On Saturday, August 28, 1982, Marty Robbins hosted the 11:30 segment of the Grand Ole Opry, just as he had for years. The segment was supposed to wrap up at midnight. He sang fifteen songs of his own that night, and the last one was “El Paso.” He didn’t finish until 12:50 a.m. It was the last time he ever performed on the Opry.
What makes that final song hit so hard is a small piece of Opry history. For years, when Marty ran long, the folks running the WSM radio broadcast had a way of getting off the air: they would roll a recording of Marty singing “El Paso” and sign off. The song the radio used to say good night to Marty turned out to be the last song he ever sang on that stage.
Why Marty Always Took the Last Spot
According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Marty Robbins began working the final segment of the Opry in 1965 so he could race stock cars at the Nashville Speedway first. He would run his race, then get across town in time to close the show.
Opry announcer Hal Durham later explained that Marty liked the late slot for more than racing. Nobody was waiting in the wings behind him, and WSM, a clear-channel station, reached the most listeners late at night. As the 11:30 segment became more and more his show, Durham said, Marty started stretching it.
“Instead of running over five minutes, he’d run over fifteen minutes.” — Hal Durham, Opry announcer
The Hall of Fame dates the real turning point to the summer of 1968. Marty left a race early to make the Opry, found the show running late, and refused to give up his time. He stayed past his slot, the crowd loved it, and it became a habit. He would motion to the stage manager for one more song, then do it again, sometimes for more than an hour, pushing back Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree, the radio show that followed the Opry.
The Tape Behind the Curtain
The radio crew had to adapt. Durham recalled that the last segment’s live sponsor jingle had to wait whenever Marty ran late, until the station finally put the commercials on tape. Marty would also talk to Ernest Tubb on the air, promising just a couple more songs before handing it over.
So the crew taped Tubb answering back, ready to play on cue. And eventually, Durham said, they kept a closing of Marty singing “El Paso” ready to punch in before going to sign-off. The radio audience heard the show end. Inside the Opry House, people were still watching a Marty Robbins concert.
It’s a funny story. It’s also hard to read now without a lump in your throat.
The Final Night: August 28, 1982
Opry historian Byron Fay, who has published the running order of that night’s second show, lists Marty opening his segment with “Ribbon of Darkness.” After sets from Jeannie Seely, Charlie Louvin and Bill Carlisle, Marty came back and kept going: “Don’t Worry,” “Good-Hearted Woman,” “This Is the Moment,” “Some Memories Just Won’t Die,” “Return to Me,” “Beyond the Reef,” “That’s All Right,” “To Get to You,” “Tonight Carmen,” “Don’t Let Me Touch You,” “Cool Water,” “18 Yellow Roses,” “Love Me,” and finally “El Paso.”
He was off the stage at 12:50 a.m., fifty minutes past the scheduled end of the segment.
Nobody in that room knew it was the last time. Just two weeks earlier, on August 14, Ernest Tubb, the man whose show Marty kept pushing back, had made his own final Opry appearance.
A Little Over Three Months Later
The fall of 1982 should have been a victory lap. In October, Marty Robbins was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and Billboard gave him its Artist Resurgence Award. On November 7, he ran his last NASCAR race, the Atlanta Journal 500.
In early December he suffered a heart attack, his third. Doctors performed another bypass operation, but he did not survive. Marty Robbins died on December 8, 1982, at age 57.
He never stood on the Opry stage again after that August night. The last song he sang there was the same one the radio had been using for years to tell him it was time to go.
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