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and I'm gonna be a Nashville songwriter, and I'm gonna ...."
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On
www.myspace.com/lilacmoonproductions,
you will find a picture of Robert posted by him on 4-6-2009. We
talked shortly that nite about co-writing and recording, and laughed
a little. Robert always had a special note or joke or comment about
his life, mine with encouragement, and stories about the biz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
Janice and Joel Wray We
are better people for knowing him. Forgive me but I have to add my two cents worth. Like so many, since finding out about Leather’s passing I have spent days crying – for myself and all those others who loved Robert Loren ‘Leather’ Shelter Greene. No one will, could, or should ever take his place. Why, he was so wonderful it took at least three lives to contain his greatness.
I know Robert Greene was and is a much loved, respected, and missed grandson, son, brother, cousin, uncle, and friend to all those who knew him in his youth and as a blessed part of their family. I am sure they will always remember all the things he did for and with them, and all they shared through his all too short lifetime.
Then of course there is the person we call Leather. The singer from New Orleans. The friend who became family to everyone he touched. The kind and gentle soul who never turned anyone away. I knew him first from what Charlie told me all those years ago. Charlie loved and respected Leather. He told me stories of Leather’s song writing abilities, his way with the ladies, and how he was a gentleman and a good friend. Later I knew Leather as my own friend. He was that special person who didn’t mind having someone slightly screwed up over the loss of the man she loved around him. Through emails, phone calls, IM conversations, and holding me just so I could make it through the dark times, Leather was there. Never once did he tell me to get myself together. He was simply there supporting me and telling me all would be well once again. He was right and he was there for those times too. We were there for each other. Through emails, phone calls, and Instant Messages we shared our lives, our thoughts, our worries, our moments of happiness – the little and the big. When I think of the Leather I knew, I can’t help but think of the movie Pay it Forward for that is what I truly believe Leather would want us to do.
Now we come to Robert Shelter, the person who took his last name from the Rolling Stones Song, Gimme Shelter. From what Robert told me, Robert Shelter was born in Paris, and ended up in Tennessee. In our grief I am afraid we can sometimes forget all the people who miss that kind, caring, songwriter from Nashville. We think Leather is ours, our family. Well, there was too much of him to be just ours. Many of the friends he made during the his Nashville years had no idea who we were talking about when we talked about Leather. They know Robert. They have worked and played and written and shared and broken bread with Robert. They love and miss him as much as we miss our Leather.
In some ways I was very fortunate to know a bit about all the parts of Robert Loren Leather Shelter Greene. He was a loving son to his mama, a good brother to his siblings, a southern gentleman who got upset if I tried to open the car door for myself. I called him my workin’ man because it seemed he was forever hustling for those tile and carpet jobs to pay the bills so he could spend time doing what he loved…… making music. In addition to his music, Robert told me he had fallen in love with a wonderful woman named Susan Marshall. He first met her in Paris years ago at the same time Robert Shelter was born. After all these years, they reconnected and were planning a life together. She is also a songwriter and they worked and sang together on a regular basis. He had found the love of his life, his music was being taken seriously by his peers, he had a close circle of friends with whom he could write, sing, and share. Why, he was even finding tile and carpet work during this economic crisis. Robert, Leather, was doing fine.
I, like so many of you, wondered how a physically strong person could go like that. I found out his father died of a massive heart attack in Nashville several years ago. His father was in Nashville for work, had gone to see the Grand Ole Opry and went to back to his hotel and passed on. His father died less than 2 miles from where Robert lived. I believe Robert lived his life making the most of every moment. He was a very special someone. We wouldn’t all miss him so much if he hadn’t touched us so deeply.
Please don’t think I won’t miss him every day. I do and I will. I also celebrate the times and moments I spent with him and the way he touched my life. He will always be that singing cowboy in the white hat, the workin man who came home dead tired after laying carpet or tilling a bathroom. He will always be remembered as the friend who would help anyone if they needed it. He will always be the friend who loved all of us unconditionally. I believe, at least for me, the best way to celebrate and honor this noble and honorable man I was proud to call my friend, is to take some of that goodness I learned from him and Pass it Forward.
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Jeannie Blue |
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I've
been thinking all week about what it was about Robert that has made
the biggest difference in my life and was having a hard time putting
it into words till tonight. And then it became clear to me. What I
appreciated most about Robert was that he was a "people gatherer".
He literally brought people together, and in such a subtle way I'd
never before thought of him in that role. From the time I met him
a few years ago, I had steadily accumulated a whole new community
(actually a couple of them, including the Wrong Place people) of treasured
friends. They just one by one became my friends so gradually that
I didn't noticed as it happened, but especially this last sad week,
it has made a real impact on me that Robert was the common element
in all these relationships, both personal and musical. He not only
introduced me to new friends, but put me back in touch with people
he knew from the Wrong Place days that I had met even before he did,
when I was just starting to play in public in Cincinnati in 1972 but
had long lost track of. He brought people together, and even though
he is gone physically, he is still managing to do that. Now THAT is
SOME talent.
- Miss Diana
Leather
was a hero to a lot of us. He showed no fear in putting his heart
into a song. Hugs,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My
Oldest and Dearest Friends - Song of Songs 8:14 ... A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart... Ecclesiastes 7:1 – 2 We Wrong Place people have a legacy that few have. We have known each other for more than thirty-six years now. We are each other's family. We learned more in those short two-and-a-half years than many people find out in a lifetime. We are the true alumni of the finest school we could ever have asked to attend. And now with another of the mainstays gone, we have to carry on in this part of the time space continuum. If we mourn, we mourn for ourselves. Leather is now writing a song with Charlie Blue that we won't get to hear until we join them. Neither one of them wants to know that their passing has hurt us anymore than it has to. I was on my way to Leather’s house this morning to meet his brother Bill. As I turned the last corner on my way to his street, a Crosby, Stills, and Nash song came on the radio. It was called Carry On. You’ve heard the chorus,“Carry on, love is coming, love is coming to us all…” As
Charlie would've said, keep your chin up. I love you all. -
Tirk Wilder |
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This
is from Eugene's cell phone last night, and I told him I would pass
it along to the list. It's a beautiful picture of Leather and the way
I will always remember him. Aloha,
Leather. |
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My
heart breaks for all of Leather's close friends. I exchanged a few
recent emails with Leather. As Mykle said, his warmth, thoughtfulness
and gentle 'man' eloquence came through so strong. I can only imagine
how it hurts to lose him. Sometimes I think it's our 'job' to keep
our loved ones' spirits alive. In this case, he has made it easy for
his friends. And yes, Mykle, qualities that are so important and rare
in this day and age. I'm holding the hearts of all my brothers and
sisters from -
Cyndi Coyne Robert Shelter, my Dearest Friend, and fellow prolific songwriting buddy, as well, to so many more of you in Nashville, passed away peacefully on his couch, Saturday, 4/11/09. Robert, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He was a resident of Nashville, and a Great Songwriter and Entertainer. I
can testify on a personal level, from knowing Robert as a very close
friend since 2004, that he was a very good man, with a very big heart!
I will miss him very much, as I'm sure we all will who knew him. Robert
has many friends here in Nashville who he has touched with his music
and loyalty. He was a man among men, a gentleman, and a scholar. Please
keep Robert and his Family and Loved Ones in your prayers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kenny called me with the news about Leather last night. I don’t think there has ever been a kinder soul to walk the earth. He is and always will be my friend and my family. Without Leather and Kenny I would have never made it through the fiery furnace of losing Charlie and the dark days that followed. .... I never thought we would be without him, but because of his kind soul, the loving memories we all carry within us, and the wonderful music he left behind, he will never really be gone.
-
Jeannie
Blue ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Robert's Mom, and the entire Greene family -
...
Please know that Robert was deeply loved, admired, and respected by
many, many people. When he returned from Europe, he found as many
of his old friends as he could, and began pushing for a Wrong Place
reunion. That 1996 reunion brought us back together in a big way,
and solidified the bond we share . *
* * -
Larry Lucas |
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