There’s nobody quite like Jimmy Hart. The Mouth of the South has spent more than fifty years living at the exact intersection of rock and roll and professional wrestling, and this week those two worlds collide again. On September 4, Sun Records is re-releasing It’s Been So Long, a long-lost album from Hart’s 1960s Memphis garage-rock band The Gentrys, pulled straight from the Sun vault.
The Stunner’s Josh Bernstein and Rob Pasbani caught up with Jimmy from the control room of Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, the same room where the Gentrys cut records back in 1970, to talk about the album, growing up in the birthplace of rock and roll, meeting Elvis, and how a garage-rock hitmaker ended up writing some of the most iconic entrance themes in wrestling history, from Shawn Michaels’ “Sexy Boy” to the nWo Wolfpac.
It’s Been So Long collects rare and previously unreleased Gentrys recordings produced by Knox Phillips, son of Sun founder Sam Phillips. The band is best known for the 1965 smash “Keep On Dancing,” but this reissue captures a later, largely unheard chapter, Laurel Canyon-style harmonies layered over that signature Memphis rock sound. It’s out September 4 on Sun Records and hits every streaming platform.
Watch our full conversation with the Mouth of the South below, then read the complete interview underneath.
A Few Choice Quotes
“I met Ted Turner on an elevator one night at CNN Center with Raquel Welch, and he goes, ‘You’re the Mouth of the South. I’m the Mouth of the South, too.’ I said, ‘Well, you’ve got more money than me, so if you want it, you can have it.’ He goes, ‘No, I love you having it.'”
Jimmy Hart
“I didn’t have backup singers, so that’s me singing backup going ‘Sexy Boy.’ I doubled it four or five times and raised it up an octave, so it sounds like girls.”
Jimmy Hart, on Shawn Michaels’ theme
“We’ve got to get that hook as close to the front as we possibly can. I took that over to the wrestling stuff, once the guys came through that curtain, the fans automatically knew who was coming out.”
Jimmy Hart
“If the ring broke down and Vince McMahon or Triple H came to me and said, ‘Jimmy, can you help put the ring up?’ I’d be more than happy. It’s not beneath me. This is what’s made us a living.”
Jimmy Hart
The Full Interview
The Stunner: Jimmy, thank you for joining us. We live at the intersection of rock and roll and pro wrestling, and we’re honored to be meeting the man who created so much of that. Set the scene, where are you right now?
Jimmy Hart: Man, good to see you guys. I’m back in Memphis, Tennessee. I live in Clearwater Beach now, but I’m back in my old hometown at Sam Phillips Recording Studio. It’s great to be back. We’re in the control room where everything took place back in 1970 when I had this album out with the Gentrys. “Cinnamon Girl” is on this album, “Why Should I Cry,” a couple of our Top 40 hits. It’s glad to be back here, man. This is awesome.
The Stunner: You grew up in Memphis, arguably the birthplace of rock and roll and the home of some of the greatest wrestling of all time. Do you have early memories of first discovering Elvis and those rock and roll pioneers?
Jimmy Hart: It was great. I was so lucky. George Klein, a good friend of ours, had a show called Talent Party, and he’s the one who kind of discovered us, the Gentrys. We were in high school playing YMCAs and all the little sock hops around town, making a little extra money to buy clothes and food while we were going to school. George put us on Talent Party, and he was close friends with Elvis, went to school with him over at Humes High School. Marty Lacker, another of Elvis’s friends from Humes, later became my manager for a couple of years, so I got a chance to go to Graceland and meet Elvis one time. I kind of grew up on the rockabilly rock and rollers back then.
The Stunner: Your mom was a songwriter, so music was in the house early. Do you remember one of the first songs that gripped you?
Jimmy Hart: My mom wrote a song called “Enclosed, One Broken Heart” for Eddy Arnold back in the day, and his manager was Colonel Parker. It’s so crazy, she had one hit and I had one big hit. Our “Keep On Dancing” record on MGM finally sold a million after a year or so, top four in the nation on Billboard. After our original group broke up, I picked my autoharp up and went over to Sun Records. I met with Sam Phillips and Knox Phillips, went upstairs to Sam’s office, and Sam goes, “What you got there, boy?” I played a little song called “Why Should I Cry?” He goes, “Let me hear it again.” I played it again, and the next thing you know they’re working out a deal with Shelby Singleton out of Nashville on the old Sun label. They called Sam, they called Shelby, and I’m signed to Sun Records. That’s how this first album came out back in 1970.
The Stunner: Were you aware of the weight of talking to Sam Phillips, the man who recorded Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins? That’s the Mount Rushmore of rock and roll.
Jimmy Hart: Oh, absolutely. Back in our day, Graceland was just where Elvis lived, no big fanfare across the street like there is now. And Sun, one street over from where we are now, didn’t have the big display out front. There weren’t a lot of tourists visiting. After Elvis passed away is when everything really got commercialized.
The Stunner: Take us through this new-old record. The Gentrys cut it in 1970. You did an incredible cover of the Beatles’ “Two of Us”, did you hear “Let It Be” and instantly want to do your version?
Jimmy Hart: Absolutely. As the Gentrys we had a few hits, but we also played covers in our own style. I always loved Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I wish I’d brought the picture to show you, but I have a photo of us playing the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, and our warm-up group on the billboard was Buffalo Springfield, that’s where I met Neil Young. I always loved those harmonies, so when we came back and started cutting our stuff, we added a lot of harmony. You can hear it on “Two of Us,” and on the Harry Nilsson song we covered, our version of “It’s Been So Long,” which is one of my favorites on the album. Back then we only put ten or twelve songs on the first album, so there were a lot we left off. About four or five months ago I got a call from Sun Records. They said, “We went down to Memphis looking for some old Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins stuff, and we were in the vault and tripped over a big box of Gentrys songs, and we’re thinking about re-releasing some of it.” I said, “That’s awesome, man.” They found original pictures, too. On this album I’m 26 years old in that photo, I’ve got a muscle t-shirt on with no muscles. That’s the way it all started.
The Stunner: In Memphis there was a huge wrestling scene. What are your earliest wrestling memories? Was it Jackie Fargo?
Jimmy Hart: When I was in high school and we had the band going, I’d go down to Ellis Auditorium. They’d pick somebody out front to sell popcorn and Cokes, and I’d say, “Yeah, I’ll sell Coca-Cola.” I’d try to sell as many as I could so I could watch the main event, which was one of my heroes, the Sputniks. During the summer my uncle JB, who lived down in Jackson, Mississippi, would bring me down for two weeks, I lived with my mother, single parent, and every Wednesday night we’d go to wrestling. I just always loved it. Then I went to school with Jerry “The King” Lawler. He went into wrestling, I went into music. One day we came off a Dick Clark tour and he said, “Would you help me with a wrestling album?” I said, “I’d love to.” That’s how we hooked up. After touring four or five years with the Gentrys, I said, “You know what, I want to go into wrestling now,” and Jerry gave me a heck of a chance. The rest was history.
The Stunner: The modern version of rock and wrestling, or sports entertainment, was really created with you and Jerry and the work you did with Andy Kaufman. My understanding is Andy was the first to coin the phrase “Mouth of the South.” Can you tell us about that?
Jimmy Hart: It was actually a DJ named Ron Olsson. Andy and I were doing a radio show after TV, up in the channel 5 building, and my gig was to irritate Andy. Every time Andy tried to talk, I’d interrupt him. Ron Olsson goes, “Andy, you’re not going to get a word in edgewise, they call Jimmy Hart the Mouth of the South down here.” I thought, “Oh, that sounds pretty good.” Later when I went to New York, WWE, I used it. Then down at WCW, Ted Turner was also called the Mouth of the South. I met him on an elevator one night at CNN Center with Raquel Welch, and he goes, “You’re the Mouth of the South. I’m the Mouth of the South, too.” I said, “Well, you’ve got more money than me, so if you want it, you can have it.” He goes, “No, I love you having it.” I said, “Thank you, sir.”
The Stunner: The music is what brought you into wrestling. What was the relationship between music and wrestling for you? Before you came in, what even was an entrance theme, gorgeous George?
Jimmy Hart: I’m not sure what came before us, but when I started doing local TV down here on channel 5, we could use anybody’s songs. I had a team called the PYT, Pretty Young Things, and we used Michael Jackson’s music. Lawler gave me a chance to be original, and I wrote songs for some of the guys down here, like “Lance Russell’s Nose” and “Son of a Gypsy” for Handsome Jimmy Valiant. They gave me a camera crew, so I could edit and do a lot of crazy stuff back then. Then when I went to New York, I met Dave Wolff, who was Cyndi Lauper’s manager, so I was on the very first WrestleMania. Dave came to me and said, “Jimmy, I know you were in a band, the Gentrys. We’re about to put a new wrestling album out, have you got anything?” I said, “I’ve got a little song called ‘Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield.'” He loved it. Rick Derringer played on it, Leslie West of Mountain played on it, Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge played on it. I was in heaven with all these stars playing on a Jimmy Hart song.
The Stunner: You had the Gentrys, and Rick Derringer had the McCoys, two legendary garage-rock bands. Did you two know each other back then?
Jimmy Hart: I told Rick, “You probably don’t remember this, you’ve played with so many people, but back in the ’60s we did a tour together for eight days.” It was the McCoys, the Gentrys, the Shangri-Las, and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. We did Murray the K’s Christmas and Easter shows, three shows a day for two weeks. Martha and the Vandellas were on it, Roy Head who had “Treat Her Right,” the Young Rascals. Great time. It was all bus tours back then. When we signed with Dick Clark Promotions, we did Shindig and Hullabaloo, and American Bandstand twice. The first time we walked into American Bandstand, we bumped into another artist getting their makeup done and went, “Look who’s in there!”, it was Roy Orbison.
The Stunner: You became a prolific and iconic entrance-theme composer. When you’re writing something like Shawn Michaels’ theme, what goes through your head? What makes a good entrance theme?
Jimmy Hart: You have to look at the wrestler, good guy or bad guy, and watch his cadence coming to the ring. Shawn was always cool and cocky, so “Sexy Boy” was easy. We looked on Spotify yesterday and it has 37 million streams. Shawn said, “I can’t sing,” and I said, “Yes you can, because that’s what Vince wants you to sing, baby.” The original version I cut on his manager, Sensational Sherri, but when she went on vacation, Vince wanted it on Shawn, so I took the tapes to Texas. I didn’t have backup singers, so that’s me singing backup going “Sexy Boy”, we doubled it four or five times and raised it up an octave, so it sounds like girls. Then we did Dusty Rhodes’ theme. Dusty said, “Give me a cowbell on the front, some soul sisters singing backup from Memphis, and give me some horns.” I said, “Damn, Dusty, why don’t you just write it yourself?” But it came out pretty good, the “American Dream” song. We did the Million Dollar Man song, all of Honky Tonk Man’s greatest hits, “Hunka Hunka Honky Love.”
The Stunner: The Fabulous Rougeaus’ “All American Boys” is one of the great troll songs of all time, you even had them singing in French, making fun of Americans.
Jimmy Hart: We cut it right here in Sam Phillips Recording Studio. Knox was down here with us and did all the little gimmicks on it. I had to make it cute and funny because we wanted people to hate them, and me. One of the lines was, “We don’t like heavy metal, we don’t like rock and roll, all we like to listen to is Barry Manilow.” And one of them goes, “You’re from Canada, who’s Barry Manilow?” Then we did it in French. I had so much fun with them.
The Stunner: Did you ever have heat with Barry Manilow?
Jimmy Hart: No. I don’t know if you ever heard it, but Rick Springfield loved his version of “Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield.” So that’s good enough.
The Stunner: What’s so notable about your themes is the catchiness, they’re not just good entrance songs, they’re great songs that stay in your head. Can you talk about your songwriting philosophy? How do you dial into that?
Jimmy Hart: When Knox and I sat down before we cut that first Gentrys album, we said, “We’ve got to get that hook as close to the front as we possibly can,” because a lot of music fans’ attention spans are maybe 30 seconds. Little short intro, five or six seconds, then the meat of the song, then the hook as quick as we could. I took that over to the wrestling stuff. Once the guys came through that curtain, I made sure there was something on the front of each song so the fans automatically knew who was coming out, Shawn Michaels’ intro, Dusty’s cowbell, bam bam. That’s how I did everything, just like in the music days.
The Stunner: A lot of fans feel theme songs used to be more unique. You’re a rock and roll guy, but you became almost genreless, the Mountie, or Demolition, which is a straight heavy-metal song. How vital is the right entrance theme to a wrestler’s whole presentation?
Jimmy Hart: You’re absolutely right. Look at the champion now, CM Punk, great catchy song by a rock group. Cody Rhodes, great song. Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, all the big stars have great songs because it’s such a big part of everything they’re involved with. They’ve got the look, the talk, and the biggest machine in the world behind them, the WWE. On this album we have a little bit of something for everybody, because if you listen to AC/DC, everything’s AC/DC, and I love them, but I knew I could never be AC/DC. Same with Metallica. So I made sure we used different guitar players and a lot of harmonies, because I always loved Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Poco. My voice was never strong enough to go, “Welcome to the jungle”, mine was more, “I want to live with a cinnamon girl,” and then we’d put harmony on it. Back in 1970 we didn’t have harmonizers, so I had to go back in and sing every harmony word for word myself.
The Stunner: Do you prefer that old-school style, or the newer computer tricks?
Jimmy Hart: This is the first time I’ve really put anything back out since 1970. That’s when I gave it up and went to wrestling. Down here I did gimmick songs like “We Hate School” and “Lance Russell’s Nose.” Up in New York I sang “Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield,” but otherwise we used other people, like on Demolition we had so many heavy-metal players, Leslie West, Carmine Appice, and Rick Derringer playing guitar and singing. It was awesome.
The Stunner: In WCW you created iconic themes like Hogan’s “American Made,” the American Males, and the nWo Wolfpac, but also sound-alikes, DDP’s theme was close to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Raven’s to “Come As You Are.” Did the wrestlers come to you? What’s the math on a sound-alike?
Jimmy Hart: The wrestlers wanted a particular thing, and we were always careful not to hurt anybody on copyright. WCW had a music department that checked everything first. If you put them side by side, they’re completely different. We used different guitar players. The one we got the most response from was the Wolfpac song for Nash and Hall. Eric Bischoff said, “Come up with something for Nash and Hall.” I watched how they came out, cool and cocky, with swagger, so we fixed the beat just for them, and I got a rap guy to come in because I couldn’t rap. We cut that in the same Tampa studio where Seven Mary Three cut “Cumbersome.”
The Stunner: You learned early that you could get burned racing to cover a song. Tell us about “Cinnamon Girl” and your trips to England.
Jimmy Hart: We cut “Cinnamon Girl” and our record was burning up the charts, got to like 41 or 42, but as soon as it was about to blast, they released Neil Young’s original version and it took over. So Knox flew me to England to find material. I’m walking down the street with my guitar player and I go by Island Records and hear this song, “Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world.” I loved that hook. I went in and said, “I’m in a band called the Gentrys, we had a million-seller in the ’60s called ‘Keep On Dancing.'” The guy goes, “Yeah, the Bay City Rollers from here covered that.” Then he says, “I think you’ve got a release out”, Sun had put out my single “Goddess of Love” and I didn’t even know. I asked about “Wild World,” and he says, “That’s our publishing company, it’s Cat Stevens.” Jimmy Cliff had it first, but Cat Stevens wrote it. He gave me a copy, we sent it back to Knox and Shelby Singleton, they loved it, and we cut it in my key. It was out within two weeks, hit the charts around 98, and then the full Cat Stevens version came out and we got bit again. After that I said, “From now on, it’s original songs, no matter what.”
The Stunner: One of the great lessons from Colonel Tom Parker is that you can make just as much money selling an “I Hate Elvis” shirt as an “I Love Elvis” shirt. You wrote rap songs for the nWo, but also “Rap Is Crap” for Curt Hennig and the West Texas Rednecks, playing both sides.
Jimmy Hart: “Rap Is Crap” was written as a heel song, but because we were primarily in the South, it got embraced and got over as a hit. It came close to coming out as a single, a major label called WCW and said, “We love this song, we’re getting airplay, we’d like to make a deal.” But WCW never had a great publishing company to hustle songs like that, so it went by the wayside. Wrestling moves so fast, what happens today, tomorrow it’s something else. But hey, have you seen my new Gentrys t-shirt? I bought it myself. And this jacket is a duplicate of one of Elvis’s movie jackets, made by Lansky Brothers here in town, where the Gentrys bought all our original clothes on Beale Street. Hal Lansky called and said, “I want to present you with a remake of one of Elvis’s movie jackets.”
The Stunner: That’s where Elvis shopped, right? And the Peabody, with the ducks?
Jimmy Hart: Yes, big time. It’s where the ducks are, and it’s got an unbelievable shop, like a museum, but you can get clothes nobody else has. Hal’s daddy was the one who fitted Elvis back in the day. He told me Elvis was looking in the Lansky window on Beale Street before he had any hits and said, “Mr. Lansky, I don’t have any money now, but one day I’m going to buy your store.” Lansky said, “I don’t want you to buy my store, just buy my clothes.” They became great friends.
The Stunner: You have impeccable style, the famous airbrushed suits, and you look identical to when you first came on TV in Memphis in the ’70s. What’s your secret? How do you stay ageless?
Jimmy Hart: I don’t know if this is it, but I’ve never drank and never smoked in my life. Ask anybody who’s been with me the whole time. Raised by a single parent, we didn’t have a lot of money, once a week on Friday we’d have a little minute steak about as thin as my finger, and if you blinked it was gone. No liquor in the house. And I love vegetables. Memphis has the best, there’s a place called the Cupboard with squash, turnip greens, lima beans, black-eyed peas. Another place called Patrick’s, I thought was an Irish restaurant until Lawler took me, same thing, vegetables. I go to Corky’s but I don’t eat the barbecue, I eat the coleslaw, the beans, the spaghetti and the chili, which doesn’t have meat in it, I’m pretty much vegetarian, though I’ll eat a cheeseburger from Tops Barbecue once in a while. Memphis has been so good to me, wrestling-wise and music-wise.
The Stunner: You mentioned the outfits, what did Dick Clark teach you about that?
Jimmy Hart: Our first tour out of high school was with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. The Beach Boys were on it, Chuck Berry, Roy Head, the Gentrys. Dick pulled us all in a room and said, “Some nights you won’t feel good, your voice might go out, you might hit a few bad notes, but people paid to see you, give them the best you can. And remember, if you dress like the audience, one day you’ll wind up sitting in the audience.” Meaning they want to see somebody different from the way they dress. So in Memphis I wore crazy jackets, and in New York Vince let me wear my airbrushed jackets with hearts on them. Vince is the one who gave me the megaphone to carry to the ring. I said, “Hey Vince, can I paint it?” He goes, “Whatever you do.” I said, “Thank you for not making me carry a piano around.”
The Stunner: This record is 50-some years old. What was it like hearing it remastered?
Jimmy Hart: They remastered them and I got to hear them a couple of weeks ago, and they sound phenomenal, I couldn’t believe it. For them to take somebody my age who was in wrestling and in a music group and release this, it’s beautiful. Usually all our albums were different, but this one is blue, with a great inside shot with our pictures. Just look how beautiful it is. And knowing “That’s All Right, Mama” and “Folsom Prison Blues” had those same Sun labels, it’s so great people can hear this music. On some of these songs you’ve got Steve Cropper, Willie Mitchell, who produced Al Green, played trumpet, Duck Dunn played bass, it was like the school of Memphis. On our first Gentrys album on MGM, Isaac Hayes played keyboard. One night Jerry Lee Lewis came by while Knox was mixing “Cinnamon Girl” and asked, “You got any rockabilly on there?” I said, “No, but since you’re here, we’ll come up with one.” It was a who’s who of music.
The Stunner: You should reissue that tank top you’re wearing on the cover, that would be a hot shirt in 2026.
Jimmy Hart: Several people have said that, we might need to talk to somebody. Look, I’ve got spaghetti arms now, same as then. I was telling CM Punk, our WWE champion, up at SummerSlam a few weeks ago, he’s straight-edge, aged like both of us, no drinking, he came by and said, “Jimmy, what do you got there?” I said, “My new album, let’s take a picture.” He took a picture with it, I didn’t even ask, and he’s got two or three million followers, so just by that alone it got the word out. We’ve got the music, the people who love the music, and our wrestling audience, so hopefully we hit a home run, especially with you guys doing this. I’m very grateful.
The Stunner: Album releases sometimes come with live shows. Could we see you get on stage and perform some Gentrys songs live?
Jimmy Hart: I thought you’d never ask. My friend John Coplin is one of the big cheeses at the Hard Rock in Tampa, I just did a thing there with Ric Flair. I showed him the album cover and he said, “We’ve got this room we used once when the Beach Boys were here, it’s yours whenever you put a band together.” We’ve got good studio musicians in Tampa, so we might do something eventually with the album and some of the wrestling songs, because the fans will want to hear those. I can do a Q&A, tell them how we wrote Dusty’s song, sing all of them, and bring in special guests, Honky Tonk Man for “Hunka Hunka Honky Love,” Koko B. Ware, whose song we wrote, so everybody can really participate.
The Stunner: We’d fly out for a live “Hunka Hunka Honky Love.” Before we let you go, we’d love to do a lightning round, first answer that comes to mind. Of the thousands of songs you’ve written, wrestling or Gentrys, what’s your favorite?
Jimmy Hart: Wrestling, I think, “Sexy Boy” for Shawn Michaels, because it’s got the most hits, 37 million.
The Stunner: The numbers don’t lie. Best music frontman of all time?
Jimmy Hart: David Lee Roth.
The Stunner: Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis?
Jimmy Hart: Elvis. But you know what Sam Phillips said? The most talented person he ever had was Carl Perkins.
The Stunner: The Beatles or the Beach Boys?
Jimmy Hart: I love the Beatles, but my favorite group of all time is the original Beach Boys, because we toured with them back when everybody was together. I got to meet Mike Love about four months ago at a big autograph signing, and he was awesome.
The Stunner: Best wrestling manager of all time, besides yourself?
Jimmy Hart: Wow. It’s a tie, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, and Bobby Heenan. All three are great. I love Paul, I love Jim, and Bobby Heenan lived in Florida where we’d fly on the planes together. Freddie Blassie, the Grand Wizard, Slick, Captain Lou Albano, everybody was so great. I’m just honored to be mentioned with any of them.
The Stunner: Favorite concert of all time?
Jimmy Hart: I got to see Ike and Tina Turner at Club Paradise here in Memphis when I was in high school. Only about 500 people, packed, but they were awesome. I also love Hall & Oates, saw them three or four times.
The Stunner: Is there a wrestler whose theme you always wished you could have written, or any burning desire to write new ones?
Jimmy Hart: Honestly, no. Everything WWE picks for the theme songs, they do a great job. Jim Johnston, who wrote up there with me, wrote CM Punk’s theme and a lot more, he does a great job. I think I’d rather just stay in my lane. Sometimes it’s good to stay in that one lane.
The Stunner: What musician do you think could have become a successful pro wrestler?
Jimmy Hart: Bad Bunny did a great job, he came with us. And Jelly Roll, man, he can talk, and he was good in the ring, too. Both of them are great.
The Stunner: If the Gentrys headlined WrestleMania, what song are you playing?
Jimmy Hart: I’d bring my horn players and the soul sisters from Memphis, the biggest band you’ve ever seen. I think I’d play Hogan’s theme, “American Made,” and bring in Todd Plant, who sang lead on it, and I’d be happy singing backup. With his vocals and a full band, that would be tremendous.
The Stunner: Final question, what makes you still want to turn on that megaphone after all these years?
Jimmy Hart: It’s our WWE universe, our wrestling fans. They’ve always supported us through the ups and downs. I love being in front of them, and I couldn’t be with a better company than the WWE, they bring me in for SummerSlam and WrestleMania. I flew to LA about five weeks ago and they put me in the audience, and I got such a great response, I can never repay them. As long as I can keep going and still look halfway close to how Jimmy Hart used to look, you know the old song, “I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” I’ll pop the popcorn, park the cars, whatever they want.
The Stunner: There was a shot of you setting up chairs at an indie show not long ago. That’s why people respect you so much.
Jimmy Hart: It was a charity show, the ring crew was late and there was hardly any time to get the show on if everybody didn’t pitch in, so I said, “I’ll help set the chairs up.” It didn’t bother me, because back in the Memphis days we had to do everything. But look where it got me, the biggest company in the world. If the ring broke down and Vince McMahon or Triple H came to me and said, “Jimmy, can you help put the ring up?” I’d be more than happy. It’s not beneath me, this is what’s made us a living. Without the WWE I wouldn’t have a nice car or a nice home, or be able to go to Lansky Brothers for my Elvis jacket, or be on Sun Records right now. When you’ve got them behind you, this album is really going to do well.
The Stunner: The album, It’s Been So Long, is re-released September 4 on Sun Records, on all streaming platforms. Jimmy, it’s been such an honor. Your music has had a big impact on my life, thank you.
Jimmy Hart: I’ve got a new name for you two, you’re going to be my new tag team. If I ever manage again, I’m calling you the U-Haul Brothers, because when they see us wrestle, we’ve got to U-Haul it out of town, baby! I love you guys. Thank you.
