This is an IHeart podcast.

It's that time.

Lock and load.

The Michael Vary Show is on the air.

One of my great honors in 20 years of doing this program was when Rodney Crowell agreed to come in, sit across from me for the entirety of our evening show.

We talked about his relationship with the Cash family, Roseanne and Johnny.

We talked about his Houston upbringing and how he came to be known as a Houston kid

and why he took great pride in that.

We talked about the wayside of his youth.

We talked about the luminaries who covered his song and how that made him feel and what that did

for his bank account.

We talked about traveling, life on the road, maintaining personal relationships,

the craft, the artistry of songwriting.

And I think Rodney Crowell is like some of the great writers, Guy Clark being one of them.

I think he's the modern day poet.

There was once a time we celebrated Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Marlowe.

They were the people who could express in words, emotions, and give us the phrases to employ ourselves for the deep emotions, the tragedies, the joys,

the exaltations.

And that is what Rodney Crowell represents to me.

A modern-day poet, a wordsmith, a man of letters, words, thoughts, ideas.

And Ramon said,

dude, you're the biggest Rodney Crowell fan I've ever met.

...