Renaissance in Texas
In 1986, Bush teamed up with Darrell McCall, recording a successful honky-tonk album Hot Texas Country, and began assembling a large country band (as did Willie Nelson), performing around south Texas. In 1994 the band released Time Changes Everything, the same year that RCA released a greatest hits album. A major tour soon followed. Johnny Bush continues to tour regularly, often performing with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.
Several albums on local Texas labels soon followed. His renewed visibility made him a mentor figure to younger Texas musicians who revered the honky-tonk/hardcore country sound that Bush has done so much to keep in the public eye. Austin musicians like Dale Watson and Cornell Hurd sought him out to play on their albums. In 2003, he was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame with his lifelong friend Willie Nelson on hand to induct him. In 2007 he released his autobiography, with the aide of Rick Mitchell: Whiskey River (Take My Mind): The True Story of Texas Honky Tonk, published by University of Texas Press. A new album, Kashmere Garden Mud: A Tribute to Houston’s Country Soul was released on the Icehouse label at the same time.
With the success of his recent Botox treatments for his vocal condition, and his successful career revival, Bush is a spokesman for people afflicted with vocal disorders. In 2002 he was honored with the Annie Glenn Award, named for the wife of the John Glenn, by the National Council of Communicative Disorders for his work in bringing attention to the condition of spasmodic dysphonia.
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