The first bluegrass musicians I saw live were Doc and Merle Watson at Great Southeastern Music Hall. I was hooked.
Years later – charged with inviting journalists, politicians, religious leaders and musicians to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Charlotte Observer – I invited Doc. We sold out two nights.
I had asked other speakers to autograph our commemorative brochure, yet I was nervous asking Doc, blind since he was one. He nicely obliged and played “Tennessee Stud” at my request. And he made me laugh when he announced, “Celebrating 100 years of The Charlotte Observer – that’s a lot of bad news!”