NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Many know I love the history of American music. My husband and I enjoy documentaries about the various singers/bands who create the soundtrack of our lives. We can’t even tell our stories without including the popular songs that we remember and love.
Pat Boone is one of the most beloved pop artists of the 20th century. At age 89, he was a favorite of my parents. His daughter, Debby Boone, was popular when I was growing up.
For over seven decades, Pat Boone has captivated audiences around the world with his smooth, wholesome style of music, earning him a place among the top 10 recording artists of all time. His enduring popularity and success in the industry are a testament to his incredible talent, which has led him to be honored with three stars on the world-famous Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to Recording, Motion Picture, and Television.
Now celebrating the 70th anniversary of his career in show business, Pat Boone is more active than ever, continuing to inspire fans with his unique sound and style. He is the weekly host of his own SiriusXM radio show, “The Pat Boone Hour,” and is promoting his 28th book, “IF-The Eternal Choice We All Must Make.” He has completed more the 12 feature films, including his most recent film, The Mulligan.
Known for his pop and rock n roll, Pat Boone is currently working on his first country album. He recently released a brand-new single titled “Grits” and is gearing up to drop a full-length project this summer. Boone collaborated with several legacy artists, such as The Gatlin Brothers, Lorrie Morgan, and Deborah Allen, for his upcoming album, and “Grits” is one of the featured tracks.
I sat down with Pat Boone this week as recalled growing up in Nashville, getting married to Red Foley’s daughter, Shirley Foley, and why he is just now making a country album.
Pat Boone grew up in a small farmhouse on Lone Oak Road in Nashville. His father was a builder and architect and built several Belmont College buildings. Pat and his brother wanted to go to a Christian school so they worked as day laborers digging ditches, pouring concrete, and toting lumber for a dollar and a quarter per hour and contributed the money to the tuition so they could go to David Lipscomb High School.
They would ride their bikes to attend high school. That is where Pat Boone met Shirley Foley and fell in love.
He wrote a song, “Until You Tell Me So,” at age 18, that he boldly pitched to Eddie Arnold. Arnold didn’t record the song but encouraged the young musician to keep honing his songwriting skills.
Because Red Foley’s wife had recently passed, in 1953, he decided to take his three daughters to Missouri, where they would star in the Ozark Jubilee. Pat Boone was afraid if Shirley Foley left Tennessee, someone else would snatch her up, so he married her before she had the chance to leave. They were both 19.
Pat Boone did and still works hard. He is very creative.
He said, “Originally, I was going to be a teacher-preacher, but I wanted to be like my teachers at Lipscomb, who taught English or math or Latin or whatever I was learning. But then they would teach or preach on the weekends, and minister in congregations. I thought, boy, that’s the most important way I could spend my life, I thought. I loved singing, but it didn’t enter my mind that I could ever be assured of a life in country music or pop music.
The singer added, “I knew Red Foley. I knew how hard he worked; he traveled all the time. His life at home was intermittent, and that’s not the life I wanted, and Shirley sure didn’t want it. She was so thrilled to know that the husband she was going to marry was going to be a teacher-preacher, home for the summers and home for dinner every night and just teaching school and having a quiet life, picket fence, three or four kids, and that’s the life she wanted.”
By the time he was 23, Pat Boone had graduated from Columbia University. He had four kids and was on the cover of TV Guide in his cap and gown when he hosted Pat Boone Chevy Show. He was the youngest person ever to have his own variety show.
Guests on his show included Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, and Arthur Godfrey, all coming on his show and singing with him. He had Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Johnny Mathis as well.
The first time Pat Boone met Elvis Presley was when Presley opened a show for him.
“He had just one record, which was “Blue Moon on Kentucky” and I had three hit records by then because I had begun recording six months ahead of Elvis. Bill Randall, the DJ, introduced him to 650 kids in the high school auditorium where he was doing this sock hop so the kids could dance,” the singer said. “And he said, ‘Kids, you don’t know this first performer. He’s been appearing on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. You don’t know him yet, but he’s been signed by RCA Victor. We’re going to hear from him in the future. Let’s welcome young Elvis Presley.’”
Pat Boone continued, “He finished his song, and you could tell they liked him the way he looked, but they weren’t knocked out by that song. He said, ‘Thank you very much, I hope you like it too.’ And then he sang ‘That’s all right (Mama)’ That’s all right with me. And that was rhythm and blues, and they liked it, and I did too. He came off, said, ‘Thank you very much, thank you very much,’ and I’m about to be introduced, and I shook his hand one last time, and he left. I didn’t see him for three years, but we did eventually become neighbors.”
Many will recall Pat Boone’s fan-favorite songs like “Love Letters In The Sand,” “Speedy Gonzales” and “April Love.”
Still with all his success Pat Boone was a little disappointed that he wasn’t considered a country singer. (The lines are a lot more blurred now than they were in the past.)
He admitted to having a dream several months ago. “I had this dream about a year and a half ago. And I was enjoying this dream so much because I was being celebrated with a big country hit that I had. And I was even singing some of it in my dream. And I was just luxuriating in it, so glad that I, at last, had a big country hit. But what happens in dreams is at some point you’ll think, wait a minute, is this a dream?
The singer added, “If it’s your dream, you can’t decide what happens in your dream. But I came out of the dream with the first verse, and I’m telling you the truth. Lyrics like Grits, grits, bestest food there is country caviar, Tennessee foie gras. Grits, grits, bestest food there is, keep your fancy food, give me my grits. Who wants escargot, them snails have gotta go. I don’t want that pate. What is it anyway? And all kinds of stuff like, what is that gooey cheese? You can scrap that, please…”
The tune is so popular, a line dance was created that went viral on TikTok. And Boone was invited to sing his new country song at his debut performance at the Bluebird Café last week. With an intro from his pal, Ray Stevens, the animated high-production video of “Grits” is fun to watch as well.
The good news is that this is the first hit released off a two-set of covers and original country tunes called Country Jubilee.
Pat Boone proves that you shouldn’t let anything stop you from fulfilling your dreams (in his case, making a country record), not even if you are 89 years old.
You can listen to Pat Boone’s Kaleidoscope playlist free on Spotify and which has over 800 of his songs, including his newest single “Grits.”
You can purchase any Pat Boone music, books, or memorabilia from his Gold Label page.
You can follow Pat Boone on his website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and all streaming services.
– – –
Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and Twitter.
