The last song Marty Robbins ever sang on the Grand Ole Opry was “El Paso.” It came near the end of a long, generous set on Saturday, August 28, 1982, during the Opry’s final half hour. According to the running order kept by Opry historian Byron Fay, Marty stayed on until about 12:50 in the morning, close to an hour after the show was scheduled to end. It was his final Opry appearance. A little over three months later, he was gone.
For longtime listeners, the way that night ended was familiar. “El Paso” was the song Marty had been closing Opry nights with for years. On one December 1968 Opry night, for example, his final run of songs ended with “Don’t Worry” and then “El Paso.”
How the 11:30 Show Became Marty’s
Marty Robbins joined the Opry in 1953. In 1965, he started working the last segment of the show for a practical reason: it let him race stock cars at the Nashville Speedway first. On some Saturday nights he would run the feature race, then hurry across town to make his spot on the Opry.
Longtime Opry announcer Hal Durham remembered how it started:
“He wanted to do the last show because it enabled him to race and still work the Opry. I think he was more at ease working that last show.”
Durham also pointed out that WSM’s clear-channel signal grew stronger and reached farther as the night went on, so Marty’s late spot carried him into homes all across the country.
The Man Who Wouldn’t Watch the Clock
Once the 11:30 segment became “his show,” Marty began stretching it. Durham put it simply: “Instead of running over five minutes, he’d run over fifteen minutes.”
Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree was supposed to start from his record shop right after the Opry, so Marty would talk to Ernest over the radio while he ran long. Durham recalled Marty saying, “Just a couple more songs, Ernest.” The crew eventually taped Tubb answering, “Okay, Marty, you’ve had your time. Now it’s my turn,” and played it on cue. Then, Durham said, they would punch in a closing of Marty singing “El Paso” and sign off.
That is how closely the song was tied to Marty’s late-night Opry. Even the radio crew used it as the way to say goodnight.
One fan who visited the Opry in the early 1970s later wrote that on one cold, snowy night, Marty turned the stage clock back an hour, and the audience loved it.
He Did It Even After Heart Surgery
In 1969, Marty Robbins suffered his first heart attack. He had bypass surgery in January 1970, when the operation was still new. On March 28, 1970, he came back to host the Opry’s final half hour. According to Fay’s account, Marty told the crowd, “We got started a little late and they said we could go on ’til about 2,” and he sang until 12:27 a.m.
August 28, 1982
Twelve years later, the routine was the same. Marty hosted the 11:30 segment on the second show and opened with “Ribbon of Darkness.” Jeannie Seely, Charlie Louvin, and Bill Carlisle each took a turn at the microphone.
Then 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,” and “Love Me.”
The last song of the night was “El Paso.” By Fay’s count, the segment ran just over an hour.
The Last Three Months
After that night, Marty Robbins was mostly on the road and working on a new album. On October 11, 1982, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. On November 7, he ran his last NASCAR race in Atlanta. He played his final show on December 1. The next day he suffered another heart attack, and he died on December 8, 1982, at 57.
He never stood on the Opry stage again. The last thing the Opry crowd heard from him in person was the same song the radio crew had used to say goodnight for him: “El Paso.”