PKG ((Larry Gatlin; Country Music Singer))   
((Banner: Music in the Veins )) 
((Executive Reporter:  Marsha James)) 
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei) 
((Map: Nashville, TN ))    
((Main characters: 1 Male)) 
 
((NATS playing guitar)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
I enjoy songwriting more than I can even begin to express. It is a spiritual experience for 
me.  I wrote realizing that thousands of songs are never going to be heard.  I wrote a 
song, I don't remember the exact melody. I'll make it up now. (Singing) Few will hear, 
fewer will care. Still, fewer will understand. So I ask God, why am I doing this? He 
answered, because you can. That’s why I do it. I'm grateful for it, giving him the glory 
but I'll take the credit. 
See, the songs, every word you need for those songs is in the dictionary. Poppa knows 
what order they come in. 
  
((NATS playing guitar)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
I'm an American by birth and a Texan by the grace of a merciful and loving God. I was 
raised by hardworking people, God fearing people.  Hand raising, shouting and singing 
and praising God people. See, in Texas you raise corn, you rear children. So I had a 
Christian rearing. 
  
((NATS Music)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
The music that was in our house was church music. It was the songs out of the hymn 
book. My grandfather Clib 'Teapot' was his nickname Doan. He was a wonderful man 
and he was a great singer.  He could hit a high 'woo woo woo woo' a high B flat on the 
day he died at 84 years old. He taught us to sing out of that church hymn book. 
  
((NATS Music)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
That and gospel quartet music. So that's what I was raised in. In addition to that, one of 
my earliest great influences, my crazy Uncle James, was a great jazz pianist. He 
introduced me to incredible jazz and pop music. For which I’m very grateful. 
The other influence that was just about the time that rock and roll was happening 
  
((NATS Music)) 
 ((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
Of course, Elvis, 
  
((NATS Music)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
'Isn't that right, Elvis? All right, son' 
((Sings and impersonates Elvis)) 
‘Love me tender... Thank you very much.' 
  
((NATS Music)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
I think my love for the word. Kind of came when I heard this song and I was just a kid. 
And I think it may very well be the most incredible lyric in the English language. Listen to 
this. 
 
((Sings)) 
Could we with ink the ocean fill?  
And were the skies of parchment made; 
Were every stalk on earth a quill,  
And every man a scribe by trade; 
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, 
nor could the scroll contain the whole, 
though stretched from sky to sky. 
  
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
Could we with ink the ocean fill? That that is Shakespearean. You know, that is John 
Milton. That is great poetry. And it was found written on the walls of an insane asylum 
by an anonymous scribe. Nobody knows who wrote that. It kind of makes you wonder 
who was crazy  
  
((NATS Music – Broken Lady She’s a broken lady…)) 
((Music: Broken Lady by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers - Courtesy Larry 
Gatlin)) 
((Stills: Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
Brother Steve and Rudy and I have had a wonderful career. We're grateful for it. They're 
my best friends. We give each other room. That's how we have stayed in business and 
been singing together for sixty three years. I'm 70. We started when I was six and a half, 
Steve was four and a half and Rudy was two. One little talent show in Abilene, Texas. 
  
((NATS Music – audio from Gatlin Brothers talent show)) 
((NATS Music – All the Gold in California All the gold…)) 
((Music: All the Gold in California by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers - 
Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
My lord, we had 40 top 40 records, eight number one records. I wrote all of them. 
  
((NATS Music – All the Gold in California …in California is in a bank in the…)) 
((Music: All the Gold in California by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers - 
Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
I left Nashville in 92 because I felt it going, you know, you reach a peak. 
  
((NATS Music – American with a Remington  You’re not the first that’s ever tried 
to kill me. )) 
((Music Video: American with a Remington by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin 
Brothers - Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
So far, the brothers and I have not had to quit. We can still sing the notes every night, 
every night. But the dates are a little fewer and farther between. We love the heartland 
of America. 
  
((NATS Music – American with a Remington  Cause I’m an American with a 
Remington. )) 
((Music Video: American with a Remington by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin 
Brothers - Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
We’ll go sing at little five and six hundred seat theaters. And we won't make hundred 
fifty thousand dollars a night. We'll take what God gives us. I have seen in this town 
people, old stars, hang on, hang on. There's nothing worse than seeing somebody past 
their time. Get out of the way. You've taken up the spotlight and taken time. Let the 
young bucks and young ladies come in. You've had your time now. 
  
((NATS Music – American with a Remington  You’re not the first that’s ever tried 
to kill me. )) 
((Music Video: American with a Remington by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin 
Brothers - Courtesy Larry Gatlin)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
On the Opry, the folks who run it have brought in new artists. 
A lot of people say, ‘Well, it's not country music anymore. They don't have…’ I am not 
going to be an old curmudgeon and stand on the sidelines and say, ‘By God it ain’t 
country music anymore’. No, they don't have a lot of steel guitars and fiddles on there. 
They're doing it their way. Cheer for them. Root for them. Hope their dreams come true. 
  
((NATS Music Grand Ole Opry)) 
((Larry Gatlin, Country Music Singer/Songwriter))  
((Singing)) When your baby girl has a baby girl, nothing else can be compared to love 
squared. Our daughter, Kristen, had two baby girls, Parker and Campbell, our 
granddaughter. And my son's new son; my son, Joshua Cash Gatlin; his name is Cash 
Caldwell Gatlin. And holding that little boy and having him say, ‘Poppa’. And sitting there 
and play on my guitar playing (Singing) Jesus loves me. And he goes, he stares kind of 
like Elvis. The first time I did it, I held him in my lap and played Jesus Loves Me, he 
turned around and did not blink for the entire song, did not blink his eyes. It was like… 
And I play it for him every morning. 
So that... Your family, your blood. Yeah, awards are fine. We make a good living.  But 
your blood, your blood, your family comes first. 
  
((NATS Music))