Ricky Nelson Remembered

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer

Matthew and Gunnar Nelson will perform a live tribute to their legendary father, Ricky Nelson, on Thursday, July 8, at the historic Fargo Theatre.
“Ricky Nelson Remembered” marks the 25th anniversary of Ricky Nelson’s death in a plane crash and gives his sons the chance to pay homage to their father through a unique multimedia entertainment featuring performances of Ricky Nelson’s hit songs, including “Hello Mary Lou,” “Travelin’ Man,” and “Garden Party,” as well as never-before-seen video footage of the Nelson family and interviews with celebrities influenced by Ricky Nelson.

Matthew Nelson describes the tour as “A fantastic audio/visual show where we get a chance to not only play our dad’s hit songs and interpret them in the way we remember him doing them but have a video presentation go through his life story and we get to tell stories about our dad while we’re doing it. It’s a very personal reflection on our recollections of his life as a dad and as a man and of course, a celebration of his music.”

He continues: “We’ve sold a few million records but we never played his music live up until a few years ago and we’ve gotten so many people requesting that we do this…these are the songs we grew up with and we feel like we have the world’s largest extended family…his music was smuggled into American televisions through Ozzy & Harriet. We really feel like we have a huge family that wants to be reminded of different times in their lives and especially with how things are right now, it seemed like a really great time to do this.

“It probably would be different had we not made our own mark [as Nelson] but this is a show that we do because we love to, not because we have to. And, from a selfish standpoint, my dad was my best friend so I miss him a lot less when I play his songs. We feel like we’re more connected to him and to his and our audience when we do the show.”

Nelson says the variety of fans attending the Ricky Nelson Remembered tribute is ‘“interesting…we basically inherited our dad’s fan base with very small children all the way up to much older people. Our fans are in their 40s now and they have kids, who they bring, and their parents come, and sometimes their grandparents. Last week we played to someone that was 101 years old. We have a huge age spread…”

“The kids of our fans come and they don’t know who our dad was. They do by the end of the show because it’s almost a cross between an A&E Biography and VH1 Behind the Music and a live musical performance. The songs are so great and when you put them together with this very
personal show, for us, it’s more than just ‘Hey, I’m going to go see a show.’ It’s more likean experience.”

When asked how long he and his brother Gunnar will be performing Ricky Nelson Remembered, Nelson says “That’s the thing that’s great about it, we’re not sure. We play every show like it’s our last because we don’t know when we’re going to stop doing it or if we’re going to keep it going. It’s gaining momentum and we’ve been playing some large venues and selling them out, so it’s something people want to see. The word’s gotten out and that’s very rewarding for me…it’s so much more than people expect and it’s the kind of thing where we’re really lucky to have our past and our family’s past to draw from.

“I think it’s the times that we’re going through that make people want to get back to a more sincere part of their lives and thankfully, it seems
like we’re a part of that.

“The High Plains Reader is going to be the first to hear this, but we just got a telephone call that they are inducting the Nelson Family into the Smithsonian Institute for cultural relevance. That’s forever and my grandfather would be so happy…that’s about as big as it gets. I’m really proud of it.”

Nelson promises that the Fargo show is “going to be a very intimate and powerful evening. We’re really looking forward to it, and I’m especially looking forward to coming to Fargo when it’s not the middle of winter! We stay and meet everybody that comes to the show afterward because we really feel that the family has always tried to be very accessible and it came about as a tradition our dad started, which is that you really have to take time for people…”

“We get so many incredible stories from people all over the world. We had a guy tell us that he was on a date in probably 1958 and my dad pulled up in a car next to them. His girlfriend started losing her mind and my dad, he looked over, saw what was going on and without missing a beat said, ‘Hey man, are we going to go play tennis at the club next week like we did last week?’ The guy said, ‘Sure Rick, I’ll see you there’ and drove off…here my dad was a wingman to a guy he’d never met. That’s the kind of guy he was and he was so shy, he would never wave his own flag so I’m glad to be doing it for him.

“No matter where we go, it keeps us real and keeps us understanding that we’ve played for 60,000 people and we’ve also played for one. We play every show like it’s our last because, not trying to be morbid, but it could be, we don’t know. We’ve learned that life is precious and we want to make sure that every time we sing or perform for people, we never forget it.”

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), http://www.RickyNelsonRemembered.com

If You Go

What: Ricky Nelson Remembered
Where: Fargo Theatre
When: Thurs, July 8, 8pm
Info: 701.239.8385