Yay! bring on the Patsy! She was the greatest.

Posted by: tanya at May 13, 2008 10:21 AM

Every one of today's country divas is influenced by Patsy, whether they know it or not. No one could touch her. Though Charlie Dick tried.

Posted by: crystal g. at May 13, 2008 12:30 PM

I am looking forward to reading Mr. Nassour's Book. I have been a Fan of his for many years. I read his column on Broadwaystars.com every week !

Posted by: Kevin Morgan at May 13, 2008 10:29 PM

PATSY CLINE was,quite simply,the GREATEST thing that ever happened to country music! Like Judy Garland before her, Patsy was 'born' to entertain and to enrich the lives of millions of people, also to pioneer country western into new territories ! I love Patsy more than anyone can possibly know,and she is,Absolutely,the 'one and only ' INDISPUTED' QUEEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC ! LET no 'false' pretenders aspire to her exalted throne !!! accept no Modern Day substitutes !

BRAD SAVAGE 52 years old ---Lifelong Fan !

Posted by: BRADFORD SAVAGE at May 14, 2008 7:11 AM

Patsy is back..Not that she really ever left us..Her music has kept her alive for us all..Each year,each decade Patsy is more and more alive..She is bigger today then she was at the peak of her sucess..people all around the world young and old know of the legend that is Patsy Cline..She will live on and on long after people have forgotten about Faith Hill and others!

Ellis Nassour has written the only book that i feel captures Patsy.. the good the bad and the ugly. Long after we are gone his book will go on to tell the TRUE story of the legend for many many future fans yet to be born. Ellis Nassour and his book will live on just like the legend herself.

Posted by: Dustin Watson at May 14, 2008 4:24 PM

There is an authenticity to Patsy Cline's voice and her choice of material that really did make her the Country-Western Garland, seeming to bare her life and soul to us as she sang. A very "real" performer, a classic. Even kids who thought CW was "hillbilly music" in the '50s dug Patsy.

Posted by: David Cuthbert at May 15, 2008 3:41 AM

BLOG REGULARS LISTEN UP

"Exhaustive" and poorly written.

We (Gwen, Mitzi, & Norma) are gravely disappointed in Micheal Musto for promoting such garbage.

Ellis Nassour has never even been to Patsy's hometown of Winchester Virginia and interviewed most everyone in book on the phone, he did very little if any true fact checking, quoted everyone else AND called it a book.

We wonder what more falsehoods and trash he will publish this time. As far as we heard (from reliable sources) he never even contacted the scholars and historians at The Patsy Cline Museum for either of his books.

FOUL PLAY FOR TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF THE LEGACY OF A LEGEND!

We three know his game. And it's C L E A R.

Patsy's mother Hilda Hensley and husband Charlie Dick rarely agreed on anything. And before Hilda died in 1998 they agreed on two things that Ellis Nassour was an ambulance chaser and that he wrote the most untrue and false book about her daughter and his wife.

By the way, the R E A L Patsy Cline book is coming out soon enough.

Shame on you Musto Gusto!!

Are you sleeping with Nassour too?

Most Sincerely,

Gwen Verdon, Mitzi Gaynor & Norma Desmond.

Posted by: Gwen Verdon, Mitzi Gaynor, and Norma Desmond at May 16, 2008 4:52 PM

ONLY A COWARD POSTS SUCH AN UTTERLY RIDICULOUS BUNCH OF LIES AND DOESN'T USE HIS OR HER NAME.

But if your intention was to get a rise out of me, you dumb ass, you succeeded.

You should be embarrassed writing such drivel. But I doubt if anything embarrasses you.

If my Patsy bios are so poorly written, you nameless coward, why have they sold for over 20 years to some 220,000 readers?

Where the hell were you all those years when no one was writing about Patsy Cline?

Whose pocket are you in? What's your agenda?

What "scholars and historians" at the Patsy Cline Museum? What Patsy Cline Museum? Is a shuttered former five and dime a museum?

I spoke to and visited the people who knew and loved Patsy Cline. 125 of them. It's a biography, you idiot! You interview those who knew your subject.

I'll be in Winchester AGAIN next week, and if you have any guts you'd show your pitiful self and say in person -- and not hide behind other names -- what you wrote here -- and let me embarrass you to no end.

People such as yourself are the lowest of the low. I don't know or care what your agenda is but don't cast aspersions on my reputation! But I know you are a moron!

And Mr. Dick certainly doesn't need you for his mouthpiece!

The only reason I'm responding to your drivel is that you insult my years of research and when it comes to my work, I stand behind it.

If you want to accuse me of such unmitigated crap, please outline each "falsehood" and defend it with your truth from one of your historians and scholars.

And are you accusing Patsy Cline of lying in the letters she wrote in her own hand to many of her friends?

I note below you say you have heard from "reliable sources." You wouldn't know a reliable source if it squatted on your face and defacated!

You sign off as "Sincerely." It should be PITIFUL. That's what you are!

Ellis Nassour
author
Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline
-- and damn proud of it!

Posted by: Ellis Nassour at May 16, 2008 10:49 PM

Talented writer indeed.

Best,

Gwen, Mitzi, & Norma

Posted by: Mitzi Gaynor, Gwen Verdon & Norma Desmond at May 17, 2008 12:26 PM

Talented, indeed.

A lot more talented than the crap you wrote, Gwen, Mitzi & Norma No Name Coward.

I have more talent in my eyebrows than you will ever have.

Posted by: Ellis Nassour at May 19, 2008 1:28 PM

Speaking of those eyebrows...you really should have touched them up in all of the Photo Shop pictures you had made of yourself with some of those famous people on your website. The one with Crawford is the worst editing I have seen. OH, by the way...on your homepage, you LEFT OUT one of the most important words in that sentence that is quoted from Patsy's grave marker. Some historian.

I tend to agree with Gwen,Mitzi & Norma- they rock! That such a small remark can make a so called professional writer come unglued and show his ass for all to read, probably indicates the shizzle that is also in your book.

And as for those astonishing totals you have listed- 220,000 books sold was it? And its been in print twice already, over how many years?? Not very impressive, If you ask me. Which ya ain't but the opinions are free.

Barbara Walters is out hocking her book, a real book- and has sold over 250,000 in just one week. 7 days there Mr. nASSour. That is actually an impressive, successful book. I've heard of others selling that many so soon also...however, a random search on ebay can find your schlock for a whopping 99 cents...hardcover, even.

Patsy's Greatest Hits album has sold over 10 Million, did you know that? I would consider that real talent and the REAL Patsy Cline that people want to know. Her talent is what brought her the tremendous amount of fans she has (far more than 220,000 fans world wide- I'm sure). All you've done is make money by slaughtering her legacy.

Luckily for us, her true fans- there is no need to find out what "made her tick" but only the need for that pure, heavenly voice that not even your sick words can tarnish.

And as for you theory on those letters "in Patsy's own words"...who's to say she wasn't just letting off some steam? How many peole have you ever heard (well...those of us that have real jobs) say "I swear if I don't get a raise, I'm gonna quit!" or "If I hear that one more time, I'm gonna scream!", do you think everyone takes such things so seriously?

And if she said it and meant it, who business is that anyways? Did you ever talk to her on any of those "tours" you scheduled for she and Johnny Cash? I'm surprised you don't have pictures of yourself accepting her awards at the 1962 DJ Convention or at recording sessions, holding the mic for her or maybe even taking the photo for the album cover.

Which by the way...shouldn't there be some sort of permission or did you at least give credit to the photographer who took the photo that is on this "best selling book"? It looks familiar... almost from a Decca album cover. Wonder if anyone at MCA Records has gotten wind of that. Or do you still have it like that, since you were the big star maker for the entire label for 40 years.

It's so funny that you took the time out of your day to respond to such a small critic. I'm told that any writer with real talent would have ignored it but I'm sure the fact that I agree with the gals who have written before me will also get that little rise out of you that was mentioned earlier.

And I won't even go into all the typo's and errors in that book, I've wasted enough time on you already. And please don't be so petty as to point out any misspelled words or erros in my little spew. I didn't proof read this or copy it to an email and hit spell check... you're just not worth it, dude.

I won't be back to read your response (if any) so don't waste your time. Unlike some knuckleheads, I have enough sense to ignore my critics.

However, you have inspired me to go listen to one of my favorite Patsy songs now ....CRAAAZY....

Posted by: King of the Forrest.. at May 20, 2008 2:59 AM

HAHA, This is a blast. You go girls!
and King!...my, you have a way with words. You should be a WRITER! LOL...Speaking of (cough) "writers"...I am glad that there are others out there that know this guy for what he is...I am only sorry that there are people out there that only believe what they read...this must be very hard for Charlie and their family. Why can't people stop these things from happening. They shouldn't have to defend themselves or Patsy because one guy talks to dozens of people and writes stuff about the dead. Thank God I have better things to do............

Posted by: BillAndTed at May 20, 2008 1:22 PM

Some of the new items in Mr Nassour's book were talked about by a volunteer guide at the Ryman long time back in 1988. And then in 2002 a resident of Kent St Winchester spoke in similar terms about the Hensley and Dick families who he had known.

Posted by: Bernard at June 10, 2008 4:41 PM

What can I say, Bill and Ted, I wrote a biography. At least, you posted your message with your names. Hey, you can't please everyone, but how else do you write a bigography unless you go to the folks who knew your subject?

Yes, King, you are right, I should have ignored Gwen, Mitzi & Norma, but ...

If I had, I wouldn't have had to read your ridiculous statements and off-the-wall accusations.

Had you bothered to check the copyright page, you would have found a credit for the cover photo the publisher purchased; and you would also find a credit for the photographer on the B&W image in the third photo gallery.

But you point out a huge blunder on my part that no one to date had. I never realized, in spite of visits to the gravesite and even after looking at numerous photos, that I had somehow left out the last word == "love" == in the quote on the gravesite marker. I will hopefully have the opt to correct it in another edition. Thanks for pointing this out.

Oh, the eyebrows are real (web site photo with Joan Crawford). I was just much younger then and had some.

Yeah, I'm no Barbara Walters. What can I say that you haven't already? But in scheme of things, my book has done very well and has a loyal following.

I'll take what you said at the end of your post to heart, and leave you folks to your fun and not come back here again.

Just as the letters Patsy wrote are what they are, my books are what they are == take them or leave them == and I do not feel any need to defend them. But nowhere do I slaughter Patsy's legacy.

Oh, maybe that eBay price you quote is a starting bib! 99 cents! WOW! I should buy a few!

Peace!

Posted by: Ellis Nassour at July 10, 2008 6:04 PM

Posted by: Gwen Verdon, Mitzi Gaynor, and Norma Desmond at May 16, 2008 4:52 PM

"" We wonder what more falsehoods and trash he will publish this time. As far as we heard (from reliable sources) he never even contacted the scholars and historians at The Patsy Cline Museum for either of his books.""

How could scholars be contacted at the museum. There is no museum.

Why there is no museum is another question,

As to the knowledge base of the team that claim to be on track to open a museum.. hopeless... They cannot even publish a complete songography ( list of recorded tracks ) on their "museum" website. They have listed only 36 out of a known 109 titles that are listed on at least 5 other websites.

Posted by: Bernard at September 16, 2008 3:37 AM