On Monday 10 April 2023, Gene Watson spoke about his friendship with Duane Allen of The Oak Ridge Boys.

'As many of you know, I was born in Palestine, Texas but grew up in Paris, Texas in Lamar County.

Another Texan I’m sure you know is the legendary Oak Ridge Boy, Duane Allen, who also grew up in Lamar County.  In fact, Duane grew up in Taylortown, Texas which is less than 20 miles from Paris, Texas.

Duane and I are the same age.  He was born on Thursday 29 April 1943 and my birthday is Monday 11 October 1943.  With all that, maybe we should have formed a band in those early days, but although I was often singing with my family, I was also working on cars as much as I could in my spare time, so we never met in our early years.

But since then, we’ve become friends, and when we get the opportunity to visit, we always talk about growing up in Lamar County.  We both agree we were lucky to be brought up in that great place.

One other thing Duane and I share is a love of cars.  I don’t know how many he now has in his collection, but at one time, he had some great, unique cars.



Here’s a photo of my friend, Duane and me, taken when we recorded a special 'Gospel Country’s Family Reunion' show in Nashville a few years back'

Source
• Gene Watson on Facebook



Gene Watson & The Oak Ridge Boys
Musical Connection

 

On Wednesday 6 March 1985, The Oak Ridge Boys saw the release of 'Step On Out' (MCA Records, 1985); one of the included tracks was 'Class Reunion' (written by Don Henry and Craig Morris), which was also recorded by Gene Watson, who included it on 'In Other Words' (Canada: Mercury Records / Polygram Records, 1992 / United States: Broadland International Records, 1992), and by John Conlee, who included it on 'Harmony' (Columbia Records, 1986).