#150 Jimmy Fortune
Jimmy Fortune is a child of the depression, found an old guitar in a dump and after leaning that people would give him money to sing he realised very young that this could be his full time job, against the encouragement of his parents. An American country music singer from Nelson County, Virginia. Fortune sang tenor for The Statler Brothers for 21 years, and wrote the song "Elizabeth" for the group. After The Statler Brothers retired, he continues to perform as a solo artist.
We talk about his song "More Than A Name On the Wall" a tribute to Vietnam Veterans which strikes a cord for host Rae Leigh as her father was is also a Vietnam vet.
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Tryst with Jimmy Fortune. Thank you so much for taking time out to chat to me.
Jimmy Fortune: Well, it's an honour to be with you today. It really is. And thank you for having me on,
Rae Leigh: I'm looking forward to it because you have such a long career that you, you started so many years ago. And, so many songs that resonate with me. And when I heard you're like, I actually only really discovered you, really, really late in your career because I'm, I'm a young man, but I know that my parents definitely would have listened to your music.
But I, I found you through Bill Whyte, episode 72, it was quite a few months ago we were chatting and he said he wrote safe Haven with you. And I listened to it and I was like, this is amazing.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah, Bill white's a great writer and a great friend of mine. And we have written a lot of grit. I was just listening to the other day. We have a lot of songs that hadn't been cut yet by anybody, but
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: listening back through some of them and I'm going, man, we got some great stuff here. We need to get, we need to get some demos. Don't own it. But, he's a
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: I love co-writing with him. And,
Rae Leigh: he's
Jimmy Fortune: we,
Rae Leigh: He's an incredible writer
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. he is. We just have a lot of fun together. And, like I said, you never know. Sometimes I'll just go back through some of the recordings and everything through the years. And I was just going back through the other day and, listening to some that
I'd done probably 20 years ago. And there's some great songs on these old recorders that I'm like,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I, my dad, never know when you got a Juul laying around. But I need to go back through those because like I said, you just never know, but I'm still writing quite a bit. And, you know, trying to keep the things going, but one of those writers that I'm kinda like a, I go through phases where feel like I need to, just stay away from it for a little bit
just to kind of, and then I start to miss it. And then when I miss it, it feels like I'm tilling up new ground.
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: can it create a little bit more like
Rae Leigh: it comes and goes in waves.
Doesn't it?
Jimmy Fortune: I, don't not want it forces myself every day to do it I know some people do that. But I just seem to do better when something really hits me and it's, and I don't know, songwriting in the last few years has become, I don't know, just a real spiritual thing with me is like, it's almost like, I just kinda opened myself up spiritually and just say, Hey, what, what do you, you know, what, what do you want me to say today?
And so I like,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: to someone else. It's become a purpose. I think it's my purposes to open myself up and to say, with the way the things are in the world today. just feel like trying to get a positive message out to people because there's so much negative out there.
And I
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: you can't, run from it? but you know, it's there, but you, I try to, let people know that, spiritually, we have to be strong to get through these times that they were going through. So that's why I think
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: of my stuff now is smear is more spiritual
Rae Leigh: And music helps doesn't it
it lifts us spirits in ways that I honestly don't understand. But it does.
Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I don't even understand it. I
Rae Leigh: know,
Jimmy Fortune: don't when people come up, you know, and they say, oh, I love your writing. I love your song. I love your voice and all that. And I love doing what I do,
Rae Leigh: um,
Jimmy Fortune: I hear some to me, I listen to other people and I say, oh, I wish I could sound that way. Oh, I wish
Rae Leigh: um,
Jimmy Fortune: like that. wish I could do.
Rae Leigh: comparison artists. It's a big thing.
Jimmy Fortune: I'm never satisfied with what I do. I'm, I'm
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: my own worst critic,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: on everything. And I'm critiquing myself
Rae Leigh: I think a lot of sunlight that I couldn't sing for a long time, because I didn't think I had a
good enough voice because it wasn't like, you know, what was on the radio. And I, I told you, I have a pastor as a daddy and he means the world to me. And I was walking on the beach one day and he turned to me and he said, You have the exact voice that God wanted you to have.
And it was like this blessing, but like, from that moment, like I just clicked. I was like, that's exactly right. This is exactly the voice I'm meant to have. And it's designed this way and I can't have anything else. And I just stopped comparing myself from then. I was like, my voice is perfect.
I'm sure it could get better with training, but yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: I always wanted, like when I listened to other people, I want to sound like them. And I, and for
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: used to play, I started playing music and I see, I never wrote songs when I was younger. I, I only wrote till after I came with the Statler brothers and, and I, but for years, like playing in grade school for PTA meetings and for high school dances eventually, and then eventually the VFW halls and the, the moose lodges and things like that, then out into the Sheraton ends and the holiday Inns and the Ramada ends all over Virginia.
Rae Leigh: Where do you actually come from? Originally
Jimmy Fortune: I, I came, I come from Virginia. That's
Rae Leigh: okay.
Jimmy Fortune: up.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: If you ever I don't know if you're familiar with a TV show called the Walton's TV show,
Rae Leigh: No,
I'm not a big TV watcher though.
Jimmy Fortune: well, if this is an old show that there was
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: a family grew up during the depression back in, Virginia in central Virginia. It, they grew up in the same area that I grew up in, and I became friends with the writer and creator that, which was a
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: Hamner. And, he had a big family and he wrote a big successful TV show. It was called the Waltons. And then he also wrote things like, Twilight zone and, and he w he eventually wound up in LA and wrote for lot of big TV shows and movies
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: that.
But, people that are familiar with that would know that's how I grew up in where I grew up. It was just real rural area, in Virginia. And we were very poor. We, of course, you know, you hear that a lot, but I found a guitar when I was eight years old in a dump near our house that people used to dump their trash next to a river where we lived and I would go over there and I would rummage through that and, you know, I'd find broken toys and things.
And that's how I played with toys and stuff. I found a guitar that had two strings on it, and I
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: and I was eight years old. I started playing little melodies on this guitar and mom and dad would say, you know, one day we're gonna, can afford it, we're gonna get you a, a real guitar.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: so it was Christmas, 1967. They said, they think they said, we might be able to get you one this Christmas. And it was, I was 12 years old and I was so helpful that I was going to get a guitar. And I was excited. actually going to get a guitar with, with, strings on it with, with six strings on it that I can play.
And, they told me they didn't know if they were going to be able to afford it or not. They, things didn't go that well that year. And, and, so on Christmas Eve, I didn't know if I was going to be there or not, and I was hopeful, I thought maybe that I probably wasn't going to get it because they were having a tough time getting, you know, coming up with money anyway, for Christmas, for all of us. And, so I was kind of hopeful, but yet thinking I probably wasn't going to get it got up Christmas morning and I came downstairs and I opened the door and on the couch was this beautiful harmony guitar. And, I ran over and I grabbed it and I held onto it and I told daddy, I said, you know, if I can learn how to play and sing at the same time, I'm going to make my living at this. And,
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Jimmy Fortune: he was like, he says, son, are you crazy? He said, you can't make a living playing music. He said, why do you think they call it playing?
Rae Leigh: I love that.
Jimmy Fortune: and so, uh, I mean, I know he was trying to protect me in a way, because to him it was a hobby. Like they played music on the weekends.
Rae Leigh: Oh yeah, me too.
Jimmy Fortune: go
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and he would play these old square dances and things like that. And, uh,
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: with him and after he finished working hard all week and he would on the weekend, they would get together and play music or something
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And it was just a fun thing to do to relax, you know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: But I was thinking heart and my mind that I, I can make money at this because I remember, uh, like being in the first, second grade going to school. And, these kids would I saying, you know, I was always singing something. I would learn a song and sing it. and these
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: would say, Hey, can you send me a song? I'll give you a nickel. And so I
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Jimmy Fortune: I always had money in my pocket and I thought, whoa, made money playing, singing. Somebody who song I was,
Rae Leigh: You just knew it was possible.
Jimmy Fortune: Why can I do this? And so my first gig, when we were 13 years old, my found some friends of mine that lived in the road to play guitar too. And, we got together and we were hired for a PTA meeting at my elementary school and we made a dollar a piece.
Rae Leigh: wow.
Jimmy Fortune: uh, took the, that, that dollar. We went straight out and blew it on a milkshake at a little
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: right.
Rae Leigh: That's what I would do to
Jimmy Fortune: then we walked three miles home carrying our guitars and we were so happy. We were like, man, we just did something we love to do. And we had, we made a dollar and we had a milkshake and like, man, life doesn't get any better than this. I mean, we were just cloud nine, you know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And like I said, it went from there and that's, that's kind of where I just, I just got this taste in my mouth and saying, Hey, I can. my event, I eventually became. I set a goal for a hundred dollars a week. And I said, when I get $200 a week, that's what I'm going. Full-time music, I'm going to, I'm doing it. If I can make a hundred dollars a week,
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: going to be. And so, we just kept our, my mom and my dad were pretty strict on me as far as letting me go out and play places a lot. They, they w they wanted me to play more churches and things like that,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: but I eventually wanted to, uh, I just wanted to get out and play and with my friends and we, we started venturing out a little bit and they?
these high school dances and things like that, and, started learning, more of the rock music and pop music and and doing a little bit of everything.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: Cause I
Rae Leigh: It probably encouraged you in a way didn't they
Jimmy Fortune: they they kind of discouraged me from that part of it, but.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, But as a rebellious teen, you know, most teenagers want to do the opposite of what their parents tell them to do.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. Right, right. And, uh, and I just was, my dad used to say, you're not gonna get any word playing in rock and roll music boy. Cause you, you just, uh, just play in the wrong kind of music. Well,
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: uh, and it kind of discouraged me in a lot of ways from that, but, I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and doing it.
I just never could put it down and never could quit. And, and
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: married at a young age. I got married at 17 and I was on my own and I was out and, found myself with a couple of children. And the time I was 19 and I was
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: I actually sit, set it aside for a while because I kind of thought maybe I can't do this.
Maybe I can't. But then I would always find myself, picking my guitar up. Playing it and trying to go out and, and, play with a band somewhere do something. And eventually,
Rae Leigh: um,
Jimmy Fortune: eventually I started playing again and then, and of course it, led to a divorce and,
Rae Leigh: how did it lead to a divorce? Was it, it was taking you away from the home too much?
Jimmy Fortune: from the family. And,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: you know, she just didn't want any part of that, of that life, uh,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: me playing music and everything. And if I was going to play, I was having to make deals. If, if you know, I'll let you play. If, if you do this,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: it just, it, it was, and I understood, was a great, great woman, but it just, it just didn't work out.
Rae Leigh: it's such a common thing for musicians. It's like, they're almost jealous of music, but I don't know if any musician, whatever, like if you're given an ultimatum to choose music or your family, like, it's, that's a hard choice. I don't know. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: had, I always found that most of the time on relationships
and being in the music at the, at that time was everything that someone loved about me was with what they wanted to change. If, if, we got married, I don't know why that was, but, it just led to that. And,
Rae Leigh: Strange.
Jimmy Fortune: it was, it was, of a tough thing, but I had, no, it was. just the way it was. But then again, I was young and foolish and, kind of an idiot and a, and a kid, wrapped up.
Rae Leigh: Sounds like a rock star to me.
Jimmy Fortune: And so a lot of the reasons it didn't work was my fault, but then again, it was, it was kind of like, It was destined to be what it was and
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: it just didn't work out. But anyway,
Rae Leigh: Fair enough.
Jimmy Fortune: of led to, eventually playing all the clubs and everything until one day. When I was 26 years old, I was working at a car dealership as a service writer. And I was also playing music six nights a week, four hours a night. And, I get a call from, the Statler brothers, saying that they wanted to talk to me. They had heard about me. I actually had
Rae Leigh: That's a good way to go. Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: one of them, at a ski resort, which his name is Luda wit who sang tenor for the Statler brothers.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: And it's done the Statler brothers were the most awarded act in, in the history of country music. And they were, very big at the time, and country. And, and it being from Virginia, they were larger than life because they were from Virginia as well. And, so everybody knew about them and everything.
Well, they called me up and said, Hey, could you come over? And, Lou Dewitt was gonna have to be out for awhile for about six months because he had Crohn's disease. And, they asked me to come over and audition, because Lou had heard me singing at a ski resort up in Virginia. And he said, I heard this kid from across the mountain.
He said, I don't know if you guys might want to give him a chance he can fill in for me, you know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And so, I mean, I'm writing a book right now on my life. And, this is one of the longest chapters in the book because it's, so it's such a long story, but, I'll try to make a long story short, but, they, they, they asked me to come over and audition and I did.
And, Of course, I couldn't believe I was singing with, but cause like I said, they were just larger than life. And so they'd done, you know, flowers on the wall and that was one of their biggest hits and roses. And I'll go to my grave loving you class 57, so many big, big songs in country music, but anyway, they wound up hiring me, for temporary until Like, from in January of 1982.
And so I went with them and I helped them out on the road and things really went well. And then when July came around, Louis coming back, lead a witness, coming back to join the group
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: and because he'd had his surgery by then and he decided that he didn't think he could do it anymore. So he asked me to do it full time I'd already had, I had two record deals offered to me from two different record labels in that. That said, after you finished filling in for Lou, come talk to us because we want to talk to you about maybe doing recording for us.
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Jimmy Fortune: whenever that, whenever he said, I don't think I can do this anymore, would you do this? I've felt an obligation to the Statler brothers because they given me a break and in that ha ha you know, help them to that point. And he just said he wasn't going to be coming back. And
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: would have to go through it all again. And I was just said, you know, they've been so good to me and given me this break, I'll just, if if they want me to stay here, I will.
Rae Leigh: Do you ever think back to those record label offers? Like, I, mean, your solid career could have started, 21 years earlier.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah, it could have, but for some reason I just felt an obligation and,
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Jimmy Fortune: there was a big part of me felt that way.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: then there was another part of me deep down that I just didn't know if I was ready for that. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I just
Rae Leigh: I th
Jimmy Fortune: my,
Rae Leigh: believe in divine timing,
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: dunno if you do it,
Jimmy Fortune: at the time. And I was so young and I was so naive about so many things that I kind of felt like these older men were, would kind of, helped me a little bit more on the straight and narrow a little bit, rather than then venture off into somewhere that I shouldn't be. And I felt an urge to do that. And I just, and I also felt
like, Hey, these, I never wanted to really come in and
take somebody else's place.
And I felt really weird about that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: And,
Rae Leigh: it sounds like it happened in a nice way though.
Jimmy Fortune: it, did. I came to help and I think that's why.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: At that point, I told Lou, I said, well, Lou, coming in, but I'm not taking your place. I said, you will always be the first
tenor of this group, but I will make a place for myself.
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: That's the attitude that I took with it.
Rae Leigh: Yep. And, you did, and then you started writing for them.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah, I never had written before, so I went and I said, guys, if I write a song, would
you guys record it? and the Harold Reed of the group, which he just passed away last year from kidney disease. So in April, I miss him very much. But he said he was the bass singer. He said, well, a little buddy. said, if you write a song, we will record it. If it's good enough. And I thought, well, what an honest answer, you know, it couldn't be any more honest
I already had this melody in my head that I just thought was a beautiful melody.
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: And I said, I just need something to go with this. Well, we were on our way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We're going on the road to Tulsa and Aqua also to Oklahoma city to do a concert, to two concerts that weekend. So we were leaving town and I went and stopped at a Kroger on the way out of town. And I went inside and there was a little girl in a shopping cart sitting in it and a grocery cart and there, and she, this little girl was reaching over and pulling stuff off the shelf or her mom was to shop and she was going down, Elizabeth, you stop that now you,
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: it was like, and I just kind of laugh because, and I won't go the other end of the store.
And there's a little, there's a young girl in there and she's, my mom was talking. I heard name was Elizabeth. And I'm like, I suppose the chances of that, I mean, she's
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I'm just hearing this name. So then we, we get on the bus and we're on our way to, to Oklahoma. And Harold pulls out this movie that says, have you ever seen this movie called giant with Elizabeth Taylor and, rockets?
And then James Dean? I said, no, but I'd like to see it. And so watched that movie and I just fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor. She was so beautiful.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And, I said such mean that name again was just coming up. And then we went to, the first night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we were doing a concert and,
there was this, uh, up near the front of the stage and this girl comes up out of the audience and runs up and grabs my hand. And she wouldn't let go. She just kept holding onto my hand. And I was trying to get back to the mic and sing, but she kept saying, I'm Elizabeth, I'm Elizabeth, I'm
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: at to me. And I'm like, man. Went, after the show, we were signing autographs at night and she came through the line and I said, you know what I said?
I said, I love that name. I think it's the most beautiful name. said, I'm going to write a song called Elizabeth. And I said, you, I said, you just kind of not pushed it over the edge because I kept hearing that name over and over. And I said, I think it's a beautiful name.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: went to the, back to my hotel room that night and I had two of those, Walkman tape recorders. And, i, took them in the bathroom cause it's got a. Echo reverb.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Chris takes. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I turned it on and I saying, saying the course and I had a verse in the course and, I sang into my tape recorder and then, played it and then sang the stack, a part on the, into the next tape recorder. And then I'll put them, took them back and forth in some, parts of the harmony. So
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: it for the guys, they would hear the harmonies and hear what it was sound like.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: I, uh, took, the next morning and I played that form, on my recorder and they said, we're going to record that. That's going to, that'll be on our first record. She said, go ahead and finish, put it, put another verse to it. And we'll, we'll, uh, we'll, record it. I did. And,
Rae Leigh: crazy.
Jimmy Fortune: and so they
Rae Leigh: And that was your first song that, you ever wrote.
Jimmy Fortune: right,
Rae Leigh: That's insane.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. I, I was, I was so busy, during all the other, doing other people's music through the years,
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: learning other people's songs that I never, I never even, I, I kind of set her, would sit down and
dabble with little things here and
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Jimmy Fortune: really finished anything.
Rae Leigh: The rules though. You first, song's not supposed to be a hit song.
Jimmy Fortune: well that's, what's what, uh, you know, I heard, but you know, these are like, these are like, so many God things that happened in my life. I have no idea, even though, even when, the times when I was probably at my worst in my life, he still had his hand moving me in places that I, I, give my mom the credit for that, because she was always the one on east praying for me so much. She, she would always tell me, you know, I'm praying for you. And, you know, this and that, you know, things would happen that I couldn't explain that there were only God, things like that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and, when I recorded the song and it was a third single, I think we had,
we had a top 20 song, in another, another that went top 10 and the third single then people use it released about three singles off their records.
This will be the last single off of that first album.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And it was, Elizabeth and it was, it start, the song went number one and it went number one on my birthday that
Rae Leigh: wow.
Jimmy Fortune: And, I won songwriter of the year that year for it. I wasn't expecting to, but I was watching the show. I was watching an old tV
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: room and, Elizabeth one song of the year.
Rae Leigh: What was that on? Was like BMI or something like that.
Jimmy Fortune: It was on a, it was a for all the fan voted awards. It was
Rae Leigh: Ah, beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: it Was a music city news, a fan voted awards song of the year, a song and songwriter of the year that year. And, it turned turn out to be song of the year and country music that year as well. One for that, it went number one. So, it was such a shock because, I wasn't expecting that. And then I was like, you know, we'll, Hey, where do you go from here? It, it went on another number of other accolades as well. I was like, where do I go from here? What do I do? And, kind of started becoming a fanatic about writing.
I was just the morning to do LK. I got this. So then I, my brother, Tony came to me. He was getting married and he wanted me to, write a, or not write a song. He wanted me to do a lot of Richie song for his wedding.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And, I didn't know the song and I'd heard it of course, but I didn't know it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: So he said it was called, I think it was my endless love is what it was.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: said, you know, I said, you know what, I'm going to make this opportunity. I said, I'm going to go home. And I'm going to write a song, call my only love. And I'll do that for your wedding.
He said, Okay.
But tomorrow I said, do you think you can do it? I said, well, I'll give it a try. So
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: that night and I went back the next day and, sang it for his. At, during the lighting of the unique unity candles and he lived, he looked over at me and he, he put his finger up. He said, that's the number one song. And sure enough, it was number one, number one, billboard,
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: number one, one songwriter of the year for that song.
Rae Leigh: He really do have an anointing on your life. Don't you?
Jimmy Fortune: it, it has been, I mean, it's the only way I can, the only way I can look at it, these God things that happen, that you don't know that, that just come from somewhere that just, And it's, I
Rae Leigh: you're open to it.
Jimmy Fortune: it's a combination of, life that you've lived when I looked back in,
I see my life kind of, come through my songs, I guess you might say.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: but, but that song, you know, that, and then I'll also, then next year, I had, first born son was born with spinal bifida and it.
was pretty serious time that we went through with that. And, then I was, by that time I was in my second marriage when, I've written, I'd been away from home.
And then again, the home life has taken a hit and was having surgeries and I was from home when I couldn't be there for this one surgery that he was going through, but I was able to make it back for that day then had to leave that night. And
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I sit down and wrote a song called, too much on my heart.
And, then they recorded that song and it became a number one song as well
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and the next year. So it was like three years in a row. Those
things happened and it was song of the year and I one songwriter for that.
Rae Leigh: Love how it seems so natural like that you weren't sitting there going, okay. I need to write a hit song. You were just, just doing it for love and family and for life.
Jimmy Fortune: Right. Right. And because I knew it was hard assets, you know, this is too much to ask, can you give me another solid this year? You know what I mean?
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Jimmy Fortune: was just, it was just not like that. It was just like, well, okay, I'm just going to do this and put it out there and see what happens. And, I think that was a defining moment for me listening to that song because it was straight from the heart, you know?
And it
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I listened to it, I went, okay. Yeah. I think I do have something here because You know, something's going on, you know? And,
Rae Leigh: feel it.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: so through the years, you know, later I, I wrote a tribute to the Vietnam veterans and it was a song called more than them on a wall, which, which,
Rae Leigh: Beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: was the number one. It was not. I don't know, four or five billboard, I think, but there were two billboard stations that wouldn't play because they said it. was controversial being that it was from the Vietnam era and now about that, you know? and
Rae Leigh: Yeah. My dad's a Vietnam veteran. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. I didn't really understand that. And I kind of didn't like what happened, but anyway, it was still one of the biggest songs that I ever had anything to do with, because it's, it was it was number one in sales and it was uh, actually, CMA.
Rae Leigh: that inspired you to write that song about the Vietnam war?
Jimmy Fortune: I had seen, there was
a lot of controversy about it because they were building the, uh, the wall in Washington DC
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: had, uh, and they were, the news were talking about it about every night about this woman that had designed it. And, uh, they were talking about it and didn't know if it was this or that, or, People know whether people were going to like it or whatever, you know, but
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: just said, I've got to go. I just need to, to see it. And, because, I had this, I tried to join the air force, but about a month before the brothers hired me, but I just wanted to serve my country.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: this, did good on the test and everything, but I had kids and they were like, no, we can't take you in. not, we don't want to take any by the has kids or whatever,
Rae Leigh: Really.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. And so didn't, didn't get to there, but I just wanted to do something, for, for my country. But I also felt this heavy, heavy burden for the Vietnam veterans that came back because I saw all these things that happened. Like, like these men getting off. Planes and in LA and when they were coming out people were throwing stuff at him and spitting at them and cussing at them and, and I saw this and was like, my God, are they doing? Because you know, guys went and fought for the same reasons everybody else did for these wars. They couldn't help what, you know, what the outcome was because they had,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: they had no say in that they, they just had to do what they did. And they went for the same reasons and they were, they were brave and they put their lives on the line for us. And, and, I always had this burden to, to recognize them. So I went to Washington DC and I saw all the memorials and, I walked around and, and, I saved the Vietnam Memorial for last
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and I was spiritually moved through the whole thing and I walked up to it and, saw. And I literally just overwhelmed with when I looked at each of those names and I just saw one stacked on top of the other going on, on, on forever.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And, and I stood there and I listened to stories and I listened to some of the people talk and I just kinda was just there, like, I just didn't want to be, the way I just kind of stood back and I let some things kind of happen in front of me. And I heard stories and I heard this one woman who came and she, for a son's name and she was crying and shaking. And, she just wanted to trace her son's name off the wall and she found his name and she just broke down and she started praying and she's then she started talking, she started talking to her son. Connie. My name is Zippy was there right in front of her. And
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: she was just talking to him he was standing there. I don't mean this. I said, this is powerful. I said, my gosh. And I
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: I felt like he was there right in front of her. And I just, um, just hit me. I said, you know, they're more than just a name on a wall. There's so much
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: So, uh, I had a way to them in with a friend of mine back in net and Virginia, I told, I called him up and I told him, I said, I got this idea.
We're going to write it. And we went and we had lunch at this place in Stanton and we talked and then we met another man that his son was a Vietnam veteran. And,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: talked with, to him and we said, we're getting ready to go back to my house. And we're going to write this song. And, uh, he was a piano player and I just kinda, uh, he sat on the piano and he started playing the piano.
And that just started. These words just started coming and I'd say the tape recorder going. And that that's the story just fell out and, uh, and it became a huge song. I mean, it was, uh, um,
Rae Leigh: beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: it, it, uh, really has, um, done a lot of healing.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: it's a healing song and I've had veterans come up to me and say, you know, we didn't start healing until we heard this
song. And
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: somebody actually knows how we feel.
Somebody actually knows that we were important that we did
our job as best we could do it. And, uh,
Rae Leigh: And that's all they want. Right? I mean,
it's, it's one of those things where a group of people that need healing, not just from going to war and, but the, the healing of the damage of rejection when they came back and not being debriefed or celebrated or congratulated, and the shame, shame, shame is such a killer.
And I don't know what it's like in America, but in Australia, more people committed suicide after the Vietnam war than people who died in the Vietnam war. And that side of that, that trauma of returning from the Vietnam war. It's still very
unrecognized
Jimmy Fortune: it
Rae Leigh: and, um, yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: And,
Rae Leigh: close to my heart.
Jimmy Fortune: I just, uh, like I said, I have a burden for
them and, uh, every one of them that come up to my shows and we've come up, we'll hug and they'll say, thank you. And the tears are coming down and they came, some of them came and get a word out
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: go, God, I look up and I said, God, thank you for giving me this song
to let, let, let it pass through me that you let it pass through me to, to them. To
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: And again, um, my purpose. I mean, I'm 66 years old now. And I, the, the physical part of me, you know, it's getting harder to go out and do it, but I'm getting more busy than I've ever been in my life. And I'm like, God, what is this all about? And I thank you for it, but yet, um, the spiritual part of me says, you need to keep doing it.
You need to keep going,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And, you know, as long as, my whole purpose is to, is to say thank you to people, to the veterans and to, and to give people hope that go through things in life that, you know, I've had a lot of, I've been a lot of things happen, you know, uh, in my life, where
I could have gone one way or another made another choice.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: but I made, , I had. I had to to a spiritual reckoning in my life, uh, to say it was a crossroads and say, okay, um, what do I want my life to be? What do I, what's the real person inside of me? Who is that? And who is he? And what is his purpose and what does he want to do? And I had to look at myself and make that choice. And, and I, and it wasn't a hard choice. It
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: choice. It was, it was to say, I don't want that,
you know, the negative, I want the positive. And I want the, to build on the spiritual realm of positivity and to go on from this point on. I
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: kind of cliche, but, uh, to say, you know, that what God has meant to me in my life, but it's been without him and without the presence of, of, uh, of that higher power. I really feel like I wouldn't be here
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: right
Rae Leigh: I can relate to that. and you've had a
ministry and a gifting that you've not only had for yourself, but you shared it with
the rest of us.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah.
And I feel like, um, he's got me in this place for a reason. Uh, and we're all in this together
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: it's hard. Life is hard. And with all this stuff that's going on in the world right now, we need, uh, positivity. We need, um, help one another. And if you don't know what to do, at least you can talk to each other, at least you can, say, you know, what can I do for you?
What can I do to help you? What can a say? Or, and then when I, like I said, music, I can talk all day long. I can say this and I can say that, but when they hear it in a song, for some reason, the music moves people.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And your emotions. Mixed with the words that may come out of your heart from, from another that they know, like when I listened to it, I know that I wrote a song here a couple of years ago, um, that I know God was speaking to me through the whole song, writing it,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I want you to say this. I want you to say this, but I want you to say, and, and then when I listened to it it it speaks to me like it's coming from him, you know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: uh, and then I'm going, man. And then there'll be somebody a song called I love you more. And it's, the song is, there's a line of, love you more than, anything that you know, that you've ever done, you know, in your life. That may be something that, that you hate yourself.
But I love you more. And
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: I'll let me love you until you love you again. And
Rae Leigh: the hard one. Isn't it?
Jimmy Fortune: I just, listened to it. Not that didn't come from me. It was God speaking me opening myself up spiritually to say, Hey, what do you,
what do you want me to say? And then he gives you those lines and you sit there and go, man. I know, I know, I know. I know that that didn't come from me.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: It came from him and these are little things. And then when someone comes up after a show and says, that song was meant for me, I, I know that God was speaking to me through that song. And then you, and then you confirm the fact with him and say, okay, you, you you got. You you're it? you know, and, and these are things that even take credit for. I just, I, the only thing I take credit for is opening myself up and saying, use me,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: please use
Rae Leigh: And it takes courage.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah.
Rae Leigh: It really does.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. And doing it and, and I have, I've just, uh, I don't know. I've just been happy with where I'm at in my life right now, even though, like I said, all the things that are going on. I said, if something happened and I wasn't here tomorrow, I could only say that I've been blessed.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I couldn't ask for anything better. The only thing bad that has happened to me in my life, I did to myself. And those are the things that, that we suffer consequences. Even though we turn our lives around,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: we to get back on track. But we still have to face those things that, uh, that
Rae Leigh: I think that's probably probably true for a lot of us. Actually. These are the worst things that happened to us. We've done to ourselves. And then also our greatest humbling lessons in life to,
Jimmy Fortune: mm.
Rae Leigh: go of the control. Tell me a little bit, um, about that decision from, you know, when you finished up with the Statler brothers to having your own solid career, was that a hard decision to start doing it yourself? Or were you considering just stopping there?
Jimmy Fortune: You know, I didn't know really what to do in a way, but I had had a dream about my, my daddy passed away in 1994 and, and that was my first big loss in my life. As far as the personal office from someone that's close to me that, that you love so much. And, I. I'm a dreamer. And I have really weird dreams. Sometimes, sometimes they don't make sense a lot of times,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I've had only, only three dreams that were so real to me I can't even explain it more real than, than me sitting here physically in my physical body. And the first dream came with my dad about two years before the standard brothers retired. And, uh, I didn't know that they were going to retire, but anyway, in this dream I'm standing backstage and I'm by myself and I'm pacing back and forth. And in the dream, I'm like, why am I here by myself, getting ready to go do a show?
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Jimmy Fortune: And, all of a sudden this door opens up and my dad walks through this bright light and he said, I bet you never thought you'd see me again.
Did you boy? And he just that, that plane. And I ran over to my dad and I. I have my arms around him, around his waist and I was on my knees. I was hugging him
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: patting me on the back he Sussan this. All right. Okay. Um, you know, and, uh, he just looked beautiful. I don't know how to explain it, but just, uh, and he said, now you got to get out there and you, and you're going to be doing your own shows.
You're going to be on your own. And,
Rae Leigh: wow.
Jimmy Fortune: up and I didn't want to wake up. I was just crying. I didn't want to wake up,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: me. And I woke up and I was like, no, you know, I wanna, I wanna S I wanna go back in that dream. And I want to spend more time with him, you know? And
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: had so many things I wanted to say, but, um, I just couldn't get that dream out of my head. It was so real. So when their Statler brothers decided to retire, they call me in and as a January 9th, 2002, and they said, oh, we're going to be retiring. We're going to be here. This could be our last year. And the last show is going to be October the 26, year. And, that's going to be it for
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: And they said, what are you going to do? And, uh, I thought of that dream immediately. I said, well, I'm going to keep on going. And, just put things, started putting things in, in a to do it. And I had a, I had a big, it was like a big desire, a big E I was eager to, to explore that and to into it. And I was like, man, all of a sudden, this whole new realm opened up of, of creativity and of, uh, just, oh man, like the roof came off. It's like, oh,
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Fortune: But yet I knew deep down it was going to be hard and, and it was going to be tough because it wasn't gonna be like, you know, you're stepping from. Big time group. And all of a sudden people know that shadow brothers are, but they don't necessarily know fortune. They don't know that name and
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: you gotta,
Rae Leigh: it's a new brand.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: So, I knew that that was going to be hard. But I put one foot in front of the other and, and it was hard. It was really, really hard for a long time because I was going into places to play. These fairs were hiring me to come. And, I would to the fair, somewhere and, and where we used to have this big stage and lights and sound and stuff. And
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: to, to pull up and they said, well, there's your, it would be two, two speakers, PV speakers on sticks with a little P one microphone sitting in the middle of a, of a racetrack. And there would be the grand stands in front of. You'd have a hundred people sitting out in front of you for a show
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: There'll be a demolition Derby going on behind you with 5,000 people at it. And, and so, then, asked the guys who will where's, where's the dressing room? He said your dressing rooms coming through the gate right now.
it was a horse trailer it wasn't, he wasn't even cleaned out. So,
Rae Leigh: Oh, gosh.
Jimmy Fortune: so those were the things that I had to get reality check and go, wow, this is a, all of a sudden, Oh, Jim Bo you're out there. But then, eventually, you know, things started to change and I started to get these little theaters here and there, and people started to catch on and, the internet happened pretty much. And, and, people started keeping up with you on computer and, and on Facebook and on that, and the other. And they just started coming together.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And I'll tell you about another dream. My mom passed away in 2000 and, hadn't dreamed about her full while. And, uh, I would dream about her, but would be, she would be off at a distance with some other people or whatever.
And, this one, one morning I dropped into, you know, your finger shift, just drop into this deep sleep, deep sleep.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: myself drop and it's like, oh, totally And,
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: and my mom's face came up in front of me and I was mama's boy, I'm going to tell you. And her face just came right up in front of me.
And I reached out and I grabbed her. I said, mama, I love you. And, and I grabbed her and I pulled her up. head was like right beside my, and she whispered in my ear and she said, I love you son.
And I felt the whisper over. Like it was in my ear
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and I just, again, I woke afraid up and I, I was crying. I was like, no, I didn't want to wake up.
I said, I
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: right here in my arms. And it was like, she back to say, I love you one more time to me. Like, she, I felt like she made a deal with God's. Let me just tell him, I love him one time. And she
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and this dream. And, Um, and so those were the two that were so real, but then I had a, my best friend was killed in an accident.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: we were, in full wheel and accident, like two weeks after nine 11. And, and it was so devastating
to me. Cause he was like my best, one of my best friends in the war.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I had to tell his wife and three daughters that he'd gotten killed and
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: and, uh, it was, so it was just bad. And he came, I was having dreams, nightmares that kept occurring. I kept seeing over and over and over again. I kept seeing it and, I couldn't, couldn't sleep and I couldn't, I just couldn't get it out of my head, my heart.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And then one , one night I dreamed he came to me in a dream and he told me he was fine. And he said, he said, look, he said, you need to start sleeping and you need to move on to your life. He said, because if this was reversed, if it had been you, would you want me to feel the way you feel in this dream? And,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: I was like,
Rae Leigh: that's powerful stuff.
Jimmy Fortune: and he was beautiful. I don't even know how to explain it. It was just, he was so beautiful.
And so perfect in this dream. And when I woke up from it under never had those dreams again, I never, uh, I just, I went on and, uh, and I could, I could go on,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: after that, I just, um, and that's the only three I've had like that in my whole life
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: way. So I felt like, um, they were dreams, uh, the spiritual realm is more powerful than the physical realm by far.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And I think music gets to say doesn't it.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. Yeah. I felt that. was a musician too. He was a singer songwriter. A very good that I grew up with. He was the first band I was in. it. was him and
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And we were both together that day when all that happened. Um, all of us were together that day
actually, but, um, let's Yeah. We've, like I said, we've. Um, live life and, and the songs that I'm singing, the songs that I'm writing are these life experiences and a feeling that this is a beautiful world and I've loved every minute. I've loved every minute of living. I think God gave us some beautiful things in this world to enjoy,
Rae Leigh: That's great.
Jimmy Fortune: But the, uh, this is just a passing through to
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: To what there really is after this because of the spiritual realm of it.
Um, and, uh, felt that, and just, just these dreams almost felt like they were a part of something that was so powerful that I can't even explain.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. It's beautiful to have that connection to the other side.
Jimmy Fortune: it really is. And, I don't know what people do.
That think that there's nothing else that this is it, you just live and you die.
I've talked to a lot of people felt that way. They said, oh, I think you just live. you die. That's it. And I'm like, well, you know, sit up. I will. I just don't think I could live without knowing what I know.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: could, I would, but I'm, but I'm saying, I sure do like the fact that there's hope and there's something else that, uh, cause so many things seem so unfair about this world.
You know,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I said it can't be that unfair. It's gotta be, there's gotta be some, some reckoning somewhere, you know? And so it's
Rae Leigh: Oh, maybe I think there always is. Yeah. And sometimes you don't always say it, but you only ever know what you know, you know, and
Jimmy Fortune: yeah.
Rae Leigh: of my aunties always told me that you've got to love people for exactly where they're at in life and sometimes
Jimmy Fortune: Hmm.
Rae Leigh: not having faith or hope is just where someone is at at that particular time. And that is sad, but, um, we gotta have grace and compassion for all people, no matter what.
Jimmy Fortune: And I think if they see if they see something in someone, that they look at it and say, well, Hey, I really would like to have what that person has because I liked that. they look at somebody and say, I'm glad I ain't like that. You know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: people, get, they talk about, you know, I've heard people talk about, you know, going to church.
I think going to church is important and
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: that relationship. And they said, well, I don't want to go to church. Cause it's a bunch of hypocrites. I said, well, there may be, there may be hypocrites in there, but I can tell you one thing. There are some people that are real, real people that love God and, and, uh, and,
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: and, are doing the right thing. So
Rae Leigh: about connecting with each other, isn't it?
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. it's about, it's about. When you go, which it's not just, you don't go for everybody else, you go for the spiritual, connection with, uh, with, with what you're looking for with, with what
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: you're looking for that, um, and other people who feel the same way, You know,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: it helps.
Rae Leigh: You always get exactly what you need and that is a promise. Isn't it?
Jimmy Fortune: Hm.
Rae Leigh: It might not always get what you want, but you'll always get what you need
Jimmy Fortune: A
Rae Leigh: you don't want what you need. Okay. So tell me, um, I mean, cause it's been such a long career, thank you so much for sharing. Is there something over your life that you would say stood out as like some of the best advice that you've ever received that really helped you, you know, within your career?
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah, when I was thinking about going on my own and I would share that's what I was going to do. I was, I was scared. And, I had mentioned it to, to Dan Reed at the Statler brothers. And, and he said, he said, look, he said, when you came here to audition for us, he said, you walked through the door and you were, you, you weren't anybody else. And he said, you can't be anybody else. You only can be yourself. And he said, if you try to be someone else and do what someone else did, you're, you're only gonna fail. But it said, when you just be, you and people will love you for who you are and, uh, stay true to yourself. And that was probably the biggest, thing that I took to heart.
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: I can't, I won't be anybody else. I won't try to act like anybody else. I won't try to. I'm just going to just stay true to myself and what I really feel in my heart.
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: and I think I'm no that's been the, Um,
that's been the whole thing that's driven me, but it's also been, uh, That's caught on to people.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I didn't try to go out and become the standard brothers again. I didn't put together a to become the Staten brothers and I didn't do that. I just went out as who I am and, let that be me and, stay true, true to that. I guess just watching my mom the way she was, she was a prayer warrior growing up.
The way she
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: is the way. Pray for my dad. dad was an alcoholic that one day, we, we went from not wanting to come home at night because of the chaos at home.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: we didn't and mom kept praying for him and we'd say, mom, you need to quit because he's never going to do that. He's blah, blah, blah. We gave up on him.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: never would. One day in 1967, he, he ran up at a revival meeting at an old Oak hill Baptist church and Nelson county, Virginia, and, and, and a broken man fell at the altar and gave his life to God and said, I'll, I don't want to be that man anymore. I wanna, I want my family and I want to be who I really am.
Rae Leigh: That's beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: my hero and I saw that that was one of the biggest impacts on my life.
Rae Leigh: Mm
Jimmy Fortune: prayer can do. I saw what God did. Through through my mom's praying.
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Jimmy Fortune: I saw a man that was, will do anything for a drink of liquor or beer
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and, became my hero. And I mean the real person. And so I said, we know if they could do, if the God could do that for him, he could do it for me.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And it was, probably one of the most powerful things I ever saw my life that helped me. And it changed me when I got down in my life, uh, to, to where I needed to take that, that had that reckoning.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: I did the same thing my dad did. And I just said, Hey, I, I don't like the person. don't like that other person. That's trying to come into my life and rule my life. and ruin my life. I just don't like it. I w I want to from it and God, whatever you gotta do to help me.
Rae Leigh: It's such a courageous thing to set aside the ego and to humble yourself like that.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah, I mean, it's, well, that's the thing I had totally get rid of that. ego
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and,
Rae Leigh: going good for no one?
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. That's, that's exactly right. Uh, I had somebody tell me 70 years ago, they said, You know, if you don't have ego, you're never going to make a net business. I said, well, I
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: I, said, I said, if I gotta be that way, I don't want it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And that's not me. I don't, I'm just not that that person, but God is I'll let him be the driver. Let him be the one? It says, what you, what you need to do and what, what you, what he wants you to do. I mean, my life it's almost like my life. It doesn't really belong to me anymore. Belongs to him. And he had. Let's say, but in the process has made me very happy.
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: being all about me.
Rae Leigh: he has to say, but you, you have the choice to listen and obey or, or not. And it sounds like you've learnt what happens when you don't.
Jimmy Fortune: yes, I have. I've seen it because I've been down those wrong roads and,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: believe me, people that people love me. I know that they love me and they give me all this credit and everything,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: them, you know, I said, let me tell you something, the Jim Bo, he ain't always been that, that squeaky clean dude that you see that, you know, there's been things out fought with in my life that I've had to, have, the only way I could overcome it, this spiritual,
Rae Leigh: And we all have, we all have, we've all had been humbled.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah. I couldn't do it, otherwise. , that's why I know it's so important.
But he's seen. God revealed himself. In my turning over my weaknesses to him,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: he has really, to look at him and say he doesn't exist, or he's not real. I mean, I could, if I was to do that, oh my God. I don't know how I could ever do that because, he still he's so real to me.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: uh,
Rae Leigh: we all have our own revelations that are in time.
Jimmy Fortune: um,
Rae Leigh: um, yeah, I think it's beautiful when people have whatever they have at any given time, because it's just, it's what we're supposed to be, you know?
Jimmy Fortune: Um,
Rae Leigh: and like, it is our choice, but it's also everyone else's choice and
Jimmy Fortune: yeah.
Rae Leigh: we just hit.
Jimmy Fortune: add a world? Did you become so smart to be so young and
Rae Leigh: I've I've had a lot of pain and a lot of trauma
Jimmy Fortune: uh,
Rae Leigh: you know, daddy with a Vietnam veteran PTSD and a mummy who, had five children at 42.
Personal and depression in a church that, church and God came first. I was very neglected and left alone. And not, not on purpose. I think they were doing the best that they could.
And I can politely have a lot of compassion for the teachings at the time, but, I was left unprotected and I felt very unloved. And I had another Vietnam veteran who made the opposite choices to my dad. And, he was my mom's foster brother, so he was kind of an uncle and I ended up having a relationship with him from the age of four until I was 12, you know, and, and he used the Bible to manipulate me as a little as well.
So, I, and all I had to, to learn from was the Bible and, and an encyclopedia, which was very unhelpful. So,
Jimmy Fortune: No mug.
Rae Leigh: and so, yeah, I grew up, studying the Bible and just. Doing the best that I could to try and deal with what I was dealing with, but I became a mummy at the age of 23. And that was when I realized that I was too young to have had any sort of, for it to be my fault. I thought I was, you know, the shameful sinful person, as a child, having this relationship with this older man. And when I, when I became a mom at 23, I, I quickly realized that I was far too young to have ever made any decisions. I looked at my own child and I thought, you know, even in four or 5, 10, 20 years, time, this child's going to have no idea. And I realized I was a victim of this person and I, you know, I reported it and it went through the court cases and very positive outcomes. Like, I mean, he was charged guilty in a trial of over nine charges of indecent sexual assault towards a minor. And it started a really long healing journey for me.
Jimmy Fortune: Wow.
Rae Leigh: yeah, you know, and like,
Jimmy Fortune: I can hear such positivity in you uh, through all the, in it, and
Rae Leigh: Thank you.
Jimmy Fortune: I think it's amazing that you, you, you, realized what you had been through, but you
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: didn't, just look at what you'd been through. You looked at what everybody else had been through. You looked at their side of it to try to
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: them. That is amazing to me that you
Rae Leigh: you.
Jimmy Fortune: do that. I mean, um, that
Rae Leigh: I think he's been to my detriment sometimes, but yeah. I have a lot of compassion for other people.
Jimmy Fortune: But that takes power. That takes something inside of you. That drives you. bigger than it's bigger than you that's what's that's, what's helped you, I think. And
Rae Leigh: Um, I'll music's helped me.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah, I can hear it. Any your
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: can, I can hear it. And then your spirit,
Rae Leigh: Thank you.
Jimmy Fortune: that you have a I feel it. I
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I, have.
Jimmy Fortune: just, uh, good for you. Good
Rae Leigh: Thank you. I know I have, there's a lot of people out there who haven't yet, you know, and that's why we need to share, but um,
Jimmy Fortune: But you and I both, like I said, we look and we're looking up, we're looking up and
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: you look up and, uh, realize that world is, this world is so it's a trash pile in a lot of ways, but it's
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: in a lot of ways, but it's. It's one extreme to the other and the man
Rae Leigh: Um,
Jimmy Fortune: of one extreme to the other. It can be
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: on and can also manholes the capability of being most beautiful thing on earth.
Rae Leigh: Oh, and we all are, we all have that power within us and it's um, yeah, but you, I mean, you inspire me people with, like you said, Could could share music with other people. Like it took me, I wrote songs in my bedroom as a healing practice for 30 years, and I could not share it with anyone because it was the thing that was keeping me alive, you know?
And I thought if someone didn't like my songs, that I would lose my music and then I would die. Like that was how extreme it was to me. And
Jimmy Fortune: Well, you
Rae Leigh: I don't know.
Jimmy Fortune: of your songs,
Rae Leigh: I'd love to send you my, my song I wrote for my dad. Father's
love, I think,
Jimmy Fortune: oh,
Rae Leigh: I'd love to send that to you.
Jimmy Fortune: please.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: , you know, uh, I can give him my email so I can put, give it to you and you, can,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That'd be great. I'll get that from me. I'm going to ask you one more question and we'll finish up the chat and then I'll grab your email off you. Okay.
Jimmy Fortune: Hmm,
Rae Leigh: All right. So if you could co-write with anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and why?
Jimmy Fortune: man. That's a good question. I would love to co-write with Johnny Cash.
Rae Leigh: Have you D worked with him didn't you? Or was that Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: only, only on a couple of occasions, but I never really got to, uh,
to know him I can only imagine sitting around and trying to write something with him. But when the last time I saw him, I live about a mile from where his house was and that's where I saw him. And of course his house, his house burned down when. Oh, 15, 16 years ago, male, and it burned down and it was just light over here. I saw this, I was hurting my yard and I smelled the smoke from it when the day was burning down. But the last time I saw him was there and, um, were with the Statler brothers and we'd been to visiting me. We'd been sick and, uh, but he was doing better and, uh, we were walking out and, I w I always sit back and kind of listen to them, talk and stuff.
We could tell stories and things, but I didn't feel like, uh, I, I was just kinda nervous or what, I just would let them talk. And I didn't say a lot. And, uh, we were leaving and he grabbed me and he said, uh, he got, he got me out and put his hands on both shoulders. She said, Jimmy, he said, um, I got to tell you, you said whenever the Statler brothers, Lou left the group, he said we were, we loved Lou.
He was horrible.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: ah, didn't think the stat of brothers, I didn't think he could ever actually replace him at all. Or,
and he said, but, uh, to tell you, so then he said, when I, when I heard Elizabeth, he said, I knew everything was going to be all right. When I heard that song. And I heard you saying, and um, he said, I regret that. I haven't gotten to spend more time with you and get to know you better in my life. He said, I just want you to know that, but we sure do like what you've done. And you've been a very much a success
and we've, we are happy for you. And, and when he told me that I
was, I was floored and,
Rae Leigh: anyone would be,
Jimmy Fortune: yeah,
Rae Leigh: think. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: And then, uh, you know, he passed away not long after that.
And I was. I would've liked to spend more time with him. And I would love, love to written a song with him. I just think it would've been a, it would've been something at the time where he was in his life spiritually. It was at a good place. And, uh, and so I think it would've been a good thing for me, uh, you know, to have gotten to do that, but there's so many writers, um, out there that I would, I would love to Rodney crowds.
One of my favorite writers,
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Jimmy Fortune: uh, I love, uh, Vince Gill. And I think we've talked about getting together a few times. I've never had,
because
we just been busy, he's doing something or I'm doing something, but,
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: um,
Rae Leigh: it'll happen. Perfect timing. Perfect timing.
yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: right. Um, and, um, there's one person that I wanted to meet that I never got to meet, that I would have loved to.
I just like my life wasn't complete unless I got to meet him. And it was Billy Graham and. News. just loved that man so much. And, um, I w I got to meet George Beverly Shea and, uh, spend some time with him, but, before he passed away, um, I always felt Like Billy Graham was the last true Saint on earth.
If you want to say Saint or someone who was, um,
Rae Leigh: a prophet or something. yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: you know, next to next to Jesus himself. I mean, I just thought he was that way, you know, and,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Jimmy Fortune: he would tell you that he wasn't, but,
Rae Leigh: no, yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: uh, Yeah, those, those are
the ones that I really wish I could have and I didn't get to, but, um, but
Rae Leigh: Beautiful.
Jimmy Fortune: yeah.
Rae Leigh: Cool. All right. Thank you so much for sharing with, you know, you've shared so much and I'm so grateful to you for spending the time. I know I reached out to you over like February this year, so, you know, perfect timing. I just want to give you over to the podcast. If there's anything else that you would like to say before we finish up, please.
Jimmy Fortune: well, I want to thank you for doing this. , I, feel like, we are kindred spirits here, some somehow
Rae Leigh: feel that. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: uh, I, I just think you're a wonderful person. I will look forward to meeting you one of these days. Hopefully, maybe
Rae Leigh: Ah, I would love that. I wrote with bill after, after We had our chat. Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: let's
Rae Leigh: A comedy song though.
Jimmy Fortune: well, that's the way
Rae Leigh: I don't,
Jimmy Fortune: I start writing anything serious, he gets this look on his face. Like I don't, want to go there or not, but.
Rae Leigh: think sense of humor is, is a really important thing to have in life.
Jimmy Fortune: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: humor. Humor is great. And that's what I love about him. I,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: takes me to another place where I can do things like that. So,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I can't wait to get back to Nashville just to be able to travel again, but,
Jimmy Fortune: yeah,
Rae Leigh: it is Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: um, you gotta promise me, we'll write together promise.
Rae Leigh: I promise.
Jimmy Fortune: Okay. I just want to say, the biggest gift. God gave me is my love for people. And I have a love for people that I can't understand sometimes, but always like to tell the people out there listening.
You from the bottom of my heart because, you're the reasons that I do what I do. And, without you, I wouldn't have a reason to do this. And, Just a very thankful person that I get to do it for you. And I hope that one day there's something I could say to help someone in your life.
I hope that God gives me that opportunity and, you all. That's what I want to say to everybody. I genuinely love you with a love that I can't even understand.
Rae Leigh: As beautiful and we feel it you're a beautiful soul and we're so grateful for all the work that you've done and the impact you've had on lives that you'll never, you'll never even know the full impact that you've had on people's lives. And I pray that, you know, that'll just continue on forever and I just, yeah, very, very grateful for you to come on here and share and inspire, you know, other people listening as well as songwriters who have also got the same gift, to just keep doing it.
Like you said, keep going,
Jimmy Fortune: we're all
Rae Leigh: never quit.
Jimmy Fortune: We're
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Fortune: and I cannot wait till I get to see you and write.
Rae Leigh: Yes. I'm going to travel. That'd be amazing. Okay. Thank you very much.
