Throwback Thursday: The Night I Learned Sammy Kershaw was a Medicine Man

On a rain-cooled night in Alexandria, country legend Sammy Kershaw had just finished an outdoor concert when he told me he could "predict the weather!"

I know I've told this story on the air several times, but it is so legendary that it needs to be told again.  This is the story of the night I learned Sammy Kershaw may be a weather predicting shaman Medicine Man with powers beyond our understanding.  You decide.

It was Summer 2006.  Sammy Kershaw was playing an outdoor festival in Alexandria.  His record label rep at the time picked me up in Shreveport and we headed down to CenLA.

Sammy had a radio single at the time called "Tennessee Girl."  The label rep, a beautiful young lady named Courtney, had an ulterior motive.  She hoped that I would add the single into rotation on Kiss Country 93-7, which I eventually did.  I was program director of the station at the time.

We watched the concert, outdoors, down by the river.  Sammy went on two hours late because it had rained that day in Alexandria.  Despite the wet conditions, hundreds of people showed up and Sammy put on a great show.  I had forgotten how many great songs Sammy has had in his career.  He was energetic, in great voice, warm and funny with the crowd; telling stories of his youth in Kaplan, Louisiana.  All seemed well.  All was well.

After the show, Courtney said, "let's go meet Sammy... he loves me."  She was right. Sammy was clearly smitten with Courtney and was so happy to see her.  Now, I should mention that Courtney would eventually become my girlfriend, and I felt like she sort of used me that night as a "pretend boyfriend."  You know how girls will do that sometimes when they don't want to be flirted with?  I was that guy that night.

Well, I had a few cold ones during the concert and was feeling chatty.  I had a lot of questions for Sammy and as luck would have it, much of his family from Kaplan was at the show and backstage with us by the tour bus.  I found myself, litteraly, in the family circle backstage with Sammy Kershaw.

There was plenty of chit-chat.  The family eventually left, and then it was just me, Courtney, Sammy and his crew.  That's when the conversation started to get weird... and I was absolutely loving it.

Sammy, out of nowhere, says to me... "ya know, I got a special relationship... wit water. Been dat way my whole life."  Sammy speaks with a south Louisiana country twang.

I said, "What do you mean?"  This is when it got good.

Sammy goes on to tell me how he's had this ability, his whole life, to predict when rain or wet weather is coming.  He said he "can just feel it."

Sammy calls over his tour manager, Greg.  Sammy says to Greg, "Greg, what time did I say that rain was gonna start?"

Greg says, "4:30" with a tone that suggested he'd been through this line of questioning before.

Sammy says, "And what time did it start raining?"

Greg says, "4:29" again with that same "here we go again" tone in his voice.

Then Sammy goes on to tell me a story about a time when he woke up and frantically screamed at the bus driver to pull over under the next overpass because "something was about to happen."  And that as soon as they pulled over, a tornado came out of nowhere and passed right over them.  Sammy had saved everyone's life.

I'll never forget it.  He punctuated the story with, "It's like I'm in tune wit water, man!"

Sammy was also running for Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana at the time.  It was 2006, and the Hurricane Katrina tragedy was still fresh in our minds.  We talked about his bid for public office that night as well.

The only conclusion I could come up with at the time was that if Sammy Kershaw can predict weather and devastating storms just by "feeling it"... then he was without a doubt THE MAN for the Lieutenant Governor job.

Of course, Sammy didn't win the office... but he won a piece of my heart.  The piece of my heart that loves crazy people who aren't afraid to let their crazy shine.