![]() MCLAIN AND ADCOCK: (Singing) I ran down every dream. TOMMY MCLAIN AND C C ADCOCK: (Singing) But I ran down every dream. And we were young, we'd set this world on fire. (Singing, playing guitar) I remember a long time ago. Adcock going to get to them and me and I'm going to try to gargle through this with my old voice. Let us play "I Ran Down Every Dream" off of our album. That's a long time - 40 years - to have an international album like we got going. MCLAIN: Ailsa, I'm sitting here and can't hardly believe it. I mean, even though you have, you know, become a preacher, you've been performing and writing songs all the while, how does it feel to have an album come out after so long? MCLAIN: I got happiness in my life, girl. And the priest looked at me and said, Tommy, you go to one of them honky-tonks, get the people out there to come to the Catholic Church. I said everybody's calling me, getting mad at me. I said, Father Duke - I said, I can't play secular music no more - rock 'n' roll. MCLAIN: So I had to go to confession one day. ![]() At age 50, he turned to the Catholic Church. That's a great thing that happened in my life.ĬHANG: But McLain says that kind of success and hard living eventually caught up with him. Martin Luther King, I met him and flew on a plane with him and Coretta. I was here at the Gene Autry's Hotel Continental Sunset Strip - Dr. ![]() I ran through that money and my life like it was ice cream. MCLAIN: 1966 - I was on top of the world. MCLAIN: (Singing) Sweet, sweet dreams of you.ĬHANG: This catapulted him to a new level of fame. I got a little money jingle-jangling in.ĬHANG: McLain first hit it big back in 1966, with a recording of the country ballad, "Sweet Dreams." MCLAIN: (Singing) I'm tired of living on the losing end. I didn't give up.ĬHANG: And sure enough, "I Ran Down Every Dream" became Tommy McLain's first album in four decades. MCLAIN: The bad man was after me, but I've overcome so far. And then we had hurricanes, and I had a triple bypass heart attack. MCLAIN: Some old boy come through the neighborhood and just had to pick my house and burn it down, but I wasn't in there. But, you know, there was a point not that long ago when McLain didn't think anybody was going to hear it. MCLAIN: (Singing) This morning, on my front porch swing, I heard red birds sing.ĬHANG: McLain is 82 years old, and he's out with a new album with his producer and guitarist C.C. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIVIN' ON THE LOSIN' END") It's a melange of R&B, country-western, gospel and traditional French Louisiana music. McLain was one of the inventors of swamp pop. Oh, this is your show costume now (laughter). His long Santa Claus beard flowing down his chest. When I walked into our studios in Culver City, Calif., to finally meet swamp pop legend Tommy McLain, I was so pleased to see him decked out in velour pants and bright white cowboy boots.
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