Larry Patton - Vocals / Bass Guitar

 Larry was born Oct. 9, 1947 in Beeville, Texas and grew up in San Antonio (about 30 miles north) Larry attended school in San Antonio. He was taught the guitar at the age of (7) yrs. by one of his aunts. He grew up in a musical family where his mother and his aunts and uncles played music. He sang and played guitar at his sixth grade graduation and had his own bands thru Junior High and High School. After High school Larry played in several local bands around south Texas until he was drafted into the Army in August, 1967. After basic training in Ft. Polk, La. and school in Ft. Sill, Ok. he finally wound up in Germany where he played in a band with some of his army buddies in the local clubs.


  Released from the Army in July, 1969 he returned to S. A. and got a playing job with a local band called Terry Yarborough and the Country Squires. That was Larry’s first gig as a bass guitar player. In 1970 he was offered the bass playing job with “Johnny Bush and the Bandoleros”. John was the former drummer for Ray Price and The Cherokee Cowboys and had been making a name for himself with his own band. He had just been named Most Promising Male Vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music and had written what would later be the Willie Nelson hit “Whiskey River”. Larry was on the bus with John when he wrote the song and they played it that night for the first time at The Esquire Ballroom in Houston, Texas.

  In 1972 Larry replaced Bee Speers on bass with the Willie Nelson Band (Bee had left to play with Waylon Jennings). The band was Willie, Larry on bass, Paul English on drums and the legendary Jimmy Day on steel guitar. That lasted until Larry gave the gig to a friend and soon Bee decided he wanted to come back, and he has been back ever since. Also in 1972, Larry did some recording of his own as an artist at RCA in Nashville for a label called “Stop Records” owned by Pete Drake and Tommy Hill. The singles got some airplay around the country but nothing ever really became of it. In 1973 Willie recorded one of Larry’s songs on the Atlantic label during the “Shotgun Willie” sessions, but it was never released. Larry was a writer for Willie Nelson Publishing Co. at that time. During 1973 and 1974 Larry worked with many artists, Barbara Fairchild, Sammi Smith, Mel Street, Billy “Crash” Craddock, Red Steagal, Connie Smith, Ernest Tubb, and Freddie Hart and ended 1974 by moving to Nashville, Tn. with the Darrell McCall Band (The Tennessee Volunteers). The first part of 1975 brought a lot of session work for Larry. He had also become good friends with Dick Blake at the Hubert Long Booking and Management Agency. Dick Blake managed several artists and offered Larry the gig as bass player for Ronnie Milsap. After several months with Ronnie, Dick Blake told Larry that Hank Jr. had just fired his daddy’s band The Drifting Cowboys and was looking to start something with a new group of pickers. Larry took the bass gig with Hank Jr. That gig lasted until Hank Jr. fell from a mountain in Montana and was in the hospital for eight months.


  During this time Larry went back to S.A. and began playing in a band with one of his old Army buddies. The band was called “The Buckboard Boogie Boys” and they showed no mercy towards any ones songs. They played everything from “Burl Ives” to “Wings” to “Gene Autry” to “Charlie Daniels”. A real party band with a lot of original songs and a big fan base.
When Hank Jr. got ready to go back out on tour Larry opted to stay in Texas with The Buckboard Boogie Boys (He was just having to much fun to leave.) After a few years and a live album the BBB called it quits. Larry stayed in Texas for the next several years doing some song writing and recording with his own band “The Pettus Brothers”where he (Vernon Pettus) shared the stage with the legendary Muscle Shoals bass player Albert Lowe Jr. (Virgil Pettus) (Albert Lowe had also played guitar with Hank Jr. when Larry was there.)


   In 1984 Larry went to work once again with Darrell McCall who was then living in Helotes, Texas just north of San Antonio. Larry played bass on several of Darrell’s Albums that were recorded during this time and Darrell also recorded some of Larry’s songs.
In 1986 Larry moved back to Nashville where he had been offered a job with Lynn Anderson. That job never happened. About a week after arriving in Nashville he was invited to an album listening party at Ricky Skaggs house by his old friend Barbara Fairchild. There he met Rusty Goodman and songwriter/producer Don Potter. Larry and Don became close friends and a few months later when Don and producer friend Brent Maher were recording the Born To Rock album on Carl Perkins they took 2 songs from Larry’s publishing co. Patton Music, one written by Larry and his wife Pamela and one written by Larry and Paul Overstreet. Larry also had the honor of singing harmony with Carl on the album along with the Jordanaires.


   In the first part of 1987 Larry took a house gig as guitar player and front man at a Nashville dive called “Hassie’s Swanging Country”. Hassie was the lady that managed the famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge right behind the Ryman Auditorium. It was at Hassie’s that Larry first met Flying Burrito Brothers guitar player “John Beland”. The Burritos had taken some time off and John had been playing guitar for Bobby Bare. Bare wasn’t working much so Larry hired John as second guitar player at Hassie’s. After a few months when Bobby Bare did go back to work he needed a bass player so John asks Larry to take the job. That band was Bobby Bare, Larry on bass, John Beland on guitar and Fred Cooper from the “Goose Creek Symphony” on drums and James Hooker from “The Amazing Rhythm Aces” on keyboards. Bobby Bare didn’t play a lot in the U.S.A. but he did a lot of touring in Europe. Bobby Bare calls Larry the greatest honky tonk singer in the world.


  In June of 1987 the Flying Burrito Brothers were offered a tour starting in America and ending up in France. Their original bass player Chris Etheridge had been gone for some time and the band had been using players like Skip Batten from “The Byrds” and Dennis Belfield from “The Hellacasters”. For this tour they ask Larry if he would go play bass and sing a few songs on the shows. The Burritos at that time were Sneaky “Pete” Klienow on steel guitar (one of the original members), Gib Guilbeau on vocals / fiddle / guitar (he replaced Gram Parsons in 1972), John Beland on vocals / b-bender guitar (John left the Ricky Nelson band and joined the Burritos in 1980), and Rick Llano, long time drummer for the Bellamy Brothers. Larry worked the few tours the Burritos did for the next couple of years as a sideman bass player and singer. He was still working shows with Bobby Bare during this time.

In 1990 Larry decided to quit the music business (he loved music but hated the music business). Before leaving on what he thought would be his last Burrito tour Larry got a call from old friend Delbert McClinton. Delbert said he needed a bass player and a bus driver, so Larry being fed up with the music business chose the bus driving gig, but told Delbert that he couldn’t start until June when he got back from the Burrito tour in France.

Larry found Delbert a substitute driver to fill in for him until he got back. When Larry got back from France he had a message from Ricky Skaggs saying he had lost both of his bus drivers and wanted to know if Larry would consider driving for him. Skaggs paid a real good guaranteed weekly salary so Larry called Delbert and ask him how he liked the substitute driver. Delbert said he liked him fine so Larry told him about the Skaggs offer and Delbert told him he would keep the other driver and encouraged Larry to take the job with Ricky. Because of the way their schedules were Larry was able to work with both Skaggs and Delbert (Ricky wasn’t working much and Delbert was, so Larry had a guaranteed salary from Skaggs whether Skaggs worked or not and a paid by the job gig with Delbert until the end of 1991).

  Ricky quit touring at the end of 1991 so Larry went full time with Delbert. In 1992 Larry recorded another album, this time at Don Potter’s “Shilo Studios” in Nashville and used all of the Delbert McClinton band on the sessions, plus his old buddy from Muscle Shoals, Albert Lowe Jr. Larry also did a duet on that album with blues legend Jonnell Mosser, and Delbert did some background vocals and played harmonica. The album was entitled “Larry Patton / 1992”. Larry was not in the music business but he was still into the music.

  Their were very few nights that Larry didn’t set in with the band and do some of the songs off of the 1992 album. Delbert always wanted to give Larry a spot on his shows. Delbert is a very generous man, like the night Delbert played Carnegie Hall in New York City, Delbert had already gotten two encores when he came back stage and told Larry to go out and do a song. Larry thought he was crazy, but Delbert insisted. He said “How many chances do we get to play Carnegie Hall”? He wanted Larry to share in that experience. Larry not only got a standing ovation from the crowd, but when he ran off stage he was greeted with a big kiss and a hug from Mary Tyler Moore. To quote Larry “What a night, Carnegie Hall and a kiss from “Laura Petrie”. Thanks Delbert”.  During 1993 Larry was also able to do a few Flying Burrito Brothers shows; they had to do some without him because of his busy schedule with Delbert.


   In 1994 The Oak Ridge Boys offered him a bus driving job that he couldn’t refuse. They worked a lot in the summer months, but took time off from Christmas until around April. They also paid a guaranteed salary so during their off months Larry drove for other artists such as Reba, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill; he even did a short tour with “New Kids on the Block”. They had 22 buses on that tour. Reba only had 8 buses and 18 semi-trucks. When these groups got into town there was no place left for any one else to park.

   In 1995 while still with the Oaks, Larry recorded again with a group called “Golden West”, John Beland on vocals/guitar/mandolin, Larry on vocals/bass guitar, Pamela Patton (Larry’s wife), on vocals, and James Hooker on keyboards. That album was entitled “Golden West”.
In 1996 while out on tour with the Oaks Larry got a call from the Burritos saying that they had been offered a new record deal and wanted him to be a part of it and wanted to know what it would take to get him. Larry said he wanted an equal share of the Burritos including record sales, live gigs, merchandise and he wanted to sing at least half of the songs on the album and he would choose the songs. To his surprise they said yes.

During his time with the Burritos Larry played all over the world. Recorded several albums with them on several labels including The Grateful Dead label distributed by Arista, he sang duets on Burrito albums with Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Delbert McClinton, Charlie Louvin, The Oak Ridge Boys, brought in guests on the albums such as Buck Owens, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Jo’el Sonnier, and Al Perkins, and they got so close to having Keith Richards on one session that his guitar tech was in the studio in L.A. with all of Keith’s gear. Mick Jagger got some kind of stomach virus in San Francisco so they canceled the show in L.A. and Keith never made it, but he did give them a rain check (which they never used).

The Burritos were also inducted in to the Australian Gold Coast Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a seven week sold out tour of Australia in 2000.  At the end of 2000 after a tour of Sweden and Norway the Burritos decided to stop touring so Larry went back to Tennessee. Shortly after that Larry was introduced to the Chillbillies and has been there playing bass and singing with the group ever since.