Gene Watson

Up to his elbows in car parts and grease, Gene Watson will sometimes walk out of his Toy Shop when talk turns to music. One of country music's greatest singers, Watson regards the topic warily. He's never lived in Nashville, the epicenter for the kind of music he makes. Dressed casually, he shows no opulent signs of his success. Watson loves songs, and he loves to sing, and people love to hear him sing. Asked to name his favorite singers, country legend Ray Price says, “I have too many to name, but Gene Watson would be right around the top of the list.” But Watson — who had a lengthy string of hits in the 1970s and '80s including Love in the Hot Afternoon and Farewell Party — describes singing as a byproduct of his being: It's something he'd do even if he weren't a country singer. He's happiest in his auto shop just north of downtown, where he works on cars and trucks at his leisure. This day, Watson is rebuilding a hot rod with a friend. The shell is white, with a new terra-cotta-colored grille they had to order from New Zealand. Cars and trucks litter the grounds of the Toy Shop. Watson likes to drive around and find deals. He'll drag back his spoils and work on them with a circle of like-minded friends, who are inclined to talk to the mechanic, not the singer. A 1986 Chevrolet pickup Watson revived with a monster motor sits in the back of the shop. “The way gas is, I don't crank it much,” he says. He has a 1983 Monte Carlo in blue sitting in the dark. Its mileage is in the 20,000s, rare for a car of that vintage. Unlike many gear heads, Watson's voice doesn't rise when he talks about classic cars. His eyes don't sparkle. Car aren't a hot romance for him. They're also not something he takes for granted, necessarily, but something he knows and relies on like a spouse. “You know, I need this,” he says of the shop. “I have to have it. I'm the kind of person it's real easy for me to get too close to the forest, you might say. And I don't like that. When I get on my bus till the time I get off tour, I'm music 100 percent. But when I'm off the bus, I've got to have something to do. This has always been the release I had. It's a hobby, that's why I named it the Toy Shop, but it's more than that. It allows me to get back on the bus and do music again. That's the formula. Watson was born in Palestine, Texas, in 1943.[2] He began his music career in the 1960s, performing in local clubs at night while working in a Houston auto body shop during the day. He recorded for only a few small, regional record labels having a regional hit "Bad Water", until 1974, when Capitol Records picked up his album Love in the Hot Afternoon and released it nationally. The title track, a mid-tempo ballad in three-quarter time, was released in June 1975, and it quickly reached Number three on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart. Open Drive https://od.lk/f/OTFfNDU4OTUxOV8