Barry Gibb with Sonny James and Greg Robble

Barry Gibb and Sonny James share a moment at the 2013 Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony, and the chart history and friendships that connected the two.

While attending the Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony on Sunday, October 27, 2013 — honoring inductees Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare and Jack Clement — Barry Gibb and Sonny James came together on stage after the ceremony. With deep mutual admiration for each other’s music and careers, their common friends and their musical mentors, the two shared a few private moments as friends.

Two Artists at the Top of the Charts

During Sonny’s remarkable run of consecutive No. 1 country singles, there were two moments when these men’s recordings ruled the country and pop charts at the same time. The first came when Sonny’s No. 1 “Empty Arms” topped the country chart while the Bee Gees’ legendary “Lonely Days” sat at No. 1 on the pop chart. It happened again in September 1971, when Sonny’s “Here Comes Honey Again” reached No. 1 country the same month the Bee Gees topped the pop chart with “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”

Another of life’s threads connects the two: Sonny produced Marie Osmond’s first three albums, beginning with the million-selling Paper Roses, and each of those albums included songs written by Sonny James. Barry’s beloved youngest brother, Andy Gibb, performed duets with Marie many times on television over the years, and the two remained close friends.

Barry Gibb & Sonny James

Personally accompanying Sonny at the ceremony was Greg Robble, a friend of Sonny and Doris James for many decades. Greg had also attended the historic 2006 celebration with Sonny, Doris and the Southern Gentlemen when Sonny was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Of Barry Gibb, Robble says:

Hopefully everyone in this life has an opportunity to deeply and personally connect to music. For me that music was the Bee Gees and Barry Gibb. Yet for all the years of constant touring I never had the opportunity of working for them and it's something I regret but it simply was not to be. The soulful rhythms and arrangements, heartfelt melodies and deep meaningful lyrics have ever been a celebration for me of both enduring love and loss, which we all experience as it's part of our individual humanity in this life. There's always a longing expressed and shared in a Gibb brothers song. And that longing has always touched me the most. There are just so many amazing songs with Barry's rich soulful falsetto and wispy vibrato, equally is Robin's fragile tenors, and even though I don't believe I've ever heard it said or printed anywhere… I believe his vocals have always exposed a vulnerability which we all carry with us and to connect with that vulnerable melancholy part of me just made life so much richer. The best way I can say it is his music fed my soul and satisfied my sense of my place in the world as not only a person but as a husband and father of paternal twins myself. Barry Gibb is the pinnacle of the art form, the fountainhead of influence and personal connection to the person that lives inside of me who I will never see but know exists. To have finally not only met him, but being able to spend a few moments with Barry with a great mentor and lifelong friend in Sonny by my side, in such a historic place and time, on a stage that is certain to hold such amazing history yet to be recognized is a true and self-evident gift from God in my life. It is also enormously satisfying to have found him to be so gracious and kind and more than merely worthy of all the millions who hold a similar connection to his life's work.

Greg Robble

A veteran of nearly twenty years in touring production, Robble has toured with The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Metallica, Kiss, Jimmy Buffett, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner and many more.