Sonny Throckmorton is one of the greatest country songwriters who ever lived. He’s the man who wrote “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday” for Merle Haggard, “Middle Age Crazy” for Jerry Lee Lewis, “Friday Night Blues” for John Conlee, “Why Not Me” for the Judds, “The Cowboy Rides Away” for George Strait, and the song I remember being my mother’s favorite when I was a kid, “The Last Cheater’s Waltz,” for T.G. Sheppard, among hundreds of others.

On this episode of One by Willie, Sonny examines “What a Way to Live,” a little-known early composition that Willie has never actually recorded for a proper album, although his dear friend Johnny Bush did have a minor hit with it in 1967. From there, Sonny gets into the famous picking parties Willie used to host with legendary UT football coach Darrell Royal; the song Willie stole from Elvis Presley; and why it’s best not to play poker with Willie, no matter how nicely he asks you to.

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