It’s the morning after yet another horrific school shooting in America—this time in Nashville that took the lives of three children and three faculty members. Longtime resident of the area John Conlee is not obsessively watching the TV on purpose, but he is viewing things through the lens of his strong religious faith.
“It’s obvious that we have a serious, serious problem. And I maintain that the main problem we have as a culture and a world is a spiritual problem. We keep trying to fix things with secular answers and it’s not going to work. It never has,” he says.
“I just want to be a voice to help guide people into a spiritual awakening and turn back to our Creator. Because he’s the only thing that can fix what’s wrong with us.”
The singer says that today’s societal problems are “talked and talked and talked about” but “nothing is solved.”
“We try to figure out why people do things and it’s obvious that the person who did this had a mental illness. All the stations here are covering it 24/7, but I tune it out. I want to wait down the road when they get more information about the manifesto they found to see how mentally ill she was. But I don’t stay glued to the TV. It just wears you out.”
Conlee will be putting out much more positive feelings during his upcoming shows at Main Street Crossing in Tomball, with two already sold out and a third one just added.
The country music legend and member of the Grand Old Opry was born John Wayne Conlee in Versailles, Kentucky near Lexington on the family tobacco farm that he still owns. Though he was named for a family connection and not the silver screen cowboy.
“I have cousins whose last name was Wayne. Roy Wayne was a career Navy man stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was hit, and he took some of the first photographs of the [destruction],” Conlee says. “So, I’m named for him!”
The Conlees lived in a house built in 1792, and as a young man (when not tending to farm chores), John showed an interest in singing and playing guitar. But he spent a few years as a mortician working at a local funeral home. It’s license he still holds today and renews every year—he says primarily to avoid “taking that thousand question test again!”
But tending to crops or corpses would not be his ultimate career goal, and in 1971 he relocated to Nashville with the idea of becoming a professional broadcaster. That he was for WLAC radio, while writing songs and recording demos on the side. The songs didn’t sell, but many in the industry were curious about the man with the low and very distinctive voice. He eventually signed a record contact and two years later released debut Rose Colored Glasses.
The title track about a man delusional about his romantic situation was a hit and has become his signature song, and the album also included his standards “Lady Lay Down” and “Backside of Thirty.” Conlee would eventually chart 22 top 10 country hits (seven of which hit No. 1) like “Before My Time,” “Friday Night Blues,” “She Can’t Say That Anymore,” “Miss Emily’s Picture,” “I’m Only in It for the Love,” “In My Eyes,” “As Long as I’m Rockin’ with You” and “Got My Heart Set on You.”
But if there’s a tune that rivals “Rose Colored Glasses” (co-written with radio pal George Baber) as his best known, it’s “Common Man.” In it, Conlee’s narrator feels a bit out of place with his higher-browed girlfriend at a fancy restaurant, instead mentioning a preference for McDonald’s, his much-driven Chevy van, non-pedigreed dog, and Budweiser beer. To many listeners, the working man tune hits on a deeper emotional level.
“Certain songs have an effect on folks, and this is one of them. It’s so relatable to people, including myself. I grew up on a farm, and we did farm work for ourselves but also at our neighbors’ bailing hay and combining,” he says.
“And later when I got into the music business, I did some training so I could take care of the bus as we go around the country. I did—and still do—much of the maintenance on it! Though a little less the last few years because I’m 76 years old! But I can still get under it. And more importantly, know what to do when I get there!”
Conlee first guested at the Grand Ole Opry in 1980 and was made a full member the next year. He busts a myth that members must commit to performing a certain number of times a year on their stage. “That was true decades ago, but they had to stop it. At one time you had to commit to [performing] 26 Saturdays a year. Now, the Opry pays scale, and performers can make much more money playing their own show on that prime booking night,” he says. “But basically now, if I’m not on the road, I’m at the Opry. Because I want to be!”
Since Conlee will be in the Houston/Tomball area for several days, he’s got more time to explore than a usual gig. “We normally go to a town, do the show, and then go to the next show or home. This will give us a chance to roam around a bit! I may go to a Western wear store and pick up a couple of shirts,” he says. “In the old days, I’d go to a gun show. There used to be a lot of those in Texas. I don’t know how it is now.”
John Conlee’s last full studio record was a gospel effort nearly two decades ago, 2004’s Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (though he’s also released one-off religious-themed tunes like “Bread and Water”). He’s close to completing a follow-up, which he’ll release on his own label, though he’s not sure how many of the approximately 25 tracks will come out at the same time.
For him, his lifelong faith is forever intertwined with his music. “I don’t know if I’d be recording at all if it wasn’t for my faith and my calling to put the gospel out there,” he offers.
Houston holds a special place in Conlee’s mind in terms of his career. He credits two DJs in the city with breaking “Rose Colored Glasses” across the country.
“My whole career started in Houston when Dr. Bruce Nelson at what was then KENR radio played it first. And followed promptly by Joe Ladd at KIKK. It spread from there, so Houston’s special to me,” he says.
Though he’s not particularly fond of the generic and single-format radio programming on stations of the past few decades. “Radio’s always worried about somebody pushing the button to tune it out. But you can also beat the horse to death!”
Finally, in one of the most natural marketing moves of any artist and product, on his website or at his merch table during shows you can buy a genuine (and affordable) pair of…John Conlee’s Rose Colored Glasses.
“That’s our number one marketing item. People love ‘em! And they’ll put them on when I do the song, just like I do,” Conlee laughs. “For years, they were my dad’s full-time sunglasses!”
John Conlee plays at 8 p.m. on April 25, 26, and 27 at Main Street Crossing in Tomball, 111 W. Main. For more information, call 281-290-0431 or visit MainStreetCrossing.com. $78 & $118.
For more on John Conlee, visit JohnConlee.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
