BWW Interviews: Wagoneer Member Monte Warden Talks Songwriting and Buddy Holly

Monte is no stranger to the music industry. He has been writing and performing for over 25 years and has written or co-written hits for the likes of George Straight, Carrie Underwood, Patty Lovelace, George Jones and Meryl Haggard. After many years of doing their own thing, The Wagoneers got back together to perform at their induction of the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Member Monte remembers the evening of the reunion and how even after all the years of separation, everything fell back into place. With a new album coming out sometime in the Spring of 2015, The Wagoneers look forward to more success Monte and all the band members live in Austin, Texas and love to perform still and reminisce about his many years on stage. In a recent interview with Monte, he shared with BWW their time back onstage as well as his long and successful career as a singer/songwriter.

How did you first know you wanted to write songs?

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to write songs. What an odd vocation for a little child. My parents weren't in the music business. I was just always drawn to write songs for some reason.

And you have been called THE EXPERT on Buddy Holly. How did that start?

I was about ten years old and my family was watching "Happy Days." We didn't hardly do anything together as a family, but I for some reason Mother and Dad liked to watch "Happy Days." There was one episode where Fonzi mentions Buddy Holly and my folks went, "Buddy Holly, wow." They were from Texas and they were born in 39 and 40 so they would have been the exact age to have bought those records. I said, "Who was that?" And my dad said, "That was a big singer when we were kids." My mom said, "He was one of my favorites next to Elvis." My dad said he thought he was from Dallas but of course he was from Lubbock. The next day, I went to my elementary school library and there was one book in there that had a picture of him. I was real skinny, real curly hair, wore big thick glasses...and I thought, "This guy and he was from Texas." Then I got a record of his at Eckart's, remember the drug stores used to sell albums, so I brought a record of his sight unseen. I don't know how else to say it. I was just this weird lonely little kid and all of a sudden, I wasn't. I felt like I knew this guy. I had a friend. The music just moved me. His songs weren't big and cocky. They're vulnerable yet they have a creation confidence to them. Then I was hooked. And then because of all my interest in being a songwriter, I saw that he wrote most of his own stuff so I was very interested in that. And it's just great music. It gave me a life. It gave me dreams to dream. I had a not so good home life. But, that music made it o.k. And it was so good. As years went on, I was able to have a voice for some of that. The timing of it was good because the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came along in '86 and they reached out to me as a Holly Scholar. And friends of mine over at Universal Music wanted me to look over some of their packaging because they knew they got a lot of (stuff) wrong over the years. Mrs. Holly, whom I've known since I was 11, always knew that I was getting things right. It's always been important to me. So, she's always reached out to me to track certain things down and talk to certain people. You couldn't make it up. It's amazing what's happened.

Check out The Wagoneers' website and stay tuned for the release of their new album coming soon.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kathy Strain

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!