To quote the guy sitting next to me at the poker game last Saturday night, "Ain't none of us gettin' any younger." As time passes each and every day, music fans continue to realize which musicians are national treasures -- and in Wanda Jackson's case, the government itself realized she's one.

With her newly-received NEA Heritage Fellowship Award in hand, the highest artistic award given by the President himself, "The Queen of Rockabilly" took an afternoon of her time to reflect on her incredible life with the members of XMFan.

XMFan: Tell us about your musical beginnings.
Wanda: I'm an only child. My dad was a professional musician, but in the days of the depression, however, he met my mother and when they were married just couldn't make a living enough for a family by playing music. Later, when I was about five years old, we moved to California. I grew up with music in our home and in my life from the very beginning. Dad always played guitar, fiddle, and sang at home, and when I was quite young he began teaching me to play guitar. On Saturday nights he'd invite people over and we'd all sit around the radio and listen to the Grand Ol' Opry. On some weekends they would go to dances, and all of the big western swing bands would come play the Los Angeles area quite often. My mother and dad loved to dance. I don't remember ever having baby-sitters - I just remember them always taking me with them. Whether it was to a movie or out to eat, I always remember being there with them, including at the dances. I'd stand at the edge of the bandstand on the dance floor, looking up at the bands all night long, and they said I'd cry when they'd make me leave. So as far as my first recollections go, music has always been in my life.

XMFan: Did you have any favorite artists that may have shaped your musical direction?
Wanda: I don't remember us having a record player probably until the fifties. I just remember listening to the radio to shows like the Opry and whatever else we could get. It's hard for people in today's world to imagine this, but radio stations in the forties and fifties didn't specialize in music - they didn't have full-time country, rock, talk, or news. One station would carry a little bit of everything throughout the day. There was usually some western or "hillbilly" music on for maybe an hour a day, so I remember always being there ready to listen to it. Whichever artists had the hit records in those times were the ones I heard, plus the one I got to hear in person. Later, my dad had a record collection of sorts with a lot of Jimmy Rogers records and songs from the African-American blues artists of the day.

XMFan: Moving forward a bit, how did you wind up signing with Decca?
Wanda: My whole life has been like a Cinderella story... I guess I was at the right place at the right time, and was able to deliver when I had the opportunity to do something. I had my own radio show by the early fifties, and Hank Thompson was living in my hometown of Oklahoma City. He was my idol, and I had seen him in the big western swing band when I was younger. He called me one day after my radio show and invited me to sing with his band the following week -- I'm sure he thought I was at least of age and would be allowed to do that. I told him I would love to, but would have to ask my mother. That may have sent up a few red flags to him. (Laughs) Still, he allowed me to come on down with my folks. I sang, and both he and the audience liked me, so he began using me to sing every time he played in Oklahoma City. Later, he got his own weekly television show and had me appear on that. All of this gave me great experience working with professionals.

The leader of Hank's band was a great singer, and Hank was trying to help him get a recording contract. Well, he also decided he'd try and help me get one. He allowed me to use his band, and allowed me to come to his home where he had a recording studio. I did a dub session and he sent mine, along with Billy Gray's, to the Decca people. They liked both of us and consequently signed us both. So I signed my first contract with a major label as a sixteen year-old junior in high school.

XMFan: Were your parents concerned when it came time to hit the road?
Wanda: I'm sure they were. (Laughs) I think I was concerned too, having led a pretty sheltered life as an only child. As a girl they watched over me pretty closely. Mom and dad had to make a big decision, and sacrificed quite a lot for me to have this career I so badly wanted. My dad quit his job and my mother continued worked full-time, because by then she had a good government job. She stayed home and dad went on the road with me. This was so valuable to me because it kept my good reputation intact by having my dad along, and he kept me on a pretty short leash, but it was for a good reason. I've been grateful all my life for his help.

XMFan: Life on the road was probably an adventure back in those days.
Wanda: My dad preferred doing the driving at night on those dark, two-lane roads. Often we had long distances to drive and it was very tiring, so he'd let me sleep and rest. Some of the people we worked with were well-known stars in those days, and they had the big cars - there weren't very many coaches at that time. I think Hank Thompson had a pretty large bus for his band to travel in, but most of us just had cars. If you had a band, you'd usually pull a trailer. My first couple of years on the road, we were traveling in a little four-door fifty-something Plymouth.

In Canada one year, we were driving along with about three hundred miles to go and were in the middle of a really bad snowstorm - we could barely see the road and there were very few towns up there. Dad and I were chugging along in that little Plymouth, passing by the big Cadillacs and Buicks off in the ditches, picking up people until our little car was full. We'd get to the next town and send somebody out to go back and help the other ones. My dad was an excellent driver, and I remember those times. I could probably write a pretty funny book about some of these adventures.

XMFan: Would you tell us your Grand Ol' Opry story?
Wanda: When I walked off the stage as a young girl, I found my daddy and told him we needed to get out of there and never come back. It was ironic, because I was so excited about being asked to sing at the Opry. I designed a new dress, which my mother made for me. By then I was already wearing the sexy clothes - little shimmery fringe dresses and high heels - and I had single-handedly changed the way girls who sang Country music dressed. Anyhow, I was ready to go on stage and Ernest Tubb told me I couldn't go up on the Opry stage looking like that. I asked him what exactly was wrong, and he said I couldn't show my shoulders. I told him this was the only outfit I had with me, and he said I'd need to find a coat or something. So I went back and put my leather fringe jacket over my beautiful new dress, and went out on the stage in tears trying to sing my song.

And that was my experience. (Laughs)

XMFan: I'm sure the term "Rockabilly" didn't appear until a bit later on, so I'm guessing back then artists like Elvis and you were just considered country?
Wanda: Right. There were only two kinds of what we now call "Country" -- you had your "Hillbilly" singers like Hank Williams, Red Foley, Hank Snow, and Wanda Jackson. Even Elvis himself was known as the "Hillbilly Cat," which was the first title they gave him. There were also the "Western" singers like Hank Thompson, Bob Wills, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Some time in the mid-fifties when Elvis started to hit it big everywhere across the nation, because of his "Hillbilly Cat" nickname we became "Rock-a-billies." I guess the word "Rock" was being used thanks to Alan Freed up in Cleveland, but to be honest I can't really say the exact time the phrase Rockabilly came into play. We were singing a different kind of music, but had guitars on it.

XMFan: When did you meet Elvis? Did the two of you have any musical influence on the other?
Wanda: Very much influence. I met Elvis right after I graduated from high school and was ready to go on the road. Dad had just quit his job and we weren't sure what to do, because dad had never done anything like this. He did know enough to get a Billboard magazine -- and I had already had a couple of hits in the Country field -- and found Bob Neel's name from Memphis. Dad gave him a call and liked the way he talked, and Bob said he'd like to do some booking for me. Bob wanted to use me in some shows with this new singer that seemed to be breaking big all across the nation, whose name was Elvis Presley. Bob felt they could use a girl on the shows where they booked him, so the first time I met Elvis was the first day of our first job. I met him at a radio station where we were doing an interview to invite people out to the show that night. Of course I was very impressed with him. He was a very good-looking guy. I didn't know how he sang, but I liked his looks and he was very mannerly and soft-spoken. He was dressed nice, which was always important to my dad.

I worked with him a lot for the next two years, until he went to Hollywood in 1957 to start his movie career. Our paths didn't cross much after that. During that two-year period, it was easy to see what was happening -- I was working with him when his career was really breaking loose. He was very concerned that I start trying to do this style of music too, because I was only seventeen. He would tell me this was the "young people music" -- Elvis was only twenty himself -- and he wanted me to try it. I told him I didn't think I could do it, because I had never sung anything but Country. He told me he never had either, but felt this was what the kids wanted.

What can you say about Elvis? He turned the entire music industry upside-down and nobody knew what was happening. As far as influencing my music, he just wouldn't take "no" for an answer until I at least tried to take a pass at it, and I have been grateful ever since for his encouragement. I really think I found my niche in the music world in the Rockabilly field.

XMFan: When did your paths cross later in life?
Wanda: I only saw him one other time after my last tour with him. It was in 1964, and was kind of an accidental meeting. My husband and I were in Vegas and he was just there for a vacation. He came to our room, met my husband, and just visited with us. That's the last time I got to see him, but he knew of my success.

XMFan: You began the sixties as a successful young woman who would meet and marry a nice fellow who would help you on all levels...
Wanda: When I married my husband in 1961, he was in the computer industry with a bright future ahead. He knew it would be the next big thing. So again, we had to make a choice concerning which career to go with. I left the choice up to him and was ready to quit, but music is what he wanted me to do. He realized how hard my family and I had worked to get to where I was, and all the effort was just beginning to pay off. I had just released "Let's Have A Party" and "Right or Wrong," and was getting more into the big time. He wanted us to go with my career as long as he could be helpful to me, because he didn't just want to tag along. And that's what he did -- he proceeded to learn the business and shortly thereafter took over the management of my career, including the booking and everything. It was wonderful for me, and he said my career was surely much more exciting than his would have been. (Laughs)

XMFan: The lives of you and your family changed quite a bit back in 1971.
Wanda: Our lifestyle in 1971 was still one-nighters and traveling - we were gone half the time at least - our children were being reared by my mother, and of course we had governesses who were live-in women to help take care of them. We weren't in our children's lives like we knew we should be, and we were carrying a band, which is very hard. We had to work so much to keep our band on the road, that we were working half the time just to pay the band. That lifestyle was taking its toll on the marriage, and we knew it. We knew something needed to change, but didn't actually know what to do. We were basically going with the flow and getting into serious trouble.

In June of 1971 we had to be home on a Sunday, and our kids had always gone to church and Sunday school with my mother. There was a new preacher in the church that the kids were all exited over, and the kids made us promise to hear and meet him that Sunday. He was a young man, and all the kids in the church just loved him. Sure enough that morning, God spoke to both of us individually, but at the same time. I felt an understanding that I can't explain, and knew that this was what I needed in my life. I turned to my husband and told him there was something I had to do, and he said "me too." It was so wonderful that God called us together, and we answered the call together. Both of us gave our hearts fully to the Lord at that moment, and after that he began to use us together for his purposes. We wound up having our own ministry for about twenty years, along with the most fulfilling and rewarding life we could ever have.

That in itself saved our marriage - it got our priorities straight. We were also able to stay home more often at that time, while learning and growing in our Christian life. I wanted to sing Gospel music, so I left Capitol Records and went with a Christian label. God also showed my husband he had an incredible talent for public speaking, so he began giving his testimony. Our ministry consisted of evenings of me giving a Gospel concert and him giving his testimony. Through our ministry we've seen thousands of people come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1985 God began to open some other doors for us, as if He were telling us this phase of our lives had begun to taper off. He gave back my secular career. There was a recording company in Scandinavia wanting me to come and record some Rockabilly songs for an album and do a Country-Rockabilly tour, which we did. This opened all the doors once again for concerts. I found that my name had never really died in Europe, and was still a big star there. I was able to pack houses and it was exciting once again. It didn't change our convictions in our Christian life - our work just changed. The Lord is using me as a voice now, back in the secular field.

It's funny... I had everything I wanted - the career in music, a wonderful husband, two children, a beautiful house - all these things. And I was terribly unhappy. God showed me that He was missing, and all I had to do was accept him.

That's kind of what's happened the past several years in a nutshell.

XMFan: I believe you've crossed paths with The Jordanaires in the past?
Wanda: Yes, I was the first female The Jordanaires recorded with.

XMFan: There's no doubt you've influenced countless musicians along the way.
Wanda: It's wonderful to have artists like Tanya Tucker and Pam Tillis come up and tell how I've influenced them.

XMFan: Any comments on your website, which is available for your fans?
Wanda: This era of websites is just wonderful for artists! I've had three people help create the site, and now I have a young man helping that's just fantastic. He's received many comments on how nice the site is, and I believe we're getting about a hundred hits or so per day.

XMFan: I believe some exciting news came your way a few months ago?
Wanda: Earlier this year I learned I would be the recipient of one of this year's Presidential National Endowment for the Arts Medals. The ceremony was on September 23 in Washington D.C. There were several Country singers invited this year, but I was the only Country female singer. Minnie Pearl was honored, but as a comedian. I actually represented Country, early Rock and Roll, and Gospel.

XMFan: Many music fans, myself included, have little use for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because it is so political and subjective. What are your thoughts?
Wanda: I was on the final ballot last year for the first time, though I have always been nominated every year. If you check my website you'll see the scathing letter Elvis Costello wrote to them. (Laughs) Get on there and read it - I promise it will be worth your time.

XMFan: Looking back on a life full of personal and professional accomplishments, how does the "Queen of Rockabilly" feel about life today?
Wanda: All I can say is I'm having the time of my life. I get to perform all three kinds of music every show. If I were thirty-five again it would be a perfect world. (Laughs)


Wanda Jackson's website can be found here: http://www.wandajackson.com/