Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this November 30th, 2023.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here at 330.
We're going to welcome in our friend, Jackie Carantini, from UW-Madison extension,
looking forward to that.
Right now, we have our good friend, our great friend, Sally Kissner,
executive director with Save of the Arts.
Sally, good to see you.
Hello.
Thanks for being here.
Eric Brittnocker, performing arts from the performing arts center.
Eric, it's always good to see you.
Thanks for having us.
And on the phone, we have Terry Lee Goffey and Terry.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Well, thanks for having me.
Good morning.
Terry, my first question may be one of my most important ones.
How do I see your last name, sir?
It is Goffey.
It is Goffey.
OK, want to make sure to get that right.
So I want to give respect here.
And I got to tell you right out the gate, Terry,
I was doing my homework on you and getting ready for the interview here.
And I saw you talking to the audience.
But I'm sorry, I said that wrong.
I was listening.
I had it playing and I'm doing something else.
I'm taking notes.
And I'm not looking at the computer.
I just hear your voice.
And I thought, did I pull up a Johnny Cash thing on accident?
I swear to God.
I thought that I was hearing Johnny Cash.
Even just when you talk, sir, you sound a little bit like the man in black.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
That has worked in my favor for the last 22 years.
Well, and I kind of want to start there if you don't mind, sir.
I'm not an artist.
I'm an actor, but I'm not a musician myself.
But I think of, and I know many, many musicians,
that necessarily don't start out wanting to be doing somebody else's work
or something with their career.
What brought you to do, Johnny Cash?
What brought you to want to do this for a career?
Well, probably, I want to say about a little over 22 years ago,
25 maybe.
I noticed a lot of tribute bands becoming more and more prevalent,
more and more popular.
The repeatal tributes, there were the doors, the stones,
some country, Hank Senior and Petsy Klein.
I was not aware of any Johnny Cash tribute bands at that time.
And so I was working at a local radio station.
I went home and told my wife I wanted to put a Johnny Cash tribute band together
and just see if there was any interest in it.
And like I said, you're 22 years later.
Obviously, there was some interest in it.
Terry, how did you get started with music?
How did you fall in love with music?
What was some of your first early music experiences?
Well, I guess probably through my parents,
they were big music fans.
And so they bought all of the popular records of the day.
Including Johnny Cash.
My dad was a big Johnny Cash fan.
My mom kind of was too.
So that was my first, you know, Johnny Cash, Elvis.
The greeners of the day, you know, my mom was a big fan of people like
Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and all those guys.
I had also some country landings, but my dad was more into the country.
Stuff, Hank Thompson and Hank Williams and all of that.
Patsy Klein.
So just, and then I had an aunt who was about four years older than me.
So when Rock and Roll kind of came in and American band stand and all of that,
you know, she needed somebody to practice with all the new dancers with them.
She volunteered me.
I was in similar shoes, sir.
My mom did a similar thing to me.
I hear you.
I'm curious.
I was actually talking to my dad a little bit about this because as I was doing this,
I was over at my parents house helping them.
And my dad heard some of your work and was like, oh, that sounds great.
Who was that?
I wanted to hear more of it.
Like you're saying there, a lot of my music influence comes from my father.
And he loved Johnny Cash and he starts hearing you and really got interested.
You gained a real fan in him, sir.
He's a big fan of yours now.
But we got talking about, yeah, we got talking about being a tribute artist in some of this work.
And he was curious, is Johnny Cash your favorite artist?
To be a tribute artist of an act, we wondered, is that your favorite artist or is that somebody
that you just, your skill level fit well?
I would have to say that Johnny Cash is my favorite artist.
Like I said, I, you know, had been introduced to Johnny at a very young age.
You know, as I got a little older, I probably played those records more than my dad did.
And I would just, you know, as Johnny's career unfolded and he became
more and more conscious of different causes that, you know, that he got associated with,
whether it was prison reform or Native Americans or just, you know, basically speaking up for,
you know, the disenfranchised people who didn't have a voice.
You know, I kind of appreciated that.
And, but even just the sound of the music, you know, the records that I would hear on the radio
were, you know, the albums that I would buy on my local record store.
There was just something about Johnny Cash that, I don't know, struck a chord somewhere inside
of me and, you know, I would, I would anxiously await, you know, the next song, the next album
that I could, I could pick up and add to my collection.
We're, some of us younger people are fortunate where Johnny's career was so long
that even like somebody like me that is in my 40s, I got to experience a lot of Johnny Cash's
career, especially towards the end there where he released those last American song albums and
everything. So there, there, his, his influence in his career was so long that so many of us can
look at that and say, yeah, I grew up a lot in Johnny Cash. You know, he can, you know, somebody that's
20 years older can say the same type of thing. It's unique. You bring up something else about
him that I wanted to ask about. I'm glad you brought up because the first big concert I went to
was seeing Kiss in 96, 97 in Madison. They're re, re, they're retouring and all that. And,
and then it was like a year or two later, I saw a Kiss tribute band. And it was obviously a very
stripped down show and everything, but they were out there. They were trying to do the Gene Simmons
thing and stuff. And they did a great job. But it got me thinking about this particular conversation
with somebody like Johnny Cash. I could see you wearing all in black and doing that and certainly
kind of tributing him that way. But there's also what you touched on the man himself and the things,
the causes that were important to him. It sounds like you're honoring his legacy with that as well,
continuing that as well. Yeah, that's, to me, that's important. You know, I, I decided to do my show
in a first person style. So, you know, when I walk out on the stage and say hello, I'm Johnny
Cash. I stay in that, that character, you know, for the entire 90 minutes or, you know, whatever,
however long it is. And, and do tell the story of whether it's little tidbits about Johnny's life
or something about the song itself or, or just, you know, like I say, some of the causes if
we're doing Ballot of Ira Hayes, you know, talking about that. So, yeah, to me, that was important.
You know, he was, he was much more than just a guy who went into the recording studio and hopped
out, you know, songs that, that, that, that, and his only reason for that was to see how many hits
he could have and how much money he could make. I'm sure there were times when Columbia records,
you know, we're pulling their hair out because, you know, he was going to do, like the
album Bitter Tears, you know, there were really no hit songs that came from that, but that was
an important album for him because he wanted to raise awareness of the plight of Native Americans
in this country. In the time you've been doing this, you start doing it as a big fan of his,
but at the time that you've been doing it, as there are a lot of the things that you have learned
about him that are new to you and, and fun things that you've incorporated into your show.
Oh, you know, I would say very little. You know, I, I stoked up as much Johnny Gets as I could
as a, you know, a preteen teenager, even in my early 20s. I watched him many time. He was on TV.
I listened to interviews, read the, you know, the liner notes on albums, bought, you know,
the autobiographies and, and the biographies and read the magazine articles. So there wasn't a
whole lot, you know, there may be a few things that, you know, I got pretty close friends with his
sister, Joanne. And so, yeah, you know, maybe a time or two she might bring up a funny story about
something to have when they were, when they were growing up. But yeah, for the most part, you know,
like I said, just from personal knowledge and then digging into maybe some of the, the newspaper,
magazine articles or something along the way. By the time I put this show together, I would have,
you know, pretty much as much knowledge accumulated as I was going to.
You mentioned, you know, talking with his sister. Are you in contact or do you have connection
to some of the family? Yeah, we did our show in Nashville back in 2003, June of 2003,
and we sent invitations to Johnny and June, the cash family and business associates.
Anybody who wanted to come to the show, unfortunately, June passed away three weeks before our show.
And so Johnny obviously, you know, didn't show up. But his sister, Joanne, came to the show.
Friday night and his brother, Tommy, came on Saturday night, both of them were gracious enough to
come on stage and do a song with me. And we kind of stayed in touch with Joanne. We've done
four or five shows with her actually in West Bend, Wisconsin over the years. And so
she's kind of slowed down now pretty much retired. But, you know, any, if we make it to Nashville,
now and then we'll call her up and if she's available, you know, we'll kind of meet for lunch or
something. I can't imagine what that must feel like to have a connection like that with somebody that
meant so much to you and that you get to honor all the time in concert and to have a connection
like that. That has to just even add it, you know, 10 times what it must feel like.
Yeah, it's great. And you know, I guess the best thing is the fact that she, you know, she was very
very appreciative, very complimentary, you know, as far as our show when she saw it for the
first time in Nashville. And so, yeah, there's kind of a Johnny Cash connection there that a lot
of people don't have. And I really appreciate her friendship. We're speaking with Terry Lee Goffey
and talking about a Johnny Cash Christmas that is coming to our neck of the woods on December 14th
over at the Performing Arts Center. And when it comes to the playlist, when it comes to the show,
Terry, is it a straight Christmas playlist? Do you play a boy named Sue? Do you have other hits in
there? Yeah, we basically do the, you know, the regular show. We will throw in a segment, you know,
of maybe five or six Christmas songs. I have had in my head an idea for a Christmas show for a
very long time, but it's a little complicated. And it would take a little bit more work on
everybody's part two to actually put that together. So, yeah, we're still going to do all the hits.
We're still going to do a walk the line and fold some and a boy named Sue wearing a fire
funding one coming down with, like I say, with a segment of Christmas songs included in there.
It's a fun way to do this. So Terry, real quick, because I don't want to keep you too long,
so I know a busy you are. Where are you currently? We are currently at home in Ohio.
Okay, cool, cool. All right. And that's where you're located. All right. So with this tour,
is it been able to take you to some places you haven't been before or getting back to places you
haven't, you've missed and you haven't been able to go to for a while? Yeah, a lot of
I think we have been, well, my wife thinks that we have been to this particular venue.
I don't recall that, but I know we're going on to the pound of Wisconsin the next night,
and I do an equity hall. I know we have played there before. So, yeah, we do a lot of repeats,
but then, you know, we get a lot of new places as well. So,
he's just fairly busy. You know, we're not on the road continuously, but I'd say,
you know, in a normal year, we probably do 70 to 75 shows. If you figure, you know, there's a
two and a half to three day turn around for each of those. We're on the road about six months
out of the year, just not continuously. Yeah, and just looking at your schedule at your website,
and I encourage people to check out tarrylegoffie.com. That's all one word tarrylegoffie.com. Check
out your schedule. Yeah, you got, you're pretty busy this month of December, sir. Got some good
shares coming up. We do, and yeah, we're, I know, Wisconsin is one of our busiest states. We
probably do more shows in the state of Wisconsin throughout the year than the other state in the
union. So, a lot of Johnny Cash fans in Wisconsin, and we certainly appreciate eight of these
in every one of them. And we appreciate you, sir. Thank you so much for hanging out with us and
talk with us, Terry. I really do appreciate the time. Next time you're in town, we're going to have
to have you back on, okay? My pleasure, James. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, safe travels out there,
enjoy the tour, and we're looking forward to bringing you to town. Now, you take care. Thanks for
the time. You too, thanks. We're going to go ahead right now and play a little of Terry's music
for everybody. Give you a sample in a preview of this great show. While we're playing that,
you go ahead and go to saverthearts.org, that's saverthearts. I'm sorry, saverthearts.com,
saverthearts.com, go there and get your tickets for this great show. And if you don't get them,
you're going to want to get them right after this.
Because you're mine, I will find you.
Whew, that man can sing. God, it is just uncanny to me. I know he's a tribute artist. I get that
he's supposed to sound like Johnny Cash. I can't get over how much he sounds like Johnny Cash.
It's an artist that I've heard. I don't know if there's many artists outside of the Beatles or
Patsy Klein that I've heard more of in my lifetime than Johnny Cash. My papa, my dad loved him.
I've heard him a lot. And I've never heard anybody that sounded so much like him,
like not even people, not even just talking about tribute artists. I mean, just other artists or
awayland Jennings or somebody else from that era or anything. It's uncanny to me how much Terry
not only sounds like him, but even when he's just in his speaking voice has that Johnny Cash draw
in that all that tour. It's a great act to be able to bring the town. Terry, I'm sorry, Sally,
how did you come across this artist? He came highly recommended by the Wisconsin presenters network
as he said he performs a lot in Wisconsin. So I had spoken to a lot of people who had had him before
and we thought country always sells in our venue. So we thought it would be a fun Christmas show
to have. Eric, with the Christmas show, is there anything different that's on your guys' plate
that you would you have to do? You know, every show is unique. Being that it's a Christmas show,
we might try to address the stage up a little bit, but as far as what they require from a stage
present standpoint, there's nothing real specific. It's mostly the essence of the music. And so
it's really up to us what we want to do at the stage and we might bring out some of the lanterns
that we have in the back, dress them up with some garland and maybe some ribbons or something like that.
So there's this glow on stage. But otherwise, I think Johnny Cash was really the essence of the
music. There was really no flash. And pizzazz like a lot of shows can be nowadays. I mean, he was
performing in prisons probably in front of just one bright light. And so that's kind of the
philosophy that we're going to take is that we're going to keep it simple as far as the stage
goes and focus on the essence of the music. And just listening to Johnny's words,
or in this case Terry's words. Very cool, very cool. Sally, with an act like this, we're
like this act alone sells itself. That's wonderful. But you guys have something additional with this
that I think is really cool partnering with Love Inc. And doing something really unique to the
with the event for that. Right. In past years, we've done bake sales in conjunction with our
Christmas shows just so that those people who maybe like myself who don't like to bake that much
or don't have the time at Christmas, they will have tables set up in both the North and South
Lobby's selling baked goods as long as they last before at intermission and after the show.
A big shout out to Love Inc. They join us all the time on Midday Magazine here. We love talking to
our friends over there. They do a lot of good work in this community. And it's a unique
opportunity to be able to combine forces, if you will. We see a lot of this. I'm very spoiled in
this chair. I see tons of it, non-profit and non-profit working together. A lot of these things are
a business and a business working together. This is a great combination of not only it supports both
parties. Maybe people that are from Love Inc. They maybe haven't come to a show in a while or something
come to a show and vice versa. It's a win-win for our community. Right. I'd also like to mention
that after the show, if you'd like to meet Terry Lee Goffey, he will be in the lobby. He wants to
meet the people who are coming to see him. So make it a point to come out and see him in the
North lobby afterwards. Yeah. Terry really just doing my homework on him and watching some of his
live shows and some of the things from his own website. Again, that's Terry Goffey.com.
Terry Goffey.com. That's a big part of the show for him is interacting with the audience.
It's talking to the audience. I don't know if he does just as much of that as singing. It's hard
to say, but he works both things in there. He really wants you to feel like you are on stage with
him that you are a part of this. The way he does it reminds me of high school sports. It's very
intimate. It's much closer than being at a professional sport or something like that. I really appreciate
the way he does that. It took me watching it a little bit with my dad to hear my dad say,
it's not just the singing he's doing. He's also his stage presence is similar if not the same as
Johnny's. There's tribute acts and that they sing the songs. They do all that stuff and everything
and then there's an actual like, is he acting? It's a biopic almost up there. It's amazing. It's
pretty cool to not only get the music, but you get all this other stuff with it as well. You get
a true Johnny Cash experience. For those of us that loved and grew up on that guy, we obviously
are not going to get that anymore. This is as close as you get. That just me speaking here
because I personally will say I've seen a handful of people do this work. I've never seen anybody
like Terry. I've never seen it. I've never seen a tribute artist like this before. Let alone a
Johnny Cash tribute artist before. I'm not the only one. Terry has described as one of the best
tribute acts in the country. He is good at this people and he's coming right to our town,
like wherever you're listening to us, he is not going to be far away. It's going to be pretty darn
cool. When it comes to the show itself, are there things that you two are looking forward to about
it as far as, you know, interacting, just being able to be a fan and just being able to,
you know, the job's done, Sally. You can just sit there and enjoy the show. Is there any songs or
anything you're looking forward to about it? Ring of fire, of course. Yeah, that's a good one. That's
a good choice. That's a good choice. I was glad to hear that on the playlist. I am not going to lie.
I take this job very seriously. I have a job to do and I do that job for you guys or whatever.
That was for me. I asked that about me. I just was curious because I want to hear him do these
songs. I want to, I encourage you to check them out online and get a preview of what's coming.
You know, I feel like Folsom Prison is one of the most overplayed songs ever.
Like if you go to any bar, everybody covers it. It's always played. And so I'd like to hear it,
you know, from one of the closest, you know, people to reenact Folsom Prison because I don't think
anybody would come close. But like one piece at a time, I may be looking forward to hearing that.
Oh, good choice. That'd be a good one. That's a good story.
There's a number of good stories. And my grandfather used to listen to them a lot when I was a kid.
And I didn't think much of them when I was a kid. You know, you, you know, this experience is when
you're a kid. You just don't get it. But the older you get, you listen to the stories and you
listen, you know, to all of, you know, the sorrow and sometimes heartache and the good times and
the bad times that Johnny brings to his music. And it's, it's a fantastic experience. And so the
story behind the music is really fascinating. And I think that, you know, I haven't seen, you know,
Terry, but I can imagine that his, you know, banter between the songs is much like watching a movie
of the actual guy. He's telling you the story of the song or, you know, what went into it. And,
and that's powerful. I thought the movie walked the line was good. I really liked Reese Witherspoon
and it and everything. If you, I would encourage people to check out Terry more than the movie. I
honestly, what I swear to God, I honestly would because I just feel like he's, he, if you come into
it and you know a bit about Johnny Cash, you're going to come out of it being able to write a bio
yourself. Like he gives you so much about the man. And, and the other thing about it I thought was
cool too is to those that may not know Johnny Cash's in depth is maybe some of us or anything.
It's going to intrigue people to want to learn more about him or to go and listen to his music.
I spent, I think it was Sunday night. I did most of my homework for the interview today. I spent
the whole rest of the night just on Johnny Cash's greatest hits basically and, and finding deep cuts of
his that I hadn't even heard before and stuff. Like that, that was just from doing the homework for
the interview. I can't imagine going to see the show and, and how much that's going to make you want
to do that. It's great show to, uh, uh, uh, Sally, if you don't mind, give us the details.
Thursday, December 14th at 730 tickets are $39 for adults and $10 for students and you can get
them online at saverthearts.com or give us a call Monday through Thursday from 10 to 230,
4715, 4242787 or 1048 Street South. Keep in mind, uh, we've got great shows all season long
over at saver the arts over at the performing arts center. Uh, in January, you've got MJ, the
illusion coming in February, uptown and plenty more great acts coming up that Sally and Eric will
be in, uh, talk about and preview and maybe even bring in some cool guests. So like you guys always
do, I appreciate that very much. Can I add one more quick vlog on the February show for uptown?
We have added a meal beforehand at the ridges. So for details, contact me. Yeah, that's a really
good idea. By the way, it's really good. And, uh, if people have follow questions or anything else,
they want to reach you about, Sally, how can they do that? 715, 4242787. Eric same question.
Well, don't forget about $10 student tickets. Always available to anybody under 18 years of age.
I wasn't sure if that was okay. So, okay, yeah, cool. I want to make sure to get that in there, yeah.
So if you're buying tickets beforehand, call Sally and she'll get you set up with those tickets.
Uh, we appreciate you guys both being here. Appreciate you bringing these acts to town here,
like you do. Thank you so much for all the work that you guys do. Appreciate you.
My pleasure. Thank you. Again, find more at saverthearts.com, saverthearts.com. We'll take a break and
come back with some more fun on midday magazine here at WFHR.
