FATE VANDERPOOL, Renaissance man.
Tell me about your family musical background. Well, when I was young, my dad worked in Oak Ridge at the nuclear plant. He started a gospel quartet before he moved from there called the Oak Ridge Boys. After that, we moved to Ohio...and around that time I got my first guitar. I used to work with daddy doing local radio shows around Dayton.
Were your siblings in the music business too? My sister Harvie June Van was signed to King Records by Syd Nathan when she was 13, and she went on to sign with RCA. My brother recorded under the name Van Houston and was on Columbia; he was the first one to record "Patches" and "Statue of a Fool." My sister and brother-in-law, Bob Fergeson, wrote "Carroll County Accident" and "Wings of a Dove." Both songs were big hits back then.
When did you move back to Nashville? We moved back in 1952. That's when I started meeting the pickers in Nashville. The first one I met was Sam Pruett, and he played with Hank Sr. He introduced me to Chet Atkins, who would become my sponsor when joining the local musicians' union. I met him at Seventh and Union.
So what are you doing now? Me and my sons have a little shop where we restore classic boats, cars, etc. The shop looks like a meth lab, but you wouldn't believe the stuff that we can do here. My wife runs Cabot Vanderpool Publishing, Fate's House of Music and Rosebud Records. I produce artists for her.
The secret to your long-lived success? Believe in what you do. It'll either work or it won't, but it might as well work the way you want it to, as opposed to the way somebody else wants it to.
Know a Face in the Crowd? Email Eric England at facencrowd@comcast.net.
