Dean Beard came to visit the studio. He lived in Coleman, Texas about 60 miles away. Dean was early into the rockabilly I suppose? (www.rockabilly.nl - use the search and type in his name.) He had recorded at “Sun Records” in Memphis - had some hits “Rakin’ and Scrapin’” – “On My Mind Again”. I still have a tape he left me – a dub off of the master tape of “Keeper Of The Key” and “Dean’s Waltz”. He knew Elvis, the two played together more than once in the very early days. Willie Nelson was also seen around there from time to time.

     Another I met, Slim Willet (Winston Moore) as I knew him at Hardin Simmons University. He wrote the one hit song of his life “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”. He used that song in a performance on the stage of Hardin Simmons University Chapel. I also was told that he recorded the first demo of that song using the radio equipment of the University radio station. Slim was the manager of the newly built KHSU University AM radio from its inception.

     After spending much of his money from his hit to try for another, he finally came back to his home in Abilene and purchase a radio station. I visited Slim at his radio station in Abilene, Texas after I moved back there in 1965. I asked him about his song. He talked freely about how he had offered the song to an agent for one of the three prominent record labels of the 60’s and was turned down. (Won’t mention the label name.) Shortly thereafter, he said, his version of the song hit no#1 – Perry Como and several others recorded it. “I bet that guy wanted to jump out his second story office window”, he told me, laughing as he said that.

     He also told me that he had heard that Perry Como (his recording sold two million) did not want to record it at first. Several other artists did record the song and had great success with it. It was number one in two other countries and close in one another.
Not long after I visited Slim at his radio station he had a fatal heart attack. He was found early one morning slumped over the control room board where he loved to be, talking to his fans.