On songwriting Sen. Rusty Crowe, Glen Campbell and Tanya Tucker

State Sen. Rusty Crowe is co-author of a song paying tribute to the late Glen Campbell that has been recorded by Tanya Tucker and released for sale this week, reports the Johnson City Press. The song, “Forever Loving You,” ties into legislation Crowe, R-Johnson City, successfully sponsored last year that was promoted by two of Campbell’s children.

At the time, Campbell’s children Debby and Travis claimed their stepmother had attempted to prevent them from visiting their father, who was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s.

While the bill was making its way through the General Assembly, Travis, his wife Trudy and Debbie all came to Nashville to express their support for Crowe’s legislation.  (Travis and Debbie are Campbell’s children.)

“(While in Nashville,) Travis saw in my office that I had some guitars and he asked if I played. I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Play me some of your stuff,’ ” Crowe said. “One of the songs I played for him was ‘Forever Loving You,’ which I guess I had written three or four years ago. We’ve all had someone in our lives that we wish we had treated differently and wish we could go back and do over.”

Crowe said he personally wrote all the verses but struggled at finding a proper chorus.

“So I went to Michael Rogers in Nashville, and he helped me put a chorus together. Travis then played that song for Tanya Tucker, who was very close to Glen’s early kids because they were engaged to be married (in the early 1980s), but it never worked out,” Crowe said.

“Tanya had always, I guess, cared about Glen through all these years so when she heard that song, she immediately thought this would be a tribute to Glen that she wanted to do.”

…“I’m just devastated. Absolutely devastated. It’s been so hard these past several years knowing what he’s been going through. My heart just breaks. Glen and I shared some incredible, precious memories together for a long time,” Tucker said in a statement published on her website.

“There were some ups and downs and, of course, all the downs were played out in the press. We both got past all that. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. It’s why I’m releasing ‘Forever Loving You’ in memory of Glen and for all of those who are losing or have lost someone they love. I’ll forever love you, Glen.”

 Note: The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, “establishes the right of certain persons to petition to require a conservator to grant communication, visitation, or other interaction with the respondent,” according to the legislature’s website. For more, see previous 2016 post HERE. The song was officially entitled “the Campbell/Faulk Act” in honor of singer Campbell and actor Peter Faulk, who had family also pushing the measure. (Bill information page, HERE. Text of Public Chapter 1062 is HERE.)