Nelson On Tour: A Growing Up Nelson Short

Country Walk

My dad showed be and Joey what really goes on backstage and it was nice to watch some of this past performances from way back in the day. It was cool to see him screw up his own songs every now and then. What was even cooler to me was that he said so many swears in one rehearsal that it made him cringe.

  "Daddy you used to curse like a sailor!" I chided him as I watched him squirm in his chair.

  "That's nothing to be proud of Carlyn. It's a bad habit that I had to teach myself how to break. Which is why the swear jar is in place." He said to me with a sigh.

  "Guess it's in the Nelson genes huh?" I joked.

The side eye he gave me wasn't enough to scare me as much as it did when we first met so I just did it right back to him. Daddy just shook his head and smiled.

  "Ya know for someone who isn't biologically my daughter ya sure did pick up a lot of my traits!" He giggled

  "It's the Nelson way dad! C'mon get with it or get lost!" Joey pipped up as he continued to watch daddy on the tv in front of us.

Dad and I looked at each other and then looked at Joey with a look of shock on our faces. If anyone had picked up on being a Nelson it was definitely Joey. He never turned to see our faces once but we could tell from the angle we were standing in he had a huge smile on his face.

  "Dad when I grow up I wanna be great at guitar! Just like you! I hope I can get that good where everybody is cheering for me. Then maybe I'll have my own Paisley Park BUT BIGGER!!!!!"

Daddy smiled and went over to Joey and patted him on the head.

  "My boy. I will make you better than myself in many ways. You are my legacy. And so are you Carlyn." He said with a wink to me and kissed Joey on the head.

  "Ok......I can see him......but ME?!?! I cant sing to save my soul! I would crash your legacy and burn it to the ground!" I stated to him in a panic.

  "Is that so huh?" Daddy asked.

  "It is so. Daddy why would you want me carrying that kind of weight? I can barely walk and chew gum as Mrs. Wilkinson would say. I quit playing the piano after I was adopted because lets face it I suck! I don't have the music gene coursing through my veins like Joey does."

  "Carlyn you are my child and I know for certain that you have that same passion for music in you that you had when you stole my guitar."

  "It's not the same thing! I stole the guitar because it was the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my entire life!"

  "You still have a.......unique.....taste in music though don't you?"

  "Dad you hate the music that I listen to."

  "When did I say that?!?!?!?"

  "Uhhhhh let me think.....how bout that time you hurled my DMX CD out the window???"

  "That wasn't music. That was something that not even you should listen to."

  "It was too music! You don't seem to care when I'm listening to Alicia Keys and she slips a curse word or two in one of her songs."

  "She's a young lady that knows not to do that because she has a young audience that looks up to her."

  "And DMX doesn't?!?!?!?"

  "He shouldn't but we're getting off track here. The point is that you have music in you and you don't have to use that particular talent to carry on the Nelson legacy."

  "That doesn't even make sense!"

  "Oh it will my dove. You'll see"

  "I'm not a bird I'm a girl."