Crossroads radio promoter Jim Stover shares his life story, and also the story behind “Wish You Were Here,” a song he co-wrote for the Kingsmen Quartet.
Transcript
Lightly edited for clarity.
Daniel Mount (00:03)
Thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. My name is Daniel Mount, and I have the privilege today to be joined by legendary Crossroads radio promoter Jim Stover. Jim, how are you this morning?
Jim Stover (00:14)
I’m all right, Daniel. It is so good to see you.
Daniel Mount (00:19)
Likewise.
Jim Stover (00:21)
And I mean that with all my heart. We worked together for, what, six years or something. And it’s been a good 10. It’s been a good 10 since you left Crossroads. I’ve missed you. Yeah. They go by fast.
Daniel Mount (00:36)
It actually is ten as of next year. It has…
So could we start with your background, where you grew up and your roots as a musician, which are interesting and unexpected for somebody in this field.
Jim Stover (00:42)
Well, I was born here in the South, in Asheville, North Carolina in 1949. My brother, he was 18 months older. And about ’52 or so, my folks decided we would move to New Jersey, because my dad had a lot of family up around there. He was originally from Philadelphia, a place I love. So we settled in there. And I went from kindergarten through the eighth grade.
And then they decided we’d come back to North Carolina, and I’m, “I don’t wanna go, all my friends are here.” You know that story. You couldn’t get me out of here now! But anyway, that was August of 1963 when we moved back. Meanwhile, in Jersey, my two sisters were born. So we had the North and the South. My mother’s a Southerner, and me and my brother and my dad, he’s from Philadelphia, my two sisters born in South Jersey, so we had the Civil War! Not really, I’m kidding about that. We didn’t have the Civil War going on, but it was quite an upbringing, but we moved back here and that’s how I got back in the South.
After that, you know, the ninth grade, there was something called the British Invasion. You remember that? You ever heard of that?
Daniel Mount (01:55)
I have.
Jim Stover
That’s when all the English groups came over here, the Beatles and all that. I had developed a desire to play the guitar from about the sixth grade, but I never could get my hands on one because we didn’t have any money. You had to rent the instrument. But anyway, I finally got my hands on one first year of school and learned to play it pretty quick. And next thing you know, I’m in a band, and it was a rock and roll band. We developed quite a following locally and all, and made my first record then in 1966. You can still find it on the internet and that kind of thing. But I’ve always had a love for music, and that’s where I started.
Daniel Mount (02:34)
One thing I would add is, for anybody who’s curious if it can be found online and wants to go into the deep lore of Jim Stover, what was the band’s name?
Jim Stover (02:43)
The Fabulous Wunz, and we spelled that W-U-N-Z. About three or four years ago, some company that’s based in Colorado, they do these compilations of garage band classics. CDs, I mean, they have 70 songs or so on an album, and they picked our song to be on this album about four years ago. It’s garage bands from the Carolinas. I forget what it’s called on the shelf. But anyway, that’s the name of the band, The Fabulous Wunz.
We were actually The Wunz, and when we cut the record we had a manager. He said, you guys are going to be The Fabulous Wun. But you can still find that out there, and I’ve even seen it offered for sale from companies in England. I don’t know how that many records could be available we only got a thousand copies and we sold them pretty quick for a buck a piece back in 1966, you know. But it was fun. It was a great way to get through high school.
Daniel Mount (03:41)
I love the story. So can you then connect the story a little from your high school years to when you ended up doing Christian music and ended up with Crossroads?
Jim Stover (03:50)
Yes. Daniel, I prayed to receive Christ when I was, I think it was 1956, so I’d be seven years old. And I grew up in Christian home, a very dysfunctional Christian home. My dad is a veteran of World War II, and he brought some things from there. But he was a Baptist preacher at that time and an evangelist. And I had a good, wonderful upbringing, you know, those years.
But we moved south and our family was always together. But I kind of was left to my own devices, I guess you’d say. And I ventured into that musical thing and started writing love songs and songs. You know, I always wanted to be a songwriter. And I don’t know, the Lord was in my heart, but I wasn’t walking closely with Him. We went to church and whatnot, but I had music and the band.
“Am I gonna get a girlfriend?” That kind of thing on my mind, you know…
But fast forward, we got into my 20s and I finally decided, you know, I need to start writing some songs that depict my Christian faith. And most of the stuff I wrote was love songs and story songs. But occasionally, the first one I wrote was, “We’re Only Passing Through.” The next year I wrote something called “Restless Soul.”
It was always there. The Lord was always drawing me. I love that about Him. I can look back over my shoulder and I see all the potholes and the places where I failed Him, but He never failed me. That fire burns bright today, you know, as I near the end of my life.
I got a bunch of songs that I’ve written over all those years because I used sing in church with my wife, and I always wanted to have something original to sing. So I had all these songs, but they were never recorded. I had little rough demos. But this year I embarked on a project, a goal to put all that together in a collection. About 95% of it is gospel. I’ll throw a few story songs on there.
Daniel Mount (05:58)
Now something I was going to ask at the end, but I might as well ask now while we’re talking about it, is once that collection comes out, where’s the best place for people hear that it has come out?
Jim Stover (06:17)
Yeah, this is strictly something I’m doing. It’s a labor of love and I plan to create some, but I’m not a tech savvy guy. I’ll get it up on some platforms eventually and I’ll probably post it to Airplay Direct. But mainly I’m doing this – I want to give them away. I want to leave something behind. This is who I was and this is what I believed. And it’s that kind of thing. So I’m not going to have a big website or any of that.
Daniel Mount (06:21)
Okay.
Jim Stover (06:43)
But it’ll be available. I’ll get you a copy for sure. All I need is an address, but it’s a ways down the road, because I’ve been working on it all year with a good friend, Eddie Swann.
Daniel Mount (06:47)
Thank you. Thank you. If somebody follows you on Facebook, that might be a good way to hear about it.
Jim Stover (06:58)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll put some of those songs out there where people can, and it’s a freebie. That’s what it’s about. And I want to send it to the DJ friends that I’ve dealt with all these years. “Hey, here it is. It’s a frisbee if you want it. I just want you to, you’ve been a friend and we’ve been friends and I just want you to have this little thing.” And if you play something, that’s fine with me. And if you don’t, that’s okay too.
But eventually somebody will say, “I like that.” Okay, I’ll put it on the air, but it won’t be a lot of that. I mean, I’m not looking to stir the pot big. I just want something to leave, you know?
I encourage everybody that writes, try to get them recorded. You’re a writer and I think you do that. Record them, because they’re like when we used to use film. If you take a bunch of pictures and leave the film in the camera, nobody ever sees it. You got to develop it. Anyway, I look forward to it.
But there’s a long gap between that high school band and where I am today. Being in Christian music was, oh my word, there was 30 years. Different things, and I did have a little flirtation with fame back in the early ’70s in Nashville when I was under contract called the House of Gold. There was pop artists from the ’60s and ’70s named Bobby Goldsboro, and he had a company, and somehow I fell in with them. I see it as all God’s plan.
We cut a couple of 45s, and it looked like something was going to click. That first one we put out there, Billboard magazine predicted this will reach the top 60. We predicted it’ll reach the top 60 in the country, and that didn’t happen. But there was enough excitement about it that we cut another record, a follow-up, and that one didn’t do quite as well. But anyway, for the next five years, I was under contract with them.
But I lived here and they were in Nashville, and they finally said you need to move here, you know, if you want to… And I didn’t do that. I had a son that I was single parenting. I had a lot of help from the folks. But anyway, there’s always that carrot was in front of me. But that wasn’t God’s plan for that to happen.
But it was a good experience. It was a great experience being involved with people at that level. And they were good too. When they said, we’re gonna do something, they did it. We’re gonna go in the studio and cut a record, and we did. It was good. It was a good experience for me. But I still, that’s not where the Lord wanted me to be.
You were wondering how I got to Crossroads. In the 70s, a friend named Eddie Swann, we became close and we played music together with another guy, acoustic trio. We’d play at the local Hilton and different places around Asheville. And Eddie was always interested in recording and he bought his first recorder and so we started hovering around that, trying to create music.
But he and I were good friends in 1995, 1994 at Christmas time, there was a job that I’d worked for 15 years and that ended, and I was without work. And I was kind of in a bad spot because I had some physical trials going on.
And I called Eddie up just to wish him Merry Christmas, seriously. And meanwhile, they had formed Horizon Records and Crossroads, that had been in existence for a year or two. And I called him up to say Merry Christmas, and he invited me to come have lunch with him and said, “Hey, you know, we could probably use you over there as a salesman.” You know, calling Christian bookstores on the telephone and selling the product.
When I walked into Crossroads for the first time, I admit I didn’t know a thing about Southern Gospel. I knew of the Kingsmen because they were local, and I knew of, another reason which we’ll get to, but I knew of the Inspirations because they were regionally, you know. But I didn’t know there were all these other artists that created good music under the banner of Southern Gospel, and I was pleasantly surprised because we had The Isaacs, Phil Cross, Poet’s Voices, the McKameys, all these people, Karen Peck and New River. They were all labels that Crossroads had.
So that’s what I did. And for the next about three years, I sat in a room with another guy, a guy that you remind me of, God rest his soul. His name is Ron Weathers, and he passed about 20 years ago, 21 years ago. And we called bookstores. He was over on this side of the room, you know where Scott [Wagner]’s office is. That was our sales office. And that’s what we did all day, man. It’s pretty boring, but it was a living and it was a good place to be. But I wasn’t involved with any promotion or radio.
But that’s how I ended up there at Crossroads. It’s been a good place to be. I tell you, it’s one of the best jobs I ever had. Great place to work. But I was getting ready to leave Crossroads in 1999 because of, I won’t go into the details, and I dreaded the thought, Daniel, of having to go out and look for a job because by that time I was 46 years old and I wasn’t in the best of health. But anyway, I remember driving to work, this is true, one morning, and God put on my mind and heart the word toy, T-O-Y. And it stood for trusting only you, about finding a job. And I hung that, I wrote it on piece of paper and hung it in front of me.
And it wasn’t long after that that Chris White came to me and said, “Hey, we need somebody to do radio. Would you be interested in that?” And I was already planning to leave, you know. I said, “Yeah, well, I’ve never done that, but I’ll think about it.” Yeah.
So that’s where that started. In January of 1999, I became their Crossroads radio promoter. It came with a title, but I don’t like titles. Mickey [Gamble] said it was Director of Radio Promotions. So anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing there ever since. 27 years. Wow.
Daniel Mount (13:15)
I do want to talk, yes, I do want to talk about the radio promotion process, but there was one thing you’ve referenced and I want to go back to before we talk about your time in radio. And that is, I wasn’t sure whether Crossroads came first or “Wish You Were Here” came first. And so if you start with Crossroads then, ’92 or thereabouts, “Wish You Were Here” actually came first.
Jim Stover (13:33)
Yes.
Daniel Mount (13:37)
We definitely can’t tell your story and the story of Southern Gospel without telling the story of “Wish You Were Here.” So if you would be so kind, could you share that story with everybody?
Jim Stover (13:39)
Yes, I will.
That’s kind of interesting, because the Lord took two guys from West Asheville, North Carolina, that knew each other and were friends, but not close friends. And that would be Michael Williams. He’s primary writer. He conceived the idea, and I’ll tell you how in just a moment. And Jim Stover.
But I knew Mike from the ninth grade, but we’d never hung out so much. And then I remember seeing them a little. Matter of fact, we used to sit and we took printing and we took the course printing, and we’d sit and sing songs and go off key and we got sent to the office for it. But anyway, we all called him Willie. He hated it, finally, later in life, but Mike Williams and I knew each other a long, long time.
But I didn’t see him all through the ’70s much. And then the ’80s, I encountered him at church, actually. My family was joining a church, Merriman Avenue Baptist, and Mike came up from the congregation at the end of the service area, and he had his Bible, and so I said, “Hey, why don’t you come have lunch with the family?”
But then I saw him a little through the ’80s, off and on. But he’d drop in and out of my life. But in 1990, the store that I worked at, he came by there, dropped by, and I always would ask him, because Mike was a songwriter, he would try to write. We never played music together up to that time. And I said, “Hey, you writing any songs?” He said, “Well, I can’t. I got a block or something, writer’s block.” So I invited him to come to my apartment, and he came that night.
And we got out the guitars. Instead of me saying, “Hey, something I’m writing,” I said, “What do you got?” And Mike played a verse and half of the chorus that he’d had, which was “Wish You Were Here.” And he’d had that for a long time. Both of his parents had passed within a year of each other in the late ’80s, ’87, ’88.
So Mike had had that song germinating for a long time, but he couldn’t finish it. And so he played me what he had. And I said, “It again,” you know? And while he’s playing, I’m thinking. And he had half of a chorus. And then after about three passes, I said, “Well, here’s what I would do with it.” It sounds like a postcard from heaven. And I finished the chorus.
And I actually got him going on the second verse, and this is what I wrote and left him with: “I can just see him walking with Peter and Paul. They’re talking with Jesus. He is the Lord of all.” And the evening was over at that point, and Mike left, and I didn’t see him again for months. Then he pops in the store one day. “The Kingsmen recorded the song.” He went home and, you know, it got him going.
And Mike said to me, “If it does good, I’m gonna buy you a guitar.” He signed the contracts as a sole writer, but anyway, that’s a different story. But anyway, that’s how “Wish You Were Here” was born, and the death of his parents, and a song he couldn’t finish. And I helped him finish it. And I guess the rest is history, because the Kingsmen made it a big, big hit. And we always marveled that that song reached so many people and touched so many hearts. When I scroll through YouTube and see all the different versions of it, what I like to read are the comments. “They played that at my grandfather’s funeral.” “That makes me think of my mother.” Things like that. It’s amazing, and it amazed Mike too.
There’s actually another song that’s really a predecessor to “Wish You Were Here,” that again, Mike started writing. One of our encounters in the 80s, about ’87, he came over and we were back and forth and playing songs, and I was playing some and he was playing some. And he played something called “No More Tears.” But again, he had a verse and a chorus and that’s it. So over the years, I would ask him about it.
And the last time I asked him about it was before he passed. He passed in about 2012, I think. And a year or two before, he called me. And I said, “Hey, you ever finish that song, ‘No More Tears’?” And he didn’t even remember it, to tell you the truth. But I did. After he died, I decided I was going to finish that, and I did. Nobody’s recorded it, but it shows up on the BMI statement, and I’m not sure how. I got a demo version of it.
He’s actually singing, and Jeff [Collins] put some backgrounds on, so must be from that. But I kind of always liked that one a little more than “Wish You Were Here,” to tell you the truth. But that was my friend Michael C. Williams. God rest his soul. Yep.
So yeah, that happened in 1990. We finished writing it. And in 1991, I guess, is when the Kingsmen recorded it. And by ’92, was the Southern Gospel Song of the Year or whatever. But I didn’t go to Crossroads until three years after that. The two things weren’t connected at all. Just happened that I had a friend named Mike Williams that had a song that he couldn’t finish.
Daniel Mount (18:54)
That song, “No More Tears,” do you think you’ll put it on this collection of songs you’re working on?
Jim Stover (19:00)
Probably not. I haven’t recorded it. I could, I could have. But I got, it’s actually gonna be two CDs, because I got more songs. But I’m really burning with the desire to complete this and not leave that building unfinished. Don’t start something. But yeah, there’s more songs than I have space for.
Daniel Mount (19:20)
If there’s a song that might be better than “Wish You Were Here,” I’d at least love to hear it in some form or fashion someday.
Jim Stover (19:26)
All right. That makes sense to me too. I’m not sure we got the exact good version of it. I mean, you know, it’s good. I mean, I remember after that demo was… well, actually after they recorded it, Jeff made me the demo 10 or 11, 12 years ago. And a while after that, I put together a YouTube video and I remember putting it up on Facebook, and you know who?
Daniel Mount (19:32)
Okay.
Jim Stover (19:52)
Phil Tittle, you ever seen his name? Phil’s a big Southern Gospel follower and fan and just a great guy. He made the comment, the Talleys need to record this because Lauren was singing it. Anyway, “No More Tears,” that’s the name of that one. I referred to it once as the sequel to “Wish You Were Here,” but really it’s the prequel because Mike had that bit that he wrote prior to “Wish You Were…”
Daniel Mount (20:18)
Neat! Alright, so we can move back to the Crossroads story. We had gotten just up to where you started doing radio promotions. And I think that, I’m not going ask you to say anything that’s proprietary or secret or that you shouldn’t say, but within whatever’s okay to say, I think people might find it really interesting to just know what the radio promotion monthly cycle looks like. Because people hear songs on radio and don’t necessarily understand how they get there.
And there’s a process by which songs get on radio and get on the charts. And you’re as good a person as I know as any to explain what that process looks like.
Jim Stover (20:53)
Well, of course the groups come in, they cut that album and then, and you might have been involved in seeing some of this happening at Crossroads. Usually we would, Mickey and some, me and Chris White and others, Greg Bentley, just sit and listen and determine what might be a single. And sometimes the artists would have, “This is what I want a single.” And sometimes they’d want the record company to kind of pick the songs.
But getting it out there, you know, we always built that Crossroads Airplay Sampler, the CD, and mailed that to radio. And then it’s just a matter of, you know, it’s just really a matter of… People talk about promotions and whatnot, and you gotta do some of that. I’m talking about promotions of, we send them a coffee mug? That’s not really what makes those songs rise.
I had a long time of sales experience before doing radio promotion, and really it’s just about building relationships with DJs. So that’s where I would always start, is trying to build a relationship. And then when you’d call them and you’d talk to them, and I call it stirring the pot, you know, and you tell them the single and try to get them off of the old single onto the new as soon as possible so that that newer one has a chance to catch on and start climbing.
But really it was just about, it’s a big talk thing. I mean, the telephone… I feel like I got a cauliflower ear from all the years of having a telephone sticking in my ear. Now along the way though, we would do some promotions. You asked me in your notes about promotions that stood out. I remember it was about the year 2000, maybe ’99.
I was new at the radio promotion and Mickey Gamble said, “Come up with something we can do for the song that McKameys had out there called ‘The Blood.'” And I had this great chocolate lab named Molly, and we would walk all through these mountains and stuff. And I remember walking one of those trails that day. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?
And I finally thought of a big, maybe I’d seen a picture of a big spike, a big nail, a nail. And so I thought we could buy some of those and send them to the radio station with a little scarlet ribbon and a little card that said “The Blood” and whatever it said, “thank you for playing” or whatever. That was, to me, one of the more unusual ones.
I had a few DJs [say], I got that hanging in the control room. Matter of fact, you may remember, one of our people in the warehouse across, they hung one on the nail back there, one of those. And it stayed there for years. I don’t know if it’s still there. That was unique.
A few years back, well, seven years now, the Down East Boys had their first number one with “Beat Up Bible.” And this is one that they came up with. They actually bought Bibles and had them embossed with the music director’s name and mailed those Bibles to the reporting stations. And I remember a few of them commenting, and there was a precious lady named Alice Kassar. She was at WBCE, I think, in Wycliffe. When I talked to her after she’d received it, “Yeah, I got that Bible. That really was a blessing to me. I carried it to church Wednesday night,” is what she said. And God rest her soul, she passed on.
You know, that’s another thing about radio promotion. When you’ve done it as long as I have, and others out there that have done it a long time, there’s a whole long line of DJs that we would talk to month after month after month, year after year, that are gone now, and I think about them. There’s a long line of them. You still hear their voices in your mind and heart. That’s one of the things that, well, that’s part of life. Yeah, you miss them.
But yeah, as far as mugs and stuff, we did some of that over the years, but mostly it’s just getting on the phone and making those calls every month during the tracking cycle to try to get more airplay, and hopefully get more airplay and have a song find its way up the chart.
Daniel Mount (25:07)
There were a couple of terms you mentioned that I think people might not know what they are, so it might be a good idea to explain them if you don’t mind, and that is: What is a reporting station, and what is a tracking cycle?
Jim Stover (25:21)
Yes. Well, a reporting station is a station that reports to the various periodicals, magazines, that compile charts. Singing News would be, I guess, the premier one in Southern Gospel. And you’ve got SGN Scoops. And along the way there were others, Christian Voice, and I can’t even remember some of the names now.
But they would have a select group of stations that would send them their station’s chart every month. And from those individual station charts, they would compile one national chart.
And in its heyday, when I first started radio promotion in January of ’99, I think we had about, I think it was 150 or so, maybe a little more reporting stations, reporting to Singing News. And the tracking period would be the time when these stations would file those charts. It would generally start on the first of the month and initially go to the 20th. So you had almost three weeks there where stations were going to be filling out charts.
So you’d want to talk to them during that period, because, you know, hopefully they… so they wouldn’t forget something that they intended to include. There’s just always more. There were always more songs trying to get on that chart than there were spaces for them. I used to call it a chart bus. I say, you know, it only has 20 seats, and everybody wants to sit up front, you know, and that’s about the truth.
But anyway, that was the reporting cycle. Now over the years, the number of reporting stations would dwindle down, and part of it purposefully. The Singing News didn’t want to have that many reporting stations, and today they’ve got a little, around 40, and that’s it. It’s stayed at that number for the last five, six years.
But that’s what the tracking cycle is, that period of time where they’re going to be submitting their monthly chart to the magazine that they report for. And some of them reported to more than one magazine, you know, they might be doing two or three different charts, but they would pretty much be the same chart, because airplay was what was the determining factor. And if you have a song number one over here, it’s going to be the same over at the other chart generally. Not exactly, but generally.
And during that period, you know, stations are getting bombarded. They’re getting all kinds of calls coming in and faxes and text messages, and so a lot of people vying for their attention.
Daniel Mount (28:06)
I’m not sure if this story falls into radio promotion, technically, or maybe more broadly album promotion, but I know I kept hearing stories about a Harlem Globetrotters member who had done a record, and there was some basketball-related promotions, maybe at the Quartet Convention? I’m not sure. Do you recall any, maybe Meadowlark Lemon? Do you recall details of anything about what was done to promote that album?
Jim Stover (28:33)
Oh yeah, well that for one, and that was 1997. And somehow, Meadowlark Lemon, who had become a Christian at some point in his life, ended up at Crossroads with Chris White producing a record for him. And I don’t know how that came to be, to tell you the truth.
But anyway, at the Quartet Convention in 1997, Mr. Lemon, Meadowlark Lemon, and he’s iconic. I remember taking my young son to see the Globetrotters, gosh, in the early 70s, ’74 maybe, and he was still playing and it was amazing. But anyway, Meadowlark was gonna come to the convention and he had a bunch of basketballs shipped in there.
And not the full size, you know, smaller version, about the size of, well, a good size cantaloupe. And I’ll never forget that. It was so cool, Daniel, because Meadowlark, world-known. Anyway, we blew up the basketballs for him. I remember I was sitting on the floor behind one of the booths, in the booth, in the booth and down on the floor pumping up basketballs. And Meadowlark’s up there at the table, and people are lining up. They were lined up.
Daniel, this is the truth. Bless your heart to hear this. There was Dottie Rambo standing in front of Meadowlark Lemmon to get her basketball, and he would sign them. I got him to sign one for my son, which he still has. And they were buying those things, I don’t know, 15 or 20 bucks or something. But he had like 15 cases of these balls, uninflated, that we blew up.
Daniel Mount (29:53)
Wow. Wow.
Jim Stover (30:10)
But I was back there, Chris, Chris’s wife Kim took a picture of it, which I don’t know where it is. But anyway, sitting in the floor blowing up those basketballs and all these Southern Gospel artists and fans and attendees of the Quartet Convention were lined up to get one of those balls from Meadowlark Lemmon. Yeah, and he had a pretty good singing voice too. I mean, Chris, I thought it was a neat album. We put out a couple of singles.
No, it was a unique experience to have Meadowlark Lemmon recording a gospel album at Crossroads. I’ll never forget that scene there. And that was the old Freedom Hall and all that old cow barn stuff with open doors and flies everywhere. But anyway, it was unique, old Meadowlark signing those basketballs. But I could see Dottie Rambo standing there at that table waiting for her ball. Isn’t that something?
Daniel Mount (30:50)
Mm-hmm! It is; I didn’t know the Dottie Rambo detail.
So on a more serious side of stories connected to radio singles that go out, we know that, you know, some more times than you will ever know, than I will ever know, God used a song going out over the radio airwaves to touch somebody’s life, to change somebody’s life. But, and even though we’ll never know all the songs, there are definitely some of those that filter back to the DJs and filter back to you.
Either a specific story or in a broader sense, are there stories that really stick out to you of the ways that God used these songs going out over the airwaves?
Jim Stover (31:42)
Yeah, I wish I had had them all notated in a book because they escaped me at this time in life. I do remember things like, you know, earlier in this conversation I mentioned the long line of DJs that have gone. I think about them a lot.
And back in, when would it be, somewhere around 2000, whenever we put out the song, “The Healer” by the Talleys, which they were going by the Tally Trio at that time, there was a DJ in Florida, his name was Dick Shiflett, and Dick had developed cancer. And I remember the Talleys did some sort of promotion with a t-shirt and they had “The Healer” on it.
And I remember talking to him before he passed, and he had gone to a chemotherapy appointment session and he wore that shirt. And you know, he had the faith that was there. But unfortunately, he didn’t survive that illness.
Other stories … I can’t really pull anything up other than, you know, DJs would tell me when a song ministered and I’m getting a lot of calls. And, you know, anything specific, I can’t really think of anything, but it happened all the time. That’s the thing about a gospel song. There is life in those words.
You know, secular songs, they can… you can’t call it minister, but they touch people. There’s no doubt about that. But a gospel song, Daniel, here’s proof in the pudding. I’m an old hymn guy. I love old hymns, and I can hear those hymns. Susie will put on Pandora, and she’ll have maybe instrumental music, Anthony Burger playing something. And I’m thinking of those words the whole time I’m hearing it from the other room.
And so it is with the gospel song. We’ve had so many of them out there. Just, I think of the Inspirations, “I Have Not Forgotten.” That one really touched people. But yeah, I wish I had a book full of all the things that DJs may have told me over the years because they’re alive. Those songs live and they reach out and they touch a person in ways we don’t even know, which reflects back to what I said earlier when I see those YouTube videos of different people singing “Wish You Were Here.” And I like reading the comments. It’s that. That’s happening all the time right now while we’re sitting here talking. Gospel music is going out over the airwaves.
An example, and you may have experienced this as a writer, you’ve got songs up there. I put up a version, I wrote a song, kind of a family song to sing at a reunion back in ’83. My grandfather on my dad’s side, I had two praying grandfathers and one of them I never knew. He passed before I was born, my maternal grandfather.
But the other one I did know, and he was a student of the Bible and all these things, and I wrote a song called “Grandfather’s Bible,” just to sing at that family reunion. But some years later, my sister, my youngest sister, she had a ministry, a music ministry, and she recorded it. And I have it up on YouTube. And one day I saw a comment under it, and it was from somebody in India.
And he wanted to know if there was a soundtrack for it. And I think he wanted to play it for his grandchild or something like that. Or if, I don’t know if he wanted a soundtrack or he wanted to buy a copy or whatever it was, but I got him fixed up. I just sent him something. I asked for his email.
But those songs, they’re out there. Even something obscure, like I just described, “Grandfather’s Bible,” which, well, it got to radio a little bit because one time I asked Jeff if I could put it on a Crossroads sampler and he let me do it. And, um, so it, you know, it was out there. But that’s not how this gentleman saw it. He saw that YouTube video, something as obscure as that.
So these songs that do get put out there as singles and get played for five and six months, and they’re in the station library, something that we sent 25 years ago, they’re ministering today because they’ll play those songs periodically, and it amazes me. It’s just, it’s really, it’s amazing. That’s the way God works.
And it’s the same way with preachers, with the spoken word. Think about it. You’ll still find great preachers like Oliver B. Green and Vernon McGee. They’re on radio and they’re long gone to glory. But their voices and their messages, Billy Graham, all of them, they’re Adrian Rogers. It’s alive. The gospel is alive, both musically and spoken, because God’s Word is alive. I love it. Don’t we need it, Daniel, in this day and time?
Daniel Mount (36:29)
We do. Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.” And when that word of God is going out, spoken or sung, it makes a difference in people’s lives.
Jim Stover (36:40)
Amen, amen, amen. Thank God. Yeah. You know, since we worked together at Crossroads in 2015, these last 10 years, it seems like the world has gotten even darker, if that’s possible. Yeah.
Daniel Mount (36:44)
Yes. It has.
Jim Stover (36:57)
It has. So, we both get to shed a little light. I know you’re doing it where you are. Try to do it here. “People Need the Lord.” That was a great song.
Daniel Mount (37:07)
Yes! Are there any stories or parts of your life and your story that I’ve kind of skipped over in the questions that you’d like to share here? Is there a question I didn’t ask that it maybe would have been good if I had asked?
Jim Stover (37:24)
Well, you can ask me, “Jim, do you think God has blessed you in your life?” Let me tell you this.
Daniel Mount (37:28)
Jim, do you think God has blessed you in your life?
Jim Stover (37:30)
I would tell you this. If you ask me, I wrote a song like him a couple of years ago. “If you ask me why I love the Lord, if you wonder why He’s so adored, I will tell you one thing, rest assured, no one could love me like Him.” And it goes from there.
But yes, as unworthy as I am and as I’ve been, He’s kept me alive and many of the people, my peers, are gone. And I wonder why. And He brought me to a place I had… I’m gonna be honest with you here, I had some failed marriages and they took their toll on me. And I wasn’t planning to be married again.
And in 2006, God brought a little lady in my life named Susie. And it was through a unique set of circumstances. She’d been a friend of my sister’s for years, but I didn’t know her. My youngest sister, they knew each other. And I would hear her mention her name over the years.
But at any rate, my youngest sister said, she called me up and said, “I want to have a Bible study. And I’ve asked if we could have it at Susie McVeigh’s,” was her name at the time, “house because she has better parking. Would you come and lead worship and bring your guitar and lead worship?” I said, “Yeah, I need a Bible study,” I told my sister.
And I’d been single for about eight years and I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t happy being alone, but I was settled and I was at peace. God had brought me to a place of peace. But anyway, I came over that night and… I’m not going to tell the whole story, but I ended up asking Susie to go out to dinner with me about a month or so later. And she did, and a romance developed, and we got married about a year and a half later.
One of the DJs married us, believe it or not. A fellow named Wayne Morton. He had come up to have dinner with us, he and his wife. And it was December night, 2006, and we actually went to a great property you probably remember from when you lived in Nashville, the Grove Park Inn. And we went behind the Grove Park Inn and went down about three sets of stairs and had a wedding right there, and it was a balmy night in December.
But Susie is tangible proof to me that God still loved me even with all my brokenness. He brought me a wife like I never had, never had. She’s the best person I’ve ever known. She does no sarcasm or any of that kind of thing. She’s just a wonderful lady, very talented. Her voice will be on this album, because she can sing too, and she’s going to be singing harmonies with me on some of the songs. And that’s a blessing.
Daniel Mount (40:12)
Nice!
Jim Stover (40:18)
That’s what I would want to say. God is good, even when we’re not. He is good. And He’s brought me through a bunch of stuff and kept me alive, and apparently for a purpose. And you know, when we’re involved in doing something like I’ve done this radio promotion, some would say, “Well, that’s your purpose.” But you always feel like, there’s something more.
I know He gave me the love for music at a very tender, young age, but I never… it was unrequited, because I dabbled with a little here and there, but never really got anything out there. But I feel like this project is the culmination and completion of that.
And I’m really itching to get it finished before I leave this earth, because I’m older, baby. You get up in your 70s, like I am, and you know your days are numbered. They’re numbered when we’re 20, we just don’t know it.
I want to leave that behind and I want to hear, “Well done.” I don’t deserve to, but I’m grateful to God. He’s good. And I love Him and I ain’t ashamed to say it, you know? And neither are you, and that’s what I’ve always loved about you.
Daniel Mount (41:21)
Amen. Amen. Thank you very much for coming on. Thank you for your time. Really enjoyed catching up with you.
Jim Stover (41:30)
Daniel, I’ve enjoyed it immensely. It’s so good to see you. God bless you and your family, your wonderful family.
Daniel Mount (41:36)
All right, anything else you’d like to share before we conclude?
Jim Stover (41:39)
No, just that it’s been a great pleasure to talk to you and to see you, and thank you for what you do. And I’ve always admired you, Daniel Mount.
Daniel Mount (41:48)
The feeling is mutual!
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