Johnny Sibert

[Gere Mullican]

I just wanted to let you guys know that I have finally located Johnny Sibert. Talked to him on the phone yesterday for a while and he is still living here in Nashville. He told me he donated his Fender to the SGHOF but still has his Emmons in the case under the bed. He told me he no longer has has the desire to play and in fact has a desire not to play. I don't know why. Said he hasn't played since about 1975 with Arnie James. He has had some health problems. Couple of operations on his back and still has a ruptured disc. He also had a stroke I think he said about 1996 or somewhere around there. All he does now is sits in his easy chair and watches TV. He doesn't have or want a computer and doesnt go around any steel events. He retired from the Tennessean last April. We are going to get together soon for a cup of coffee. Maybe I can learn more then. Thanks for the help in locating him.
Gere

[Leroy Riggs]

I met Johnny a few years back in St. Louis and found him to be a very likeable guy. I'm sorry he still doesn't play.

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

Please tell Johnny, that there is an old pharrt clear out west here, in the Oregon Territory......that at one time had memorized every note he ever played on every Carl Smith tune recorded on Columbia.
He was a great inspiration to me. I still have all of those scratchy old records and still enjoy hearing HIM.....play.
I wish him the best!

[Gere Mullican]

I will tell Johnny that he still has a lot of friends and admirers and fans out there. I really don't know why he has lost interest in picking. He said he still loves to listen to the old stuff and he said he listens to WSM a lot. I am sure he hears a lot of the old Carl Smith songs on that station. He is a nice guy and never got the big head because he played with a legend and himself inducted into the Stel Guitar Hall of Fame. He told me he started not to go to the ceremony but decided to anyway. I wish I had know he was going and I sure would have been there. I just wish he liked computers and would get one so he could see for himself how many friends and fans he has out there. I will furely convey that to himwhen we meet for coffee. Thanks again to all of you.
Gere

[Janice Brooks]

Would you belive I just put the Ganaway videos Vol 8 in the VCR.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

[Gere Mullican]

Janice, I bet there was some Carl Smith on that tape with Johnny picking. I have that set also but haven't watched in a while. We have just moved about 15 miles south of Nashville and don't have all y stuff straightened out yet. And would you believe I have tried several times to reach your ICQ number with no luck. Are you ever on BUSGAL? I will keep trying. I hope I get to meet with Johnny real soon and find out what's been going on with him the last bunch of years. Thanks for the reply.
Gere

[Neil Hilton]

Sibert's steel throughout "There She Goes" is some of my absolute favorite work ever.

[Rick Collins]

Gere, please tell Johnny when you are having coffee that he has a "big big" fan in Claremont, California. I met him when I was about eight years old.

I didn't begin playing until I was sixteen. The first tune I learned to play was "Hey Joe" in the A6th tuning. When our band (electric, bass, rythum, myself on steel) would practice, everyone would make reference to the "Johnny tone". I got pretty good at sounding like Johnny. To this day, I still think, no one could make a Fender steel guitar sound as good as he could.

I finally located a '55 triple Stringmaster with the 26" scale, as he had. Mine was blonde; but I changed the four leg setup to three legs and changed the sockets so the legs would spread out more, just as he did.

All of the girls I dated, when I would take them to a Carl Smith performance, would always comment how good looking he was.

I met Harold Morgan, his friend, also a great person.

When you see Johnny, be sure to tell him that the ultimate "Johnny Sibert tone" is recorded on the Carl Smith song, "There She Goes".

Rick