Whiskey River (Take My Mind) - Johnny Bush With Rick Mitchell

Johnny Bush’s autobiography is “The True Story of Texas Honky-Tonk.” I wasn’t alive to witness most of the things Bush talks about in his book, but he is so brutally honest and candid with his own personal misgivings that you’d be hard pressed to not believe what he has to say. The book opens with a short foreword from Willie Nelson. Although Nelson barely writes a page, he mentions starting out in Bush’s band and gives you a glimpse of his dry, sarcastic humor by taking a few good natured jabs at Bush - “Johnny started recording on his own, and we started calling him ‘Winnie Mac Pigsh*t Bush, a name he still loves to this day” and “if there is anything that I can ever do for you, forget it.” Bush returns the favor throughout the book with personal stories of Nelson. I pulled a few paragraphs from the book to illustrate the type of material that you’ll find.

The opening chapters are dedicated to Bush’s life from birth until he started playing music. He grew up in Kashmere Gardens where the lots turned to mud when it rained. Johnny hated the mud, something he mentions frequently while pondering how a kid from Kashemere Gardens ever made it to the places he did. His childhood home also lends itself to his recently released album Kashmere Gardens Mud.

Bush talks a lot about being a member of the Cherokee Cowboys and playing for Ray Price. He attributes Price for bringing the big change in his music career the first time he heard him sing.

It was the summer of 1952, and the song was “Let Me Come In and Talk to Your Heart.” Even though to anybody else he was aping Hank Williams, I heard something altogether different. He had a quality in his voice that I thought was a lot better than Hank Williams.”

He goes on to credit Marty Robbins for being one of his other main influences.

According to Bush, bandstands were the safest place to be at the honky-tonks, where they were surrounded by chicken wire. Fights would break out and the band would just keep playing. “Some guy, he’d dance with some gal. Some other guy would cut in, piss the guy off, a fight would break out. One time a guy went into the kitchen after he’d already knocked the guy out - he’s laying on the dance floor - went into the kitchen, got a meat cleaver, come out, and chopped the guy’s head off. Honky-tonk. Nice place to be.”

Being good friends with Willie Nelson, and having their careers progress simultaneously gave Bush a lot of material for the book. The pages are chalk full of unflattering and humorous stories, as well as old school pictures of Willie and Johnny before they became famous. In one story he talks about Willie’s first wife, Martha, and how she had a horrible temper.

I went over there one day [Willie’s house], just jacking around. I was getting out of the car when the back door flew open and here come Willie in a dead run. I looked up, and this cast-iron pot seemed to be following him. He turned the corner, and that pot hit the garage. He looked up and saw me standing there. With that dry humor he’s got, he said, “She loves me. You got a cigarette?”

The story of Bush’s personal life and honky-tonks fit together seamlessly, there’s no break in chapters to jump between the two subjects, that’s how much music was a part of his life. He was married three times before he met his fourth wife, who he has been married for the past 20 years. He loved his first three wives, but he was always “banging” other women behind their back. He was addicted to sex. Bush holds nothing back, he reveals everything, even at the sake of being judged. Despite everything he has done it’s difficult to not end up rooting for Bush, hoping his career takes a turn for the better. At one time he seemed tormented, over ridden with guilt for his wrong doings.

After putting in years of hard work and paying more than his dues, his career began to take off. He became famous in Texas and claims that he was bigger than Willie. It was during this time that his voice started giving out. He didn’t know what was happening to him and he was scared. The doctors didn’t know how to help him. He lost his voice and couldn’t talk, he was afraid to socialize because he was having random spasms in his vocal chords. Bush’s career took a downturn and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop the improbable avalanche. He felt like God was punishing him for everything he had done. It would be years later before he was diagnosed with spasmodic disphonia, and even longer before he would be successfully treated with botox injections into his vocal chords - a procedure that has to be performed on a frequent basis.

The book is a history lesson in good country music with insider stories into the lives of legends. Stories that would be lost forever had Johnny Bush not written about them. It’s a rare glimpse into the life of someone who helped shape a genre of music and the confessions of an immoral man looking for redemption who would have to suffer Job like tragedies before finding God and turning his career/life around.