Race Card #88-You can tune a car, you can tune a guitar, but you can't.......
.......find anyone more equally at home with both than Marty Robbins. Betcha thought I was gonna say "tuna fish" didn't you? LOL
He had the last show on the Opry for two very good reasons. One was he would have so many encores and curtain calls that whoever would have been coming on behind him might not even get the chance to come on at all. Marty loved to sing for his fans as much as anyone in the business, before or since.
The other reason was that it was the only way he could be sure that he could finish the main event at the track at the fairgrounds and still make his show after the race was over. I expect that Marty's shows were the only ones in Country Music history that were late because of too many caution flags. He may have even lost a race of two because he had to leave the track to go sing. I don't think, even with their reputation for all those hot rod and drag racing songs, that even ever happened to the Beach Boys.
While not always as flashy on stage as, say Porter Wagoner, Marty more that made up for it in his race car paint schemes. Hard to believe, that given his penchant for bright colors, that one of his first Grand National cars was a solid white Dodge Charger. Here's a not so plain ride from later in his racing days. Another fine GatorBuilt race car.
![]()
.......find anyone more equally at home with both than Marty Robbins. Betcha thought I was gonna say "tuna fish" didn't you? LOL
He had the last show on the Opry for two very good reasons. One was he would have so many encores and curtain calls that whoever would have been coming on behind him might not even get the chance to come on at all. Marty loved to sing for his fans as much as anyone in the business, before or since.
The other reason was that it was the only way he could be sure that he could finish the main event at the track at the fairgrounds and still make his show after the race was over. I expect that Marty's shows were the only ones in Country Music history that were late because of too many caution flags. He may have even lost a race of two because he had to leave the track to go sing. I don't think, even with their reputation for all those hot rod and drag racing songs, that even ever happened to the Beach Boys.
While not always as flashy on stage as, say Porter Wagoner, Marty more that made up for it in his race car paint schemes. Hard to believe, that given his penchant for bright colors, that one of his first Grand National cars was a solid white Dodge Charger. Here's a not so plain ride from later in his racing days. Another fine GatorBuilt race car.
