Freddy Fender – Newsmaker of the Year 2006

freddy-fender-1957.jpgCorpus Christ, TX – The Corpus Christi Caller Times has named Freddy Fender their Newsmaker of the Year. Denise Malan, one of the writers, called me a couple weeks ago for the article. Some of article focuses on the spiritual side of Freddy and includes some of my comments on that. You can read the Freddy Fender Caller Times article here.

As far as I know I’m the only former band member currently working on sacred music on a regular basis. It was a little ironic when the writer asked me if Freddy had any impact on my spiritual life, and I replied that I didn’t think so directly. Then she asked me what I was doing now, and I said music for theater and church. Made me stop and think for a bit about that. I stopped playing for Freddy Fender in March 2005.

Freddy Fender was very supportive of AA. He had the bond that only those in AA have for each other. The close of the article reads:

Askland, the keyboardist, remembers that while touring Fender kept in touch with friends from Alcoholics Anonymous. One Christmas a few years ago, Fender even brought the band to Corpus Christi to play for his AA group.

“We were right in the little meeting room,” Askland said. “That was his Christmas gift to them.”

Vaya Con Dios Freddy.

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One thought on “Freddy Fender – Newsmaker of the Year 2006

  1. Freddy Fender became an unlucky victim of the War on Drugs. After serving nearly three years in Angola, he received an early release through the intervention of then-governor Jimmie Davis, also a songwriter (“You Are My Sunshine”) and fan of Fender’s music. He was paroled on the condition that upon his release, he stay away from the corruptive influences of the music scene.

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