My personal memories of Tommy McLain, the internationally famous swamp pop star who died last week at age 85, go back to when I met him 25 years ago.
A native of Jonesville, he was living in Pineville, and I had been assigned to do a story on him for the Church Today, the Diocese of Alexandria newspaper. Perhaps most famous for his swamp pop version of Patsy Cline’s Sweet Dreams, Tommy told me how he had turned away from a life of drugs, booze and illicit sex.
He hardly seemed the religious type. Or at least the stereotypical image. He was brash, a showman, outgoing, wore flashy clothes, always ready with a quip. The son of a Baptist minister, he was a converted Catholic and told me then how he was writing songs with words given to him by God. “It’s God now who gives me the words, and I give them to anyone who will listen.” What’s more, he was busy writing the theme music for the then new local Radio Maria station.
That song, I’m Movin’ to Heaven, continues to be played in the rotation of the station’s music, according to Kevin Fontenot, the station’s general manager.
Fingering his silver beard and speaking in a gravelly voice, he boasted how he had never felt so good in all his life.
From his youth, music seemingly flowed from his veins, influenced by Ferriday’s Jerry Lee Lewis and New Orleans’ Fats Domino and Little Richard. He bought a $5 guitar at a pawn shop when he was about 6 years old. “I was left-handed, so I had to turn the guitar upside down and played it left-handed. I left home after the 11th grade and went to work with a road band, and I’ve been playing music ever since,” he told me then.
A member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, McLain traveled through the United States as well as England and Mexico to bring his music around the world. His version of “Sweet Dreams” sold more than three million copies and became his first gold medal record. According to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, McLain had a bigger hit with “Sweet Dreams” than did Patsy Cline. Her version of the song reached No. 44 on the charts in June of 1963 but McLain’s climbed all the way to 15 in August of 1966. The song was also featured in the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward movie, “The Drowning Pool,” filmed in Lafayette.
By the time I met him, McLain had his own publishing company, Krehon Records Label and he shared the Mighty Music Mix Recording Studios in Oakdale with producer/manager Carol Skaggs. Although he accumulated lots of state, national and international music honors, he also experienced life’s valleys. In addition to problems with drinking, drugs and women, he had repeated income tax battles and was twice divorced.
He found solace and strength as he grew in his faith, and it was at a friend’s home devotion to Our Lady of Fatima a few months earlier that he saw Art Visconte, the former CYO director whom he hadn’t seen since he was a youngster.
“At the end of the prayer service, Art looks at me and says, ‘Tommy McLain, what have you got for me?’ I was shocked. I didn’t know what he meant.”
Visconte, who was instrumental in getting Radio Maria, the internationally popular radio network, to open its first American station in Alexandria in May of 1999, knew McLain’s music background and was also interested in any contribution he could make in that regard.
McLain discussed, too, possible development on his land with the station, which didn’t pan out, but he also wrote a few songs to submit as a possible theme song for the station.
While visiting with him at his home several years ago, we talked a bit about Louisiana College (now Louisiana Christian University) basketball – he was a frequent fan at home games, but he eagerly went to his keyboard and started playing a song he said he was just beginning to compose. He wanted to see what I thought about it. Knowing I was a New Orleans native, he thought it might strike a chord with me.
The song he played did strike a chord with me, and in 2011 it became one of two songs he added to Texan professional song writer Larry Lange’s album Wiggle Room. It was his post-Katrina ballad Don’t Make Me Leave New Orleans.
“…Come on home to me
Let’s make new memories
Don’t make me leave New Orleans.”
Twice within the last few years I’ve visited him at the hospital. After the first visit, he recovered to travel for a concert to England. The last time I visited, he was in the ICU. He couldn’t talk much but his eyes brightened, and he thanked me for coming.
I still remember the Tommy I interviewed in 2000, who had a renewed spark in his life with a zeal for letting God influence his songwriting. He had written a new CD, “I’ve Changed My Style,” that concluded with him singing a song by James and Mark Payne, The Night Ole Jack Daniels Met John 3:16.
“That song,” he said, “is my life.”