31 years ago today, Don Williams scored his 12th #1 country hit with "Lord, I Hope This Day is Good."  The song was intended as a morning prayer and, coincidentally, the guy who wrote it, Dave Hanner, started writing it one morning and Don later recorded it in the morning.  Hanner said he was feeling depressed one morning and out came the hookline and most of the chorus.  He finished the song a few months later and took it to Mel Tillis, who back away from it because of its religious message (you know the old saying:  the 3 things you don't discuss with other people to avoid arguments are politics, religion and sex).  Don was attracted to it because of the religious message and it did so without being heavy-handed.

Steel guitarist Don Helms was born on this date in 1927.  A member of Hank Williams' band, The Drifting Cowboys, Don passed away in 2008.  In the late 1980's, The Drifting Cowboys played at the Waterloo Inn in Waterloo, Ont., and I was the MC for the show.  Sitting with Don and Jerry Rivers during the intermission and listening to some of their stories about Hank was priceless!

Happy birthday today to Chuck Glaser, of Tompall & The Glaser Brothers, and Johnny Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The icon, Johnny Cash, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, was born on this date in 1932.  He once autographed a hardcover copy of his first autobiograpy, "Man in Black," for me.  When I interviewed him in the late 1980's, we talked about his first record and he went into more detail for me than he did in his book.  Cash told me Sam Phillips at Sun Records gave him a 78rpm copy of his songs, "Hey Porter" and "Cry, Cry, Cry," and Johnny thought it was the only copy that had been and would ever be made.  So, he took it to the local radio station in Memphis where DJ Bob Neal played "Hey Porter" on the air and as he turned the heavy record over to play the other side, he dropped it and it broke into pieces!  Johnny was heartbroken and thought his career was over.  He went back to Sam Phillips and told him what happened.  Sam pulled out another record and said, "Here's another one."  Cash said to me, "To my amazement, he had a box of them!"  After the interview, I walked out of Johnny's dressing room with his road manager, who pulled me aside and said, "That was a great interview.  You guys talked about stuff even I didn't know about!"

Johnny Cash died in 2003 at the age of 71.

Singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor Faron Young was born on this date in 1932 in Schreveport, Louisiana.  He joined "The Louisiana Hayride" in 1951, served in the U.S. Army from 1952-1954 and was discovered by Webb Pierce.  Faron, later known as "The Singing Sheriff," acted in several movies and was founder and publisher of Music City News magazine.  Early in my career (early 1980's), I watched him perform in concert and he sat with me during the intermission.  Faron had 89 singles on the Billboard country chart from 1953-1989, five of them were #1 hits!  Although "Hello Walls" may be his most famous hit (it was #1 for nine weeks), "Alone With You" was at the top of the charts for 13 weeks.  Faron died in 1996 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 64.

Happy 16th anniversary today to Paul Brandt and his wife Liz!  Paul married Elizabeth Peterson at the Centre Street Church in Calgary, Alberta.  They had met at his church where it was love at first sound--he loved her singing at a Christmas Eve service in 1995.  I don't know if he still does it, but for a while Paul wore his wedding ring on his right hand after he got married because it kept clunking against the neck of his guitar!  His dad, Claude, a Calgary paramedic, was best man at the wedding.  Happy anniversary, Paul and Liz!