He was a 12-year-old kid from West Fargo who was having the time of his life backstage at the North Dakota State University Bentson/Bunker Fieldhouse as two big name acts performed. And it got even better thanks, in part, to a skeleton.
The boy: Brian Kramvik. The year: 1964. The big acts: Johnny Cash and the Statler Brothers. The skeleton: name unknown.
Brian, now of Lisbon, N.D., has a band called Raw Sugar. It will be one of the bands entertaining along the Fargo Marathon route May 21.
But this story runs back to 1964, when a family friend, Jack Warner, a disc jockey and the program director for KXGO radio, was going to the fieldhouse to get interviews with the stars and asked Brian if he'd like to go along.
He didn't have to ask twice.
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"Backstage was dark," Brian says. "Guitar cases were lying on the floor, open and empty, looking road worn.
"I went to the wing and stood by the edge of the curtain as the Statler Brothers took the stage.
"As they performed, Johnny Cash appeared backstage. I glanced over at him. He paced back and forth like a caged tiger, all in black, with high-heeled cowboy boots. He kept to himself, deep in thought. I didn't dare stare at him.
"He left out the back door, so I continued to watch the fantastic Statlers.
"All at once, I felt someone right behind me. I looked around. It was Johnny Cash, also watching the show.
"I snapped my head forward, my heart beating wildly, like I was doing something wrong, feeling some kind of fear. It was a moment I'll never forget."
When Cash went onstage to perform, Jack Warner located Cash's brother Tommy and interviewed him, with Brian tagging along.
When the show ended, Jack and Brian headed for a room that was serving as a dressing room. It apparently was a science classroom, because it contained desks and, hanging from a rack, a full skeleton.
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"All of a sudden," Brian says, "wham! In through the door burst the Statler Brothers. They were laughing and loud and cutting up, full of the energy from the stage and the audience. And right behind them came Johnny Cash.
"Jack was doing his best to ask questions of these guys, working with his tape recorder to get something he could use on his radio show, but they were anything but settled down.
"Then one of the Statlers went over to the skeleton and started singing 'Them bones, them bones, them dry bones; the head bone's connected to the neck bone' and so on.
"They all were laughing and joined in, singing in harmony. Then Johnny couldn't resist his turn at the song."
Then Cash began guessing the correct names for all the skeleton's bones.
And all the while, Brian says, "I sat at a desk and no one noticed me. I was in awe. I was 12 years old, not having any idea I was seeing one of the rarest of scenes.
"As I think back on it, I never thought to ask Jack if he got that on tape."
But it's in Brian's memory: Johnny Cash and the Statler Brothers singing "Dry Bones" to a skeleton in Fargo.
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