By Dru Willis / Special to the Reporter-News
January 28, 2005

Country singer Johnny Bush has faced obstacles in his life - including a vocal cord ailment that derailed his career.

But on the verge of his 70th birthday, Bush said, he feels the best he has ever felt.

''I'll be 70 years old next month. People say I look 50,'' Bush said during a telephone interview. ''The big question is, how old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? I'd say I was 35.''

Bush performs Saturday night for the Abilene Opera Association's Gala 25th Silver Anniversary bash at the T & P Event Center.

For more than three decades, Bush (''Whiskey River'') battled spasmodic dysphonia, a rare disorder that shut his vocal chords down at random.

Doctors could not treat his ailment until 2003 when Dr. Blake Simpson of the University of Texas Health Science Center discovered a procedure to make the disorder bearable, Bush said.

''It's been a godsend,'' Bush said. ''I got my singing and speaking voice back, and it's a 'lived happily ever after' story, the end.''

Bush also endured triple bypass surgery in 1998, which he said has changed his life for the better.

''You face your immortality, or mortality, however you want to call it, when you realize you are going to die or come close to death,'' he said.

''Once they stop your heart and put you on life support to fix your heart, there is an emotional change that comes over you.''

For the past six years, Bush has been dictating a book titled ''Whiskey River Take My Mind'' about his life in the honky tonks of the 1950s and 1960s, and stories from his tours. Friends of Bush's said he needed to chronicle his experiences for several reasons, he said.

''They said I was the most-likely candidate because most of these guys are gone, and the ones that are still around, like Willie (Nelson), don't want to fool with it,'' he said. ''Ray Price doesn't remember very much of it.''

Bush said writing a book opens both good and bad memories, neither of which a person can deny to write an accurate book.

''When you try to make something like this and you go back and start writing your life, you open up old emotional wounds,'' Bush said. ''It's like putting your soul in print for the world to read. If you're going to do it right, you've got to tell it like it is.''

His latest album, ''Honky Tonic,'' features a new recording of Bush's song ''Whiskey River'' with the singer who made it famous, Willie Nelson. The album also features songs with younger artists who are popular in the Texas music scene, such as Cooder Graw, Kevin Fowler and Stephanie Urbina Jones. Bush said these artists asked to participate with him on the album.

''What I'm trying to do with the younger artists is get some exposure with the younger crowd,'' he said.

''Lets face it - with my crop, I've kind of outlived my audience.''

Concert

What: Abilene Opera Association Gala 25th Silver Anniversary, featuring Johnny Bush (country).

When: 7 or 9 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday.

Where: T & P Event Center, North First and Pine streets.

How much: $35 for patron tickets, which include 7 p.m. entrance, hors d' oeuvres, cash bar, performances by opera singers and Johnny Bush; $20 dance featuring Johnny Bush only, including 9 p.m. entrance, cash bar. Call (325) 676-7372 for reservations.

Contact Dru Willis at willisd@reporternews.com.

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