I am listening to the Opry tonight and Jimmy Dickens is on and he said he was "here against doctor's orders". He did not sing and he sounded awful rough. The band just played a brief instrumental when he came out on stage. Mike Terry did introduce him by telling the audience that it was his 89th birthday today. As he was telling his usual jokes, the voice sounded pretty hoarse and he just sounded tired. He did joke about playing his guitar. He also just said that his doctor told him not to sing and to rest his voice, but that he wanted to be at the Opry for his birthday.
He concluded his segment by doing his recitation of "17", which he has been doing lately on the Opry. They then rolled out a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jimmy.
I was listening. They also gave him a print of the "89 Things We Love About Jimmy Dickens".
ReplyDeleteJust went to the Opry website and the list of those 89 things is now posted.
Well, as we know the voice problems and hoarseness go back to at least August and have been worse the last 2 weekends since he apparently was hospitalized for Pneumonia/laryngitis.
Hope he doesn't let the voice problems discourage him. He is still a great comedian, and if all he can do is tell jokes, he is still a highlight of each Opry show. We may see more and more of what he did tonight in the weeks an hopefully months/years ahead. . .jokes and a recitation, and that would certainly be more than enough from this 89 year old legend.
I'm sure his doctor didn't want him going outside and getting worked up with his problems. I remember Mr. Acuff missing several months with what I believe was a pulmonary embolism, and he came back for the birthday show, saying he wasn't allowed to perform. He was back the next week. I think he lived seven years after that, and I don't think he would have lasted otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe Potato hasn't been holding notes well for a few years now, but he's still got power in his voice, except of course for recently. Here's hoping last night boosted him enough to get him back here full-time. I liked that he said he wanted everybody back for his 90th next year.