An afternoon with Radney Foster

EDITOR'S NOTE: Radney Foster was originally scheduled to perform at the Palace Theatre in Corsicana on March 23. Due to circumstances beyond the artist's control, the Radney Foster show at the Palace has been cancelled. Please contact the venue for a refund.

Country singer Radney Foster has enjoyed a long and prosperous career, performing songs that are personal and tell stories. The Corsicana Daily Sun recently had a chance to speak with him about his legacy.

The conversation with Foster was light and fun, his curiosity initially piqued as to how a Texas-based newspaper editor was calling from a San Diego-based number. Foster has toured all over California, and the United States at large, but wherever he goes, Texas is always home.

“Being a native Texan, my music has always skewed towards home,” Foster said. “I’ve always been accepted as a Texas singer-songwriter, and so half of my gigs are in Texas.”

Foster’s career began at age 10. His dad played guitar and sang, and that guitar was Radney’s first, until he got one of his own. Foster’s mother, two sisters, and brother, are all based in San Antonio. The musician describes his mother as “rockin’,” as she still attends all of his shows at 90-years old.

In an early Rolling Stone magazine interview, Foster said the first song he ever wrote was at age 14 to “impress some girl.” His mother, however refuted his claim, saying she had copies of songs he wrote in Sunday school when he was seven years old.

“I never got over it,” Foster said of his musical inspirations. “I had to convince my folks to take a year off to move to Nashville for a year… I thought I was going to be the next Elvis at 21, and nothing happened.”

“But at the end of that year I had one publisher that would not throw me out of his office, so I felt like that was a victory.”

In 1985, Foster was signed to Mary Tyler Moore as a staff songwriter. Within six months, Merida Stewart, the head of the publishing company, called him into her office encouraged him to keep writing his own content.

In 1986, Foster formed the duo Foster & Lloyd with Bill Lloyd. The two performed together until 1990, when both artists decided to pursue solo careers. In 1992, Foster signed with Arista Nashville and released the album “Del Rio, TX 1959,” which was a commercial success. Shortly after, Foster started his own record label.

“You know how you start a record label, don’t you,” Foster asked. “You go out in the desert and put your hand on a rock and raise your other hand to Heaven and say ‘I am a record label.’”

“You hope it works out,” he laughed.

Throughout his career, Foster has worked with a variety of prominent names in the country music industry from Sara Evans and Keith Urban to the Randy Rogers Band. He still actively tours Texas, usually in the summer when it’s “too hot.” His favorite venue is Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, a honky tonk known as Texas' Oldest Dance Hall, and a place Foster refers to as “magical.”

“I love the old theaters,” he said, in regards to what appeals to him about the close intimacy of these venues.

“There’s hundreds, if not thousands of people in front of you,” he said. “And that’s really cool, but you know, when you’re in a 400-seat theater and it’s packed and you can hear a pin drop when you get to the soft part of a song… you know you’ve done your job.”

Foster describes his songs as storytelling.

“You have to put a piece of yourself into every character even if it’s a bad guy,” he said. “You have to find that empathy for that person’s circumstances in order to write that song.”

That love of storytelling, and a subsequent bout of laryngitis for months, are what prompted Foster to create one of his most recent projects in 2017: “For You To See the Stars.” A ten song album, but also an authored book of short stories.

Foster described the time as “scary” due to the laryngitis, going stir crazy for a new project. While his voice recuperated, he wrote a short note to his wife, Cyndi: “Hey, I’m going to write a short story based on one of the songs I’ve written recently just to keep from going crazy.”

His wife didn’t respond, instead writing back her own playful note: “You should, because you’re driving me crazy.”

Cyndi encouraged Foster to keep writing stories inspired from his songs, so he found a publishing house based out of South Carolina to help him realize his vision. The books can be found autographed online at his website: radneyfoster.com. One of those stories are presently being pitched as a screenplay, a collaboration between Foster and his wife, set to go into production next year.

For those attending Foster's shows?

“They’re going to hear the hits that I wrote, they’re going to hear some Foster & Lloyd songs,” the musician said. “I mean, if I don’t play “Nobody Wins,” “Just Call Me Lonesome,” and “Texas in 1880,” they’re going to start throwing things at me.”

Foster also includes a few covers and fan favorite album cuts throughout the show.

“If I can make you laugh, and I can make you cry, and I can make you kiss your sweetheart, then I did my job.”