Hey, Don...not related, but I met Rodney at the Holiday Inn West in Lexington in the early 70's, when I played there during graduate school. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton stayed there when they were playing in the area. Buck Trent, a banjo player and Rodney were traveling with them. Buck was going to leave the group and going to work on a new TV show...one with girls with low-cut tops and old men in a cornfield. I told Buck that I thought it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. Later, I saw Rodney and his brother, I think, on, Hee Haw, playing matching black Carvin double-neck guitars (I have the same one in a natural finish). I believe he may have been the musical director for awhile, brought in by Buck, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. Buck was on the show for the duration, and the brother of a well-known accordian player-Tony Lovello (played with the Three Sons and was the general manager of the Campbell House when I played there in the early 80's), Sam, was the producer. Funniest thing I ever saw on Hee Haw, was a guest appearance by Tony on accordion....man was he out of place! Buck talked about me working on the show, but I was close to getting my masters, had taken a full-time job at Square D Company, and just couldn't get into it!

Ah, the choices you make...

Russ "Hee Haw reject" Lay