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Legendary country singer John Conlee is all set to bring his chart topping hits like “Rose Colored Glasses” and “Common Man” to McMinnville for an evening of live music at The Park Theater Thursday, April 6 presented by On Fire Concerts.

It has been 45 years since Conlee scored his first number 1 album with 1978’s “Rose Colored Glasses,” but he still enjoys singing the iconic song.

“Not only that one, but all of the rest of the hits we have had that people have blessed us with,” Conlee said in a phone interview.

Now 76 years old, the Kentucky native said he still enjoys hitting the road and performing his music for his fans.

“I still love doing the shows,” he said. “My voice has held up, and that is a key to how long I will continue to do this. I am blessed. Some people say my voice sounds better now than it did several years ago. As long as that’s true and as long as it is fun to do I think that is what I am supposed to do, so I will.”

Conlee said he tries to focus on his hits during his live shows.

“Hopefully everybody’s favorite will pop up along the way,” he said. “Then we mix in a little bit of new music including some gospel.”

Conlee said he also likes to open the floor for questions from the audience and will be signing autographs after the show.

Conlee will be joined by Sarah Simmons for the show, which was rescheduled from last September.

A Kentucky native, Conlee said he initially did not have any plans to pursue a career in music when he first moved to Nashville.

“I moved to Nashville because I got a job at a radio station here back in 1971,” he said. “After I had been here a little while at the station I got to meet some of the people on Music Row and that evolved over a period of two or three years into an offer to record and that worked out a couple of years later into the first hit record.”

To date, Conlee has released 11 studio albums, released 32 singles that charted and scored seven number 1 hit songs.

Conlee said he has always tried to make music that would appeal to the common man.

“As one of my songs says, I am a “Common Man,” he said. “If I can relate to the subject matter at hand then I figure a good number of folks ought to be able to as well.”

When it comes to deciding what songs to record, Conlee said he always tried to stick to songs he personally believed in.

“I was always picky about choosing the songs to record,” Conlee said. “I only went to the studio with songs that touched my heart in some way, so I am not tired of doing any of them really.”

Conlee said he was a teenager before he started attending live concerts, and his earliest musical influences were from the church he attended with his family in Kentucky.

“Music was always my hobby,” he said. “When I was 8 or 9 years old I started taking guitar lessons on the weekend and never learned the instrument that well, but when I learned a handful of chords to accompany myself I would sing and play the guitar for that purpose.”

Conlee is still actively recording new music, and has a gospel project in the works he said is nearing completion.

“I am excited about it and the reason is… when people read the news it is easy to recognize that we are in terrible shape in our world,” Conlee said. “I believe it to be a spiritual problem first, and anything I can do to call attention to that and maybe help encourage folks to point themselves in the right direction…because I think that is the only way that fixes what ails our world.”

For more information about the John Conlee and Sarah Simmons show scheduled for Thursday, April 6 at The Park Theater or to purchase tickets, visit www.onfireconcerts.com.