There’s Roger Miller, he was a good friend. I know he came one day and we was all boozing it up in the motel. He’d sing one of his and I’d sing one of mine.
I sung him “Please Talk To My Heart”, and we’d do another tune and he kept wanting me to do that one, “Please Talk To My Heart”. I thought he was pulling my leg, and making fun out of my song, because there wasn’t much to that song. I found out years later that Roger Miller submitted that song to Chet Atkins at RCA three times, and three times RCA turned it down. That’s the same song that Pappy Daily (Glad Music Company) turned down, turned me down. I guess it turned out to be a pretty good song.
Editor’s Note: “Please Talk To My Heart” is a song that through John Jr’s research discovered a contractual agreement, along with 3 or 4 other songs, that Johnny had agreed to trade his writer’s shares of the songs with Walt Breland for “promotion” and the that balance of Johnny’s acoustic guitar that owed the music store would be paid off. Later, after signing the agreement, someone broke into Johnny’s hotel room and stole the guitar. “Please Talk To My Heart” was a Top 15 song for Johnny while on the United Artist label and later was recorded by Ray Price as a chart topper and eventually by Freddy Fender (Top 100) and Johnny Bush. (Another song on that list, “Let’s Go Home”, was recorded by George Jones while he was on United Artist).
Note about Johnny’s Memoirs: Prior to Johnny’s stroke in 1999, he had sat down at his typewriter and began to share stories about his life and music. We are sharing these excerpts in Johnny’s own words… just as he told them.
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