At the age of 17, my mother asked me, I don’t know why, to play like her grandpa whom I never saw him play. I said, “Bones, what’s that?” She kinda held her hands up and showed me how he did it with his hands.
By the time I was twenty we went around to the dances a lot and I played with a dance band … but I did nothing with them to speak of until I went to National Traditional Country Music Festival in Avoca. At Avoca I won the bones contest. Later I went to Le Mars and won the bones contest once up there.
At Le Mars, Donny met Buddy Boswell, from Edgerton, Missouri, who came to the Le Mars festival to perform with the ”Union Mill ‘Opry.” Buddy asked me if I would like to come down and play on his show. So I went down there 2 or 3 times and played on his show.” While I was there, a gal that played on the stage talked to me and told me…”you ought to be in Silver Dollar City.” I responded, “What’s that? I didn’t even know what it was.” The lady told Donny she would get him some tickets, and he could play on stage with her group, “Green Side Up.”
In 1986, Rex Burdette, who hired people to entertain at Silver Dollar City, approached Donny and asked him, “How would he like to go to work at Silver Dollar City?” I played at Six Flags over Texas and have played there for many years. From there I go to Branson and play at Silver Dollar City and I have been there for many more years. I do shows in the Rio Grande Valley. I have played at some theaters in downtown Branson. I love music and I like the rhythm of the bones. I have won many titles.