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Show scheduled for Oct. 24 at Conference Center

Longtime country singer John Conlee will be bringing his chart topping hits like “Common Man,” “Friday Night Blues” and of course the iconic “Rose Colored Glasses” to the Manchester Coffee County Conference Center Thursday Oct. 24.

The show is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with tickets ranging from $42 to $50.

While the Kentucky native scored his first number 1 album with 1978’s “Rose Colored Glasses,” Conlee still enjoys performing the 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 78 years old, Conlee still keeps a busy tour schedule of live performances.

“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, but also likes to give the audience an opportunity to ask questions.

“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 initially moved to Tennessee when he got a job at a Nashville radio station in 1971, but he didn’t have plans to pursue a music career at that time.

“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.”

For more information about the John Conlee show scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 24 at The Manchester Coffee County Conference Center or to purchase tickets, visit www.onfireconcerts.com.