Lee Roy Parnell and his fiancee, Julie Albertson. Photo courtesy of artist.
Nov. 17, 2008 — You can’t accuse Lee Roy Parnell of moving too fast. He’s planning to get married in the spring, about six months after he originally thought it would happen; and to put out an album, which would be his first since 2006 and just his second in eight years.
"I make another record every five years whether I need to or not," Lee Roy laughs.
This past spring, Lee Roy announced his engagement to Julie Albertson, and the couple targeted the fall for the ceremony. It didn’t happen.
"We’ve known each other for about eight years, but the romance really sprung about two years ago," he says. "Then we got engaged in May. We shot for getting married in October, but it just didn’t come together. All her people are in Montana and North Dakota, and all my people are in Texas. So we’re lookin’ for somethin' centrally located."
Though nothing’s been decided yet, Lee Roy thinks they’ll end up tying the knot in Nashville. It may complicate work on the album, but he’s still hopeful the project will see the light of day in the same general time period.
"I've been writing all year," he notes. "I took a sabbatical from the road, been writing all year, but it’s time [to do it]. Some time this spring, between gettin’ married and takin’ a honeymonn and all that, there’ll be another album."
Lee Roy earned a unique place in country music during the ‘90s with a sound inspired by slide guitar and Texas blues, netting such hits as "On The Road," "Tender Moment," "Love Without Mercy" and "Givin’ Water To A Drowning Man." Lee Roy also wrote Collin Raye’s hit "That’s My Story."