Fortunate One

Fortunately I don't worry about that shit anymore. I'm doing what I want to do and I'm doing it as close to my way as I can do it.

NT: That makes you one of the fortunate few.

Delbert McClinton: Still givin' it up for your love.

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• Delbert McClinton
• Jimmy Reed
• Lubbock
• Bob Wills
• Fort Worth

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DM:That's right -- it certainly does. But I've been out there doin' it for so long, and the people are there for me, and it's a wonderful feeling.

NT: I would guess, particularly in a career that goes back as far as yours, that there have been a lot of knocks.

DM:Well, you know, there is. You can't live this long without getting a lot of knocks. At least half of the knocks are the ones you bring on yourself.

NT:At least half.

DM:At least -- I was trying to be gentle. It's amazing that I didn't do myself in. Finally, an angel came along in the form of my wife, Wendy, she came along and picked me up when I was -- when my career was in the toilet. My second marriage had gone south, the IRS had hit me for a tax shelter that had got disallowed, and I was doing all that shit I shouldn't have been doing -- and she came along, the most wonderful, smart person I had ever met, anywhere. And she kind of picked me up and dusted me off and said, "You can do this." And she got me all back together. I don't know what in the world would have happened -- well, I do know what would have happened to me if she hadn't-a come along: I'd be a no-good son of a bitch -- if I was still alive. I'd be that guy everybody'd go, "Oh shit, look out -- here he comes -- let's get out of here." I didn't get it down as far as I could, but I was in a jet going down. It's good to find somebody that gently points out how you can go around what you're doing, and make you like it.

NT: You sound a lot younger than you are.

DM: I am a lot younger than I am (laughs). Having a young daughter and my wife, that's certainly part of it, and not having to play the game and depend on radio helps. Doing what I like and having people like it -- you know, I don't have the world by the tail, but I can see the tail, and that's enough.