On November 8, 2017, Glen Campbell won a CMA Award for a recording made when getting through a song could mean working one line at a time. The award came exactly three months after Glen Campbell died.
Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson won Musical Event of the Year for “Funny How Time Slips Away,” a duet from Glen Campbell’s final album, Adiós. Glen Campbell’s previous CMA wins had both come in 1968, when Glen Campbell was named Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. Forty-nine years later, another song brought Glen Campbell back to the winners’ list.
The recording after the Goodbye Tour
Glen Campbell began the Goodbye Tour after publicly sharing an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. When the tour ended in late 2012, Glen Campbell returned to a Nashville studio to record songs Glen Campbell had long loved but had never put on an album. Carl Jackson, a longtime friend and former banjo player in Glen Campbell’s band, produced the sessions.
Recording took patience. Carl Jackson prepared lyrics in large print and stood beside Glen Campbell in the vocal booth. Sometimes Glen Campbell recorded a verse at a time; sometimes Carl Jackson guided Glen Campbell through a single line. In a later interview, Carl Jackson recalled that Glen Campbell could laugh when a line had to be tried again. Carl Jackson also remembered the pitch, timing and tone Glen Campbell brought to the sessions.
That account makes Adiós more than a collection of final recordings. It shows the care behind the finished music: songs chosen for their meaning to Glen Campbell, a familiar musician close by, and family members helping Glen Campbell complete an album.
A song about time
“Funny How Time Slips Away” had its own long history before Glen Campbell recorded the duet. Willie Nelson wrote the song in 1961, and many singers have since found something personal in its reflections on meeting someone again after years apart.
For Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson, the title carried an added weight. Willie Nelson joined an old friend on a song about time passing, while Glen Campbell was making what would become a final studio album. Listeners did not need to know how the recording was made to hear the warmth between two familiar country voices. Knowing the work behind it gives the performance another dimension.
Adiós was released in June 2017. Glen Campbell died on August 8, 2017, at age 81. When the CMA Awards arrived on November 8, the duet’s win was announced earlier that day. Glen Campbell’s wife, Kim Campbell, accepted the award with Ashley Campbell and Shannon Campbell. That evening, Jimmy Webb and Little Big Town paid tribute to Glen Campbell with “Wichita Lineman.”
One last recognition
The 2017 award did not change the difficulty of Glen Campbell’s final years, and it could not bring Glen Campbell into the room to receive it. It did recognize the music Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson, Carl Jackson and Glen Campbell’s family had helped bring into the world.
Forty-nine years separated Glen Campbell’s CMA wins. Between them were countless performances and songs that listeners made part of their own lives. “Funny How Time Slips Away” became one more of those songs—and, unexpectedly, one more award.
Which version of Willie Nelson’s song did you hear first?