![]() And the priest looked at me and said, Tommy, you go to one of them honky-tonks, get the people out there to come to the Catholic Church. I said everybody's calling me, getting mad at me. I said, Father Duke - I said, I can't play secular music no more - rock 'n' roll. MCLAIN: So I had to go to confession one day. At age 50, he turned to the Catholic Church. That's a great thing that happened in my life.ĬHANG: But McLain says that kind of success and hard living eventually caught up with him. Martin Luther King, I met him and flew on a plane with him and Coretta. I was here at the Gene Autry's Hotel Continental Sunset Strip - Dr. I ran through that money and my life like it was ice cream. MCLAIN: 1966 - I was on top of the world. MCLAIN: (Singing) Sweet, sweet dreams of you.ĬHANG: This catapulted him to a new level of fame. I got a little money jingle-jangling in.ĬHANG: McLain first hit it big back in 1966, with a recording of the country ballad, "Sweet Dreams." MCLAIN: (Singing) I'm tired of living on the losing end. I didn't give up.ĬHANG: And sure enough, "I Ran Down Every Dream" became Tommy McLain's first album in four decades. MCLAIN: The bad man was after me, but I've overcome so far. And then we had hurricanes, and I had a triple bypass heart attack. MCLAIN: Some old boy come through the neighborhood and just had to pick my house and burn it down, but I wasn't in there. But, you know, there was a point not that long ago when McLain didn't think anybody was going to hear it. MCLAIN: (Singing) This morning, on my front porch swing, I heard red birds sing.ĬHANG: McLain is 82 years old, and he's out with a new album with his producer and guitarist C.C. ![]() (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIVIN' ON THE LOSIN' END") It's a melange of R&B, country-western, gospel and traditional French Louisiana music. McLain was one of the inventors of swamp pop. ![]() Oh, this is your show costume now (laughter). His long Santa Claus beard flowing down his chest. When I walked into our studios in Culver City, Calif., to finally meet swamp pop legend Tommy McLain, I was so pleased to see him decked out in velour pants and bright white cowboy boots.
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