By 1972, the “Ferriday Fireball” had reinvented himself as a C&W crooner, one reeking of bourbon and broken marriages. As its title suggests, that year’s The “Killer” Rocks On was a contrary attempt to revisit his roots, making merry hell of ’50s standards beside a rousing stampede through Kristofferson’s “Me And Bobby McGee”. Three years later, he returned to Nashville for Boogie Woogie Country Man?presumably slumped against the nearest saloon bar with its “Red Hot Memories (Ice Cold Beer)” (those being “the reason ol’ Jerry Lee came in here”), but still in fine voice.
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