After all, the main character is actually singing about his own funeral. What’s more, he’s somberly addressing his wife, with the lines, I know you’ll have fun at my farewell party/I know, you’ll be glad, when I’m gone. But Watson got the go-ahead and the recording went down in almost miraculous fashion. “We were at [recording studio] Sound Emporium,” Watson says. “I got down on one knee and started singing.
I got through one chorus and all the musicians made out the chord charts. We rolled tape and that was the first cut. Everybody nailed it the first time. We didn’t have to change anything.” Gene Watson brought the message home with his emotional delivery of the final phrase, holding the note on the word “gone” in an impressive display of vocal power without oversinging. It should be Lesson One for all aspiring singers. “I didn’t know I was gonna do that at the end,” Watson says with a smile.
“It just all fell into place.”