I met Reba Rambo the way I’ve met all of my favorite singers -through their music. In my da, it was records, but this one I remember very clearly hearing her voice on an 8-track tape player that my brother had installed underneath the driver’s seat in his gold Volkswagen Beetle. I remember that I was around eight years old looking forward to his visits on Sundays. My mother did too. She cooked our favorite southern fried chicken, potato salad, lettuce, and tomato salad with mayonnaise as a dressing, biscuits, and cornbread with fresh butter and strawberry and fig preserves she canned herself. I’ve often tried to recreate her biscuit recipe, but no one can compare it to hers. Her secret was the bacon drippings from the can she kept ready on the gas burner stove. I think the year was 1973, I was somewhere around seven years old and I did not mind letting the world know that my brother was my hero because other than the few television shows I could sneak in between my daddy’s cowboy shows, he introduced to me a world outside of the half-a-mile of neighbors who were all relatives and had no idea who Reba Rambo or anyone else I idolized.
The song was one that she only sang a couple of lines on, but my God, how i remember the feeling it brought with it.
Right before Katrina, all of us fellas were in what was called Yahoo groups. There was an actual Reba fan group. Man, I bought photos and chatted away with boys just like me. Tim, Dann, Rio, and Dan gave me hours of “rabbit holes” during Katrina. I found out she was going to a special concert in Vancouver and bought myself a ticket.
When Dann granted me backstage access, I was as nervous as Loretta right before she went on the Grand Ole Opry. I am a proud “star-struck” fan. I admit it. Those women saved me life giving me something to escape the world of bullying I acquired as a student in Livingston.
Reba looked so beautiful that night. She wore a long black gown for the performance in the concert hall which was very intimate.
After the performance, she changed into her jeans and a pink sequined jacket. I am proud to say, she picked me out of the crowd to hold her purse. I watched as she worked the people backstage. When she finished, she walked over to say hello and to get her purse shaped like an armadillo and made of leather. The thought never even crossed my mind to see what was in it. I was too busy staring at her and the purse.
I asked her if we could take a picture and of course, she obliged. We hugged up like cousins or better friends who liked each other. She placed her hand on my heart. She laughed when I asked her to move it. I was about to pass out.
Time’s gone on and we’ve grown a friendship here’s the link.
Points of reference from the interview.