{"id":11173,"date":"2013-11-04T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T17:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=11173"},"modified":"2013-11-04T10:02:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T17:02:20","slug":"lou-reed-sherman-halsey-minnie-pearl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2013\/11\/lou-reed-sherman-halsey-minnie-pearl\/","title":{"rendered":"LOU REED, SHERMAN HALSEY &#038; MINNIE PEARL"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><b><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-11176\" alt=\"Lou Reed\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lou-Reed.jpg\" width=\"304\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lou-Reed.jpg 304w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lou-Reed-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lou-Reed-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/>LOU REED, SHERMAN HALSEY &amp; MINNIE PEARL<\/b><\/h1>\n<h2>An Appreciation<\/h2>\n<p>I knew Lou Reed. Not really well, but we were quite friendly.<\/p>\n<p>I knew him a bit when I interviewed him when I was at <i>Billboard<\/i>, when Doc Pomus died. He loved Doc, and I was quite friendly with Doc\u2014though I can\u2019t say I knew him well, either.<\/p>\n<p>Lou appreciated most that I was a martial arts guy, like he was. He was happy to talk to me about martial arts. It was me, music reporter, talking to Lou Reed, rock superstar\u2014just a couple old boys talking about something they had in common besides music.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote what I call \u201can appreciation\u201d on Lou when he died, nothing at all personal, just quoting some people who knew him way better than me and were way more significant. I got a nice comment on Facebook from a friend who complimented me for not making it about myself, like so many other writers. She clearly hadn\u2019t seen my tweets, I told her, where I said everything short of giving Lou the words to \u201cHeroin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-11175\" alt=\"Sherman Halsey &amp; James Brown\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sherman-Halsey-James-Brown.jpg\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/>Lou\u2019s death was shocking, even if it wasn\u2019t unexpected. He\u2019d just had a liver transplant, and I heard he wasn\u2019t doing well last week. I tried to reach out to him a couple times in the last couple months, and hope my efforts at least got through.<\/p>\n<p>Sherman Halsey\u2019s death came as a shock. I knew him, too, much more than Lou. Used to see him all the time in Nashville during CMA, CRS and Fan Fair weeks. Great guy. Great talent.<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, Sherman\u2019s dad, the great country music agent\/manager Jim Halsey, had a beautiful corner building in the middle of Music Row. He had an open house the day of the CMA Awards, attended by his big artists. I\u2019m pretty sure Roy Clark was there, but I know Minnie Pearl was.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-11174\" alt=\"Minnie Pearl\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Minnie-Pearl.jpg\" width=\"245\" height=\"278\" \/>I loved Minnie Pearl. Who didn\u2019t? A few years later I\u2019d sneak into her nursing home to visit her, in the few years between her debilitating stroke and her death.<\/p>\n<p>But she was in great form that afternoon at Jim\u2019s offices. Sherman and I were outside as she was leaving and engaged her as best we could. Sherman must have known her since she was a kid. But he still seemed starstruck, as I most certainly was.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it was Minnie said, Sherman and I just had these stupid starstruck grins on our faces, barely able to say anything. Finally Minnie stopped and said, \u201cDid you boys smoke some pot?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, Minnie,\u201d I said, speaking for us both. \u201cBut we sure will before the show!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim Bessman<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOU REED, SHERMAN HALSEY &amp; MINNIE PEARL An Appreciation I knew Lou Reed. Not really well, but we were quite friendly. I knew him a bit when I interviewed him when I was at Billboard, when Doc Pomus died. He loved Doc, and I was quite friendly with Doc\u2014though I can\u2019t say I knew him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976],"tags":[7266,7268,7267],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11179,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173\/revisions\/11179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}