before football games.
And, of course, Bryant’s shadow has both helped and haunted each of the five (and now six) coaches who have succeeded him.

Even though his all-time coaching wins record has been broken, Bryant’s place in college football history is secure.

And so is his place in the hearts of Alabamians.

“He’s still revered by so many people here — and he should be,” Marks said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him.”

Twenty years later, much in Alabama has changed. But Bryant’s legend has only grown.

“I think the way he died actually enhanced his legend,” Dunnavant said. “We didn’t have to watch him grow old and wither up.

“He was our version of John Wayne, and he was real, right down to his last game.”