When Gene Watson’s tour bus arrives in Chickasha on Sept. 26 for a Saturday night concert at the high school activity center, it will be just the latest stop on a an amazing journey. Watson will sing many of his 21 songs that reached the top-ten on the Billboard country music chart, as well as a couple from his new CD.

Reserved seat tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are still available by calling 243-7252.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that a man who is known for singing “real” country songs has experienced his share of the good times and the bad. As a child, his family was poor, and for a time lived in an old bus. They would move from farm to farm working various crops. The work was hard. The music was country, gospel and blues.

Born in Palestine, Texas in 1943, Gene Watson was singing in holiness churches with his family at an early age. His earliest public country performance came when he was just 12 years old. Watson dropped out of school in the ninth grade to work full time. He initially supported his family by doing auto body repair, so by day he worked on cars, and at night he sang in clubs.

“But doing music professionally was never a goal of mine. I always wanted to work on cars. I always say I never did go looking for music. Music found me,” Watson said. “Before I ever made a record, The Wilburn Brothers heard me sing down in Houston at a nightclub one night. When I went to Nashville, they got me on the Grand Ole Opry, and I got a standing ovation and an encore singing Hank Williams songs. That was my first experience with the Big Time. I was 21.”

Watson’s first hit came in 1975 with the sultry, provocative “Love in the Hot Afternoon.” Capitol Records picked it up for national distribution, launching Gene Watson’s long hit-making career.

“Paper Rosie” (1977), “Farewell Party” (1979), “Fourteen Carat Mind” (1981) and other hits made him a star. His streak continued with “Speak Softly” (1982), “Sometimes I Get Lucky and Forget” (1983), “Got No Reason Now for Goin’ Home” (1984), “Memories to Burn” (1985) and more.

His remarkable voice actually became even better as he aged. Watson says that is because he learned to care for it properly.

“I used to drink. I used to smoke like a freight train. I gave up all that. You know, I got so tired of drinking I just one night quit [in 1980],” he said. “Most people didn’t know I drank that much. But most people never saw me sober. It is an occupational hazard. I’m not proud of it, for sure. I just quit. I decided I’d had enough, and I was going to see how the other half lives. I haven’t had even a beer or a glass of wine since. That’s the same way I quit smoking [in 1990].”

,In 2000-01, he was diagnosed with cancer, underwent surgery and endured chemotherapy. Remarkably, he kept singing through it all.

“The disease was extremely devastating to me financially,” Watson said. “I didn’t have any insurance and didn’t know what I was going to do. I am so grateful to my fans and to all the entertainers, my comrades who got behind me and helped me with their fundraisers and their prayers. I kept working as much as I could. It’s what I had to do. I couldn’t lay down. I had to be doing something, sick or not. I think it made me a stronger person. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change anything. I have been on top. And I’ve been just as low as you can go.”

Watson’s latest CD “A Taste Of The Truth” was released last month, another example of the strong, soulful sound of Gene Watson’s voice. There is no studio trickery here. This is a man who can stand and deliver in the studio, flawlessly.

“I’m old school,” he says without apology. “With me, it’s so important to do the vocals at the same time the musicians are playing, live. I’m adamant about that. I mean, if one of those players hits a good lick, it will inspire me to sing a good lick. Sometime I think I’m out of date because I stick with that. But that’s all I have ever known as far as recording. In so many ways, I’m so elementary, so basic.”

In Nashville, he is known as a “singer’s singer”. Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, George Strait and dozens of others have praised his singing abilities. George Jones recently said, “The way he belts out a ballad, it doesn’t get any better than that.” Lee Ann Womack, who recorded a duet with Watson, said “In my Dad’s eyes, I hadn’t really made it in the music business until now…I’ve sung with Gene Watson!`