The most unusual thing to me about Don Williams is that he is a superstar who doesn’t enjoy talking about himself. He is an artist untouched by the personal turmoil common to many of today’s biggest names. Few country music artists have ever enjoyed the sort of worldwide popularity Don Williams has achieved. He is a quiet man who chooses his words carefully. He talks slowly, always to the point, and is not given to long-winded answers. Despite his mammoth successes he remains sincere, hard-working, religious and down to earth. Success may have spoiled many artists in the past, but it seems only to have strengthened the will of Don Williams. At heart I think he is a thoroughly decent Texas country boy who remains fully aware that he counts for no more or no less, in the eyes of his Creator, than any other person. - JOHN LOMAX in the JOURNAL OF COUNTRY MUSIC

He has been called the only true country singer, and he has been called the least country of them all. But Don Williams doesn’t think of those kind of things much, preferring instead to simply make good music that affects the heart and gut faster than it does the head, and to do it honestly, writing more from feelings than circumstances. “Interviewing Don Williams is like trying to charm a rattlesnake,” one reporter told me before Williams and I were scheduled to talk. But is was to be another month before I would be able to dispute my friend. When we finally did meet in his Nashville office I found no trace of the rattlesnake persona in the quiet, shy Williams, but rather a gentle man with a strong sense of integrity and moral conviction. - ALANNA NASH in SAGA MAGAZINE

GIVEN NAME: Don Williams

DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: May 27, 1939 in Floydada, Texas

RAISED IN: Portland, near Corpus Christi, on the Texas coast

EDUCATION: Gregory-Portland High School

MARITAL STATUS: Wed to Joy Bucher on April 10, 1960

CHILDREN: Two sons, Gary and Tim

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Don lives with his wife on soms 90 acres outside Nashville near Ashland City, Tennessee.

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6’1” at 180 lbs

HAIR COLOR: Brown

EYES: Hazel

INSTRUMENT: Guitar, which Don began playing as a teenager. He would hurry home from school to try and pick a favorite tune he’d heard on the radio.

FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE: When Don was three years old he sang in a local talent contest, and won the first prize - an alarm clock.

FIRST PAID JOB IN MUSIC: In 1957 while in high school, Don and a group of friends played and sang for the opening of the Billups Service Station in Taft, Texas. They received $25.

OTHER EARLY JOBS: Don has worked as a bill collector, he drove a bread truck, worked in the Texas oil fields, in the furniture business, in a smelting plant, and for Pittsburgh Plate Glass.

POZO SECO SINGERS: While in Corpus Christi in 1965 Don formed the well remembered Pozo Seco Singers, a successful trio (Lofton Cline, Susan Taylor and Don) that sang a variety of music from folk to pop and country. Their first single “Time” climbed into the top 10 nationwide, but the Pozos disbanded in 1971.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE SCHEDULE: Concert dates fill 50% of each month. The Don Williams show has headlined a variety of prestige venues from the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo to the Roxy in Los Angeles, from a sold-out Carnegie Hall in New York to the larger state fairs, dinner theatres and auditoriums nationwide. Don and the members of his group travel in two customized buses.

MEMBERS OF THE SCRATCH BAND: Danny Flowers lead guitar Pat McInerney percussion David Pomeroy bass guitar Biff Watson keyboard

PARTIAL LIST OF DON’S SONG MATERIAL RECORDED BY OTHERS: ‘We’re all the way’ Eric Clapton ‘Lay down beside me’ Kenny Rogers, Jeanne Pruett The shelter of your eyes’ Charley Pride, Lobo Till the rivers all run dry’ Pete Townshend ‘Down the road I go’ Johnny Cash ‘If she just helps me get over you’ Lefty Frizzell, Sonny James

FIRST SONG DON WROTE: ‘Walk it off’, when he was age 14

PARTIAL LIST OF TELEVISION CREDITS: Tonight Show Solid Gold John Davidson Show Merv Griffin Mike Douglas Country Music Association Awards Academy of Country Music Awards Hee Haw Country Gold: The first 50 Years The Don Williams Special (BBC, Britain) Ronnie Prophet Show

MOTION PICTURES: Don co-starred with Burt Reynolds in 20th Century Fox’s ‘W.W. Mc & the Dixie Dancekings’. He also appeared in Universal’s ‘Smokey & The Bandit II’ and did the voice-over in ‘Reunion in Hazard’.

INTERNATIONAL APPEARANCES: Belgium, Monaco, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Spain, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Zimbabwe.

TRADEMARK HAT: “The hat was given to me by the people at the 20th Century Fox when I was making ‘W.W. & the Dixie Dancekings’ with Burt Reynolds. I really had worn hats very little prior to that. But the guy who styled it for me, it was his speciality to style hats to a person’s features. And I just little by little got to wearing it more and more untill it was just… it’s like a part of me. I kid about it turning into a growth, but I really don’t feel right if I go outside without wearing it. I feel like I’m just not dressed.”

HIS TRADEMARK DENIM: “When I first started out, I don’t really know of anybody at that time who was performing in jeans. That was like latter 1971 or ’72; everybody was in something else. And I ran into a lot of opposition, ‘cause I’d show up and the promoter would come around and he’d want to know, ‘Well, when are you gonna change clothes? When are you gonna get ready?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m ready.’ Don prefers Sedgefield jeans and jackets and says, ‘It’s what I’m comfortable in. I put on dress clothes, or whatever you want to call it, to go to church and a few things like that. But I’m just really comfortable in jeans.”

FAVORITE COLORS: Brown and blue

FAVORITE FOOD: Fried chicken

FAVORITE BEVERAGE: Iced tea

LEISURE ACTIVITIES: Fishing and occasionally tinkering with his prized 1956 Chevy.