Remembering Ricky Nelson 25 Years After His Tragic Death:
LCCN Exclusive Interview With Matthew Nelson
LCCN Exclusive Interview With Matthew Nelson
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• Sat, Dec 31, 2011
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By Randy Economy
Los Cerritos Community News
(Copyright)
December 31, 2011
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| Randy Economy (middle) with Matthew and Gunnar Nelson at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts |
Twenty
five years ago on New Year’s Eve, 1986 the lives of Matthew and Gunnar Nelson
changed forever.
Then 18 years of age, the identical twin boys lost
their father, legendary singer and actor Rick Nelson, and in a plane crash in
Texas. The news shocked the world, and
for them it was the moment that “stood still in time.”
In a revealing interview with Los Cerritos Community
News, Matthew Nelson opened up about the night of his father’s death, and how
if changed him and his brother “forever.”
“I was in my car in front of my friend Duffy’s
house, I had heard a couple of songs on the car radio he was singing, and it
was interesting, I never put it together that they played three songs in a row,
and it was actually on K-LOS, the local rock station, and Jim Ladd came on the
air,” Matthew told Los Cerritos Community News.
“I had just commented to my friend in the car how
amazing and clear my dad’s voice was on his song Garden Party, and then Ladd
came back, and he sounded really sad ‘this has been a tribute to Rick Nelson
and his whole band who were lost today in a plane crash in DeKalb, Texas,” he
said with is voice sinking.
“It had felt like someone had shot me, and I
evidently got out of the car, made it around five feet and passed out,” he
said. “I was supposed to be on the plane
with him and so was Gunnar and at the very last minute my dad asked us if we
wanted to meet him to fly commercial to Dallas where he was on his way on a
DC-3 that went down. I genuinely feel
that he had a second sighted moment about Gunnar and me travelling with him,”
Matt said.
“The only ones to make it out alive in the crash were
the pilot and co-pilot, and they made it out the front windows,” he said. “It has been all these years and it still
feels like he is on the road, it is still too horrible for me to get into, so I
talk about it (the crash) like it was a football game, I have to. We are all
going to go sometime, I just don’t want to put myself in a risky position if I
don’t have to,” he said.
At the time of his legendary father’s death, he and
Gunnar were 18 years old, and Matthew said his father had just gone through a
“world record divorce” and had “his entire family was back living with him” and
life was going great.
“My dad was making incredible music at the time of
his death,” Matthew stressed. “The age of 45 is far too young to die.”
“It is going
to be an interesting show. This is
something we want to do, not have to do.
Our dad was our best friend, so we said if we are going to do this right
(a tribute concert). We are playing his songs the way he did them,” said
Nelson. “This concert in Cerritos is
going to be the soundtrack of our life as well this being part of our legacy.”
He said that fans can expect to see a “video
scrapbook” from the day “Gunnar and I were born.”
“My dad was arguable one of the most documented rock
stars in history, so we really tip our hat to him in this concert and share
great stories. You will not only see the
type of entertainer he was, but what kind of man he really was, and where our
family is headed in the future,” Nelson said.
“By the time you leave the Cerritos Center for the
Performing Arts, you will really understand the pure magic of Ricky Nelson, the
legacy he left all of us and how we connect our fans directly to our family in
a very personal way,” he said.
“The world is so not Ozzie and Harriet anymore,”
referring to his late iconic grandparents.
“Gunnar and I grew up in a different time, and I
think our family has always done something relative and relevant from where the
show starts in the 1930’s, to my dad’s music in the 50’s to the 80’s,” he said. During the performance they stress a special motto of
their late father, “Believe in what you’re doing, and be proud of it.”
The concert on Sunday, January 15th
at the CCPA is being billed as “Second Generation Stars” and will also feature
Deana Martin, the singer-actress daughter of Dean Martin, and Steve March
Torme, the son of the iconic Mel Torme.
Former Miss America and television
personality Mary Ann Mobley emcees the afternoon.
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