One night, Conway Twitty appeared at his son Michael Twitty’s front door wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and carrying a cassette tape. There was no audience waiting, no stage to walk onto, and no concert to prepare for. Conway simply wanted his son to hear a song.
Conway was considering recording it and trusted Michael’s musical judgment. Father and son had similar tastes, and Michael was a musician himself. Conway expected an honest opinion.
What Conway didn’t expect was for his son to say he didn’t like the song.
Years later, Michael Twitty shared the memory in a 2013 account published by Savvy Dad. What started as an ordinary evening became one of the most meaningful conversations Michael ever had with his father.
The Song Michael Didn’t Want to Hear
Conway Twitty brought the cassette inside, put it in Michael’s player, and sat down beside his son on the couch.
The song was called “That’s My Job.”
Written by Gary Burr, it tells the story of a boy growing up with the comfort of knowing his father will always be there. As the boy becomes an adult, the relationship changes, but the father’s love remains constant.
Michael listened to the recording and admitted that he didn’t like it.
Conway was puzzled. Father and son usually agreed about music, and Conway clearly believed there was something special about this particular recording.
But Michael wasn’t questioning the songwriting or Conway’s decision to record it.
The problem was much more personal.
For the first time, Michael had seriously imagined living in a world without his father.
That realization frightened him. Conway Twitty was a country music superstar to millions, but to Michael, Conway was simply Dad.
The Words Conway Twitty Told His Son
According to Michael’s account, Conway grew quiet after hearing his son’s explanation. Conway looked down at his slippers before sharing a thought Michael would carry for the rest of his life.
“Daddies die. But they never go away.”
Conway explained that the love between a father and child doesn’t disappear when the father is no longer physically present. Conway wanted Michael to remember that love whenever he heard the song.
The conversation didn’t end there.
Michael recalled that father and son stayed on the couch for the next six hours, talking about family, love, risks, dreams, and the future.
They cried. They hugged. They talked until sunrise.
For Michael, the cassette became far more than a recording Conway was thinking about making. It became a reminder of an entire night spent with his father.
The Heartbreaking True Story Behind the Song
There was another father-and-son story behind “That’s My Job,” one Conway Twitty may not have fully understood when he first heard the composition.
Songwriter Gary Burr had lost his father, Alan Burr, in 1986.
Alan Burr was an electrician from Meriden, Connecticut. In a later interview preserved by Middle Tennessee State University, Gary described receiving a call about his father being at the hospital. Gary went there expecting to bring Alan home, only to learn that his father had died.
The following night, Gary sat down with a tape recorder running and wrote almost the entire song in one sitting.
Gary later explained that the recording was so personal and unusually long that he doubted anyone would ever release it.
But the song eventually reached Conway Twitty.
Conway recognized its value and decided to record it despite its length.
In November 1987, “That’s My Job” was released as a single from Conway’s album Borderline. The song eventually reached No. 6 on Billboard’s country chart.
A Memory That Became More Precious With Time
Conway Twitty died on June 5, 1993, at just 59 years old.
Michael Twitty eventually had to face the very loss that had frightened him while listening to that cassette years earlier.
But Michael also had something few people could ever take away: the memory of a father arriving at his door in Mickey Mouse pajamas, asking for an opinion about a song, and staying to talk until morning.
When Michael shared the story in 2013, he made clear how proud he was of his famous father. Yet Michael said he was even prouder to be the son of Harold Lloyd Jenkins, the man behind the name Conway Twitty.
That distinction says a great deal about what the evening meant.
For Gary Burr, “That’s My Job” began with the grief of losing a father. For Conway Twitty and Michael Twitty, the same song became the beginning of a conversation they might otherwise never have had.
And for Michael, the most important part of that night wasn’t the hit record that followed. It was the six hours he spent sitting beside his dad.