22. The Winds Of Change

During 1968, The Poe Kat, Vernon Sandusky and Mitch Corday all went their separate ways. The trio had been good friends for many years now, but each wanted to pursue a different direction in the music business.

Sun Records LogoVernon went back to Kansas and joined up with an old friend named Rodney Lay. In the early 1960's, Rodney had his own band called Rodney and The Blazers and then in the 1970's recorded Country music as a solo artist on Capitol Records with Buck Owens producing. In 1969 Vernon joined one of Rodney's evolving versions of Rodney Lay and The Wild West, a Rockabilly outfit that recorded some great music for Shelby Singleton at Sun Records in the late 1970's.

Mitch pursued his ambition of being a music producer. He and my father would still run into each other, but less and less as time went by, since my dad was an early bird and Mitch was a night owl.

Cellar DoorAs for my dad, he knew he had to do something else. He had grown weary of working with artists, who's behavior was becoming more and more bizarre as the late 1960's progressed. Jack Boyle, a bartender at a hip music venue known as The Cellar Door, wanted to start a concert promotion business with my dad, but my dad blew him off in no uncertain terms. My dad absolutely did not want to deal with musicians at all. The days of trying to round up Roy Buchanan for a gig - only to find him locked in the closet at home - were too fresh in my dad's mind. Jack Boyle never forgot the slight, even though Jack got the last laugh by founding one of the largest concert promotion companies in the world, Cellar Door Productions...