The lady that recorded "Harper Valley PTA" (Jeannie C. Riley) reportedly stopped by with some friends - but - that was some time before the recording - and - one night a guy came along with a group and just listened. A few days later he came back, told me he was visiting friends. He further explained that Johnny Cash was a good friend of his ("sure you are," I said to myself, almost smiling) and Cash had promised him if he sent a good demo of a song he had written Cash would put it on the flip side of the next 45 record that he released.
Well - we recorded for three nights - only ran the studio at nights and on weekends as I actually worked for Commercial Credit Corp (Now a subsidiary of Citigroup®) during the day to help pay for all the losses the studio encountered!

     I was a little concerned that I might not get paid for the time and perhaps this guy was using me. However, we finally succeeded in several takes we thought were good. He dismissed the musicians and singers and paid me in full. He left town the next day and several months passed without hearing from him.

     One night late the phone rang and it was he. They were in the studio in Nashville (Columbia Studios) with Johnny Cash and were going to use the music take that we had made rather than re-recording. Well - that put a second feather in my ego cap!
Actually, I became good friends with this Guy – this quick visitor to my studio – B. J. Carnahan – and Dorthy and I visited he and his wife in Mack’s Creek, Missouri. He and his wife in turn visited us in our home in Santa Fe, New Mexico a couple years later.
 
     During our visits I learned that B. J. had known Johnny while in the armed services in Germany. They remained friends going fishing together and visited after the two were separated from the service. B. J. once told me, “I think I taught Johnny how to play the guitar!
The end of that story was that the 45 proved a flop - Johnny's song "Rosanna" didn't catch on - and - of course the song on the flip side never had a chance. I still have one of the originals, perhaps the only one of that 45 framed and on my wall. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN JOHNNY'S ONLY PROTEST SONG EVER RECORDED.