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9780252078422 Academic Inspection Copy

Live Fast, Love Hard

The Faron Young Story
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As one of the best-known honky-tonkers to appear in the wake of Hank Williams's death, Faron Young was a popular presence on Nashville's music scene for more than four decades. The Singing Sheriff produced a string of Top Ten hits, placed more than eighty songs on the country music charts, and founded the long-running country music periodical Music City News in 1963. Flamboyant, impulsive, and generous, he helped and encouraged a new generation of talented songwriter-performers that included Willie Nelson and Bill Anderson. In 2000, four years after his untimely death, Young was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Presenting the first detailed portrayal of this lively and unpredictable country music star, Diane Diekman masterfully draws on extensive interviews with Young's family, band members, and colleagues. Impeccably researched, Diekman's narrative also weaves anecdotes from the Louisiana Hayride and other old-time radio shows with ones from Young's business associates, including Ralph Emery. Her unique insider's look into Young's career adds to an understanding of the burgeoning country music industry during the key years from 1950 to 1980, when the music expanded beyond its original rural roots and blossomed into a national - and ultimately, international - phenomenon. Echoing Young's characteristic ability to entertain and surprise fans, Diekman combines an account of his public career with a revealing, intimate portrait of his personal life.
"Live Fast, Love Hard,  a sobering account of the Singing Sheriff's roller-coaster life that ended with his 1996 suicide, tells the tale of two Youngs: one, a talented, flamboyant performer and charitable man who helped the community and struggling songwriters like Willie Nelson and Bill Anderson, and who helped country music by founding the long-running periodical Music City News; the other, a raging alcoholic and jealous husband with an explosive temper, whose addiction and poor self image . . . led him to abuse and cheat on his wife, and verbally abuse his children, band members, and friends when he was drinking. . . . Diane Diekman . . . provides readers a rare glimpse inside the tumultuous life of this talented and troubled musician."--Dirty Linen
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