1967 was a breakout year for you, with "Gentle On My Mind" and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," which began your longtime association with Jimmy Webb. How did you meet him?
I was coming out of Studio 3 at United, and I saw "By The Time I Get To Phoenix." I'm from Arkansas, and I didn't know if it was the bird coming out of the ashes or what. So, I was curious enough to pick it up. And when I played it, I had tears running down my face. It made me so homesick. I got into my '42 Mercury and drove to Arkansas to see Mom and Dad and everybody. I was down there for three or four days, then had to go back to slaving over a hot guitar.
After working with Brian Wilson and then going onto Jimmy Webb and the things they were doing with melodies and chord changes, did ever you look at the songs and wonder how they made that happen?
They'll hang onto one note. I once told Jimmy, "You play 75 chords with me hanging on one note." But he made it work. His string writing was truly exceptional.
Over the next few years you had a remarkable string of hits, most notably "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston." That period, the late '60s and early '70s, is remembered as a very turbulent time, but your music is quiet and contemplative. Do you think that a large part of the success was because it gave people the opportunity to put all that out of their minds?
I think so. Like I said, I got up and drove all the way to Arkansas because I got homesick from listening to one of Jimmy Webb's songs. He wrote about longing for home, and longing for love, and everything he wrote was so good. Have you heard the song he wrote about Gaugin? ["Paul Gaugin In The South Seas"]. It's on his new album, and it's just the most incredible song I've ever heard. I don't know if it will commercially be a hit, because not a lot of people know who Gaugin was.
And then, in 1975, came "Rhinestone Cowboy," and "Southern Nights" two years after that. Ten years earlier you're locked in the studio recording "Strangers In The Night" with Sinatra and now you're one of the biggest stars in the country.
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