Illustration: Heather Gatley OCTOBER 2019^95
D
riving the backroads northwest of Fort Worth, you’d
never know that one of the luminaries of Texas
country and western music lives just around the
bend. Down a gravel road, a pickup marked with
Red Steagall’s “RS” brand signals that Steagall is around today.
Inside his offi ce, framed records and photos signed by the likes
of Ronald Reagan line the wall, hinting at Steagall’s infl uential
career. The display saddles, miniature chuckwagon, and West-
ern artworks refl ect a fascination with ranching heritage that
has made Steagall one of the nation’s preeminent cowboy poets.
Born in Montague County, Steagall grew up in the Panhandle
town of Sanford. He studied animal science and agronomy in
college, but it was music that took him to places like HollywoodSPEAKING OF TEXAS | RED STEAGALL
“Texas is its
own country,
and the reason
for that is we
have so much
pride in who
we are and
what we’ve
accomplished.”Cowboy Corner
Red Steagall’s journey from Panhandle polio survivor to country
hit-maker and cowboy ambassador
By Matt Joyceand Nashville. For the past 42 years,
Steagall’s ranch in Azle has been home
base for a career that’s generated 25 al-
bums, including the 1976 classic Lone
Star Beer and Bob Wills Music. His re-
sume also includes several books of
cowboy poetry, movie and TV appear-
ances, and in 1991, legislative designa-
tion as Texas’ “Offi cial Cowboy Poet.”
These days, the 80-year-old hosts
a radio show and TV program chroni-
cling the ranching way of life. When not
traveling for work—177 days on the road
in 2018—Steagall dedicates his time to
causes like the West Texas Rehabilita-
tion Center and the Red Steagall Cow-
boy Gathering and Western Swing Fes-
tival, held every October for 29 years at
the Fort Worth Stockyards.Q: You overcame polio as a 15-year-old.
That’s hard to imagine.
A: It was pretty traumatic. I was on the
football team, the Phillips Blackhawks,
and I woke up the morning before the fi rst
game with a horrible temperature and ex-
cruciating pain in my head and my back.
And then I spent two weeks in the hospital
and two weeks in a rehab center. That was
in September of ’54, and in January of ’55,
the Salk vaccine was in full use. So I’m the
last of the polio class, thank God.Q: What were the impacts of the disease?
A: I lost the use of my upper left arm. So
I have the use of my lower arm and my
hand, but my fi ngers were just like lit-
tle pieces of rope. I regained the strength
in my fi ngers by playing a mandolin and
a guitar. It took several weeks to con-
centrate on one fi nger at a time, getting
enough strength to make a chord.Q: Is that what led you into the
music business?
A: That’s all I ever wanted to do really.
After I got out of college, I got into agri-
cultural chemistry and sales, and then
I had some friends who were doing re-
ally well in Hollywood, and they in-
vited me to come out. One afternoon, I
came home and my roommate [Don La-
nier] was fooling with his guitar, and he