Immediately before the mishap, and confirmed that Reeves was not upside down. However, according to Larry Jordan, author of the 2011 biography, ''Jim Reeves: His Untold Story'', this scenario is refuted by eyewitnesses known to crash investigators who saw the plane overhead The singer's widow, Mary Reeves (1929–1999), probably unwittingly started the rumor that he was flying the airplane upsideĭown and assumed he was increasing altitude to clear the storm. While flying over Brentwood, Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm.Ī subsequent investigation showed that the small airplane had become caught in the storm and Reeves suffered spatial disorientation. Knox Phillips interviewed by Colin Escott, December 10, 1987 That could have been a very profitable deal for Shelby and I both but it fell apart unfortunately''. There were signs that it was going to break and then it just unaccountably died. We had big hits with the Gentrys and that Cliff Jackson record should have beenĪ monster. We produced some great records and those were great times. I placed quite a few masters with Shelby immediately after we signed the deal. I was all in favour of it at firstīecause Shelby was hot in those days. ''I know that Sam had higher offers for Sun Records than Shelby's offer but he knew that Shelby would work the catalogue and would keep the Sun logo alive. Marshall came down to see us with Eddie Braddock but, once again, it didn't get finalized''. I knew Marshall Chess because he was my generation. I know that Columbia talked to him, probably because they wanted the Johnny Cash masters, and Jerry I remember that it went so far that Irving Green (Mercury president) came down but nothing ever happened. I know that Shelby had approached Sam back when he was workingįor Mercury. ''I personally pushed the idea of selling the Sun Records catalogue. I thought that if I produced something for Holiday Inn that there would I just wanted to get some money behind something and then the Holiday Inn deal came along and that was the tacit end of Sun Records. ÓK, that's the last record we put out on Sun'. The problem was that there wasn't a commitment of spirit''. Bill Fitzgerald would hire independent guys in these markets to promote records –Īnd we still had some records that sold strongly on a regional level. We would sample each record everywhere and we would test market most of them in a specific area. That'sĪ pity because the independent distribution network was still fairly strong. He had seen some of his friends go broke, such as the people who ran Vee-Jay, and he became just a little too conservative when the Memphis music industry really took off in the mid-1960s. Sam wasn't going to gamble the money promoting records any more. I know that it was soldĪlong with the studio but we later got some of it back and used it in the Trace Studio that Sam opened with Ray Harris in Tupelo''.

I never had much to do with the equipment in Nashville. There were also two single track monaural machine in tandem with the multi-track and Sam would always regard what he got on the ''We had a four track machine and then we installed a three track machineīecause Scotty Moore wanted to be compatible with the studios in Nashville which were all working to three track, in those days. Radiants and then ,later, with the Jesters, Jimmy Day and the Nights, Bob Simon and so on''. I started experimenting with Randy and The I just wanted something really strange because I had been raised on Jerry Lee Lewis sessions and drunk Charlie Rich sessions. Iĭidn't have a tremendous amount of technical knowledge and most of it was self-taught. ''Then, while I was at Southwestern (Vocational and Technical College), I started experimenting with the equipment and I just set out to find some artists who would experiment with me. At night they would often cut sessions and I used to keep the log on the tape boxes and so on''. We had a hand cranked stencil machine with all their addresses and one of my first jobs at the new studio was to ship out these samples records. Even though we hadn't had a hit of any size since ''What'd I Say'' we still sampled 3500-4000 disc jockeys,ĭistributors etc. ''I started off shipping out promo copies. By the mid-1960s Knox was approaching the business of making records with much the same enthusiasm that his father had shown fifteen Much of the day-by-day activity of the label devolved to general manager Bill Fitzgerald and Sam's older son Knox. As the 1960s wore on and both Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich departed for the greener climate at Mercury, Sam Phillips gradually lost interest in Sun

Bobby clark and the rhythm knights band