18 June 6 - 12, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Burying The Hatchet Texas country star Pat Green and Texas Radio Hall of Fame host George Dunham shared stages for years, but they haven’t always been chummy. BY KELLY DEARMORE T here are two things you can pretty much bet on that the av- erage North Texas dude loves: 1310 The Ticket and Pat Green. And as it happens, the power- house local sports talk radio station and the Texas country kingpin are pretty fond of each other as well. That mutual appreciation was on display when Green headlined the annual Jub Jam benefit concert on May 31, at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas. Green started regularly listening to The Ticket over 20 years ago, and while he and George Dunham, the co- host of The Musers on the Ticket and the host of Jub Jam, are close buddies now, that wasn’t always the case. In a way, Dunham is still a bit of a young pup when it comes to his own appreciation for the kind of music with which the Grammy- nominated Green has made a career. His cur- rent love of the rootsy, twangy sounds of Green, Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen and other Lone Star stars was awakened not that long ago. In fact, there was a time when Dun- ham simply didn’t care much for the music of the man he now calls a true friend. “It was a long time ago, in the late ‘90s and we [The Ticket hosts] were in Wichita Falls for Cowboys training camp. I had heard of Pat Green, but I had never seen him live or knew much about his music,” Dunham says over a conference call with Green on the other side listening, and chuckling, along. “I don’t even like telling this story because it’s so embarrassing, but Pat was playing at Graham Central Station, so me and a few other media members went. On the air the next day, I just said, ‘Well, I hear all this talk about Pat Green, but I just went and saw him and I don’t know, apparently there’s something I’m just not get- ting.’ It wasn’t a great review.” Of course, gossip has a way of traveling quickly. Before Dunham knew it, his words would come back to bite him. Green was still in Wichita Falls and stopped by Cowboys training camp. He found the spot where Dunham and his co-hosts were broadcasting that morning. “After our show, he walked up to me and said, ‘So, I hear you’re a big fan,’” Dunham says, with Green laughing even harder on the call. Dunham swears he apologized profusely as Green took it all in stride. “He couldn’t have been nicer about,” Dunham adds. All these years later, however, Green isn’t quick to dismiss the notion that his friend might’ve had a point back in the day. “That was 20 some odd years ago,” Green says, addressing Dunham on the call. “I mean, I probably really wasn’t very good, if I’m being honest about it. I really hadn’t got- ten my sea legs under me at that point, so to speak, so you shouldn’t be embarrassed about that.” In a funny full-circle sort of moment, the next time Dunham and Green spoke was in 2012 when Dunham’s then-new country band, the Bird Dogs, were playing an early- day slot at a festival Green was headlining in Mesquite. A pre-Nashville fame Maren Morris was on the bill as well that day. Need- less to say, by that point, Dunham had come around to appreciate Green’s music. Over the years, there were more events and festivals that caused Dunham and Green to cross paths, although Dunham jokes that Green might not have known the Bird Dogs were at some of those events since his band played so much earlier than Green would. In 2016, Green performed a full-band concert at Ticketstock, the annual radio station ex- travaganza. In 2019, Green even made a surprise ap- pearance at Jub Jam, the annual concert that benefits Dallas nonprofit The Senior Source. But perhaps the biggest musical stage the two have shared was when the Bird Dogs and Green performed at the Highway to Henryetta festival, a 2022 day- long event in Oklahoma, organized by Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman and headlined by superstar Blake Shelton. Their friendship has gone from the stage and into the recording studio. In 2018, Green was asked to contribute a song to The Last Whistle, a 2019 high school football drama. Green has worked with some of the best songwriters in country music, but when it came time to get help with this song specifi- cally, he called Dunham. “As a songwriter or as someone on the ra- dio, you’re telling a narrative of some sort, really,” Green says. “Maybe it’s not only about what you see going on, but what you think might go on and how it might impact people. That’s what we do for a living, but George has a special talent for this and he’s spent a lifetime on radio telling stories.” For his part, Dunham was in both awe and disbelief over getting the opportunity to collaborate with Green in his world as op- posed to their previous efforts geared to- ward Dunham’s radio day job. The resulting tune, “Til the Last Whistle Blows” is a nos- talgic, pleasantly jangly country ode to the glory days of high school football. “There were a number of times that af- ternoon when I thought to myself, ‘I can’t believe you are writing a song with Pat Green. This is unbelievable,’” Dunham says. “And I just learned so much from watching Pat and his producer and seeing what they did with the song. … I’m not ashamed to say that when Pat finished the song, he sent it to me and my wife and I cranked it up on my Ford truck stereo and, I mean, we cried.” The day before the 2023 Jub Jam con- cert, Dunham experienced the death of his older sister, a painful loss he shared with lis- teners over the air. It was a highly emotional moment. Around the same time, Green felt inspired to call Dunham to say he would block off his touring calendar for the 2024 Jub Jam, and he would bring his whole band with him this time. It’s not a favor, it’s just a guy doing what he can to help his friend. It’s safe to say that the singer has forgiven the radio guy for not being impressed by him decades ago. “I think through the years, George and I have become a lot more than just, ‘Hey, buddy, see you at the next show or what- ever.’ We’ve gotten to be real friends,” Green says. We call each other and talk about what’s going on in our lives and to see how things are shaking and stuff like that. I feel like the respect is very mutual. I know the respect is mutual. For me to be able to give my time away is the best way I know how to show other people that you care about them.” Kathy Tran The friendship between George Dunham (above) and Pat Green has gone from the stage and into the recording studio. ▼ Music ENTER TO WIN TICKETS enter to win tickets!
