Rick Nelson was the nicest all-around boss that drummer Billy Thomas ever had

“Maybe it was because ‘The Memphis Sessions’ came out while I was grieving, but I was really absorbed into the music,” Rick Nelson’s youngest kid Sam once shared with this writer. “It brings me so much peace. That’s probably my second favorite album of his after ‘Rudy the Fifth.’ My dad performed an amazing cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘That’s All Right.’ ‘Dream Lover’ is unbelievably great. There’s a guitar solo in the album version at the very end of ‘Dream Lover’ — not in the original single — that makes me weep every time I hear it.” After Nelson tragically lost his life on New Year’s Eve 1985 in flight to Dallas, Epic Records saw dollar signs and finally distributed all of Nelson’s Memphis recordings waxed seven years earlier at Lyn-Lou Studios with producer Larry Rogers. Billy Thomas sang high harmonies on the tracks along with bass player John Davis. Illustration by Kim Whitesides / Art Direction by Bill Johnson / Sony Music Entertainment / Discogs

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Billy Thomas, co-founder of ’90s country trio McBride & The Ride and Vince Gill and , reviews his primeval career with Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band. The Nashville percussionist’s unprecedented interview boasts Saturday Night Live, Memphis Sessions [aka Rockabilly Renaissance], “Dream Lover,” Colonel Tom Parker, manager Greg McDonald, guitarist Bobby Neal, Buckaroo Tom Brumley, Las Vegas’ Aladdin Hotel, Stateline’s Sahara Tahoe, and other memories unavailable anywhere else.

Nelson, who would have sliced a piece of his 85th birthday cake on May 8, ascended from TV’s enduring Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet sitcom to a 16-year-old rock ‘n’ roller snapping at Elvis Presley’s heels. John Wayne noticed all the hubbub and approved Nelson’s casting as the laconic gunslinger Colorado in director Howard Hawks’ epic Rio Bravo.

By 1966, the British Invasion sparked a reset of Nelson’s musical horizons towards country rock and confessional songwriting. The public responded in droves six years later when Nelson transformed the booing he assumed was directed at him during an oldies package show at Madison Square Garden into his songwriting apex “Garden Party.” Bob…