{"id":47009,"date":"2026-11-02T11:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=47009"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:20:32","slug":"musicflow-3d8f64780e792a2ce8a9238070558beb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=47009","title":{"rendered":"Why Bobby Bare Drew a Line After His Son\u2019s Hit Duet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bobby Bare Jr. was five years old when he recorded \u201cDaddy What If\u201d beside his father. The song, written by Shel Silverstein as a conversation between a boy and his father, kept the child\u2019s unpolished voice at its center. Released on Bare\u2019s 1973 album Lullabys, Legends and Lies<\/em>, it climbed to No. 2 on the country chart.<\/p>\n

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The success brought the Bare family further into the spotlight. On Singin\u2019 in the Kitchen<\/em>, Bobby Bare\u2019s wife, Jeannie, and their children\u2014Cari, Shannon and Bobby Jr.\u2014joined in on a collection largely built around Silverstein\u2019s songs. The album\u2019s conversational feel reflected a family making music together, and the Bares toured with it for a summer.<\/p>\n

For Bobby Jr., performing alongside his father was appealing. He later recalled wanting to be onstage because that was where his father was. But the family\u2019s brief run as a performing act raised a question: would music remain a shared activity, or become a job for a child?<\/p>\n

The question became more pointed after the children appeared on Hee Haw<\/em>. They contributed the witch\u2019s scream heard in \u201cMarie Laveau,\u201d another Silverstein song from the album. The program wanted to hire Bobby Jr. Bare declined the offer. He later said he wanted his children to have a childhood rather than be drawn into professional entertainment.<\/p>\n

Bobby Jr. also recalled that his parents worried early success could bring a child unnatural attention and leave him feeling finished before his teens. The decision had personal context for his father. Bare\u2019s mother died in 1941, when he was five, and his father could not care for all three children. The siblings were separated among relatives and other households. Bare later worked on farms and in factories before building a career in country music.<\/p>\n

His son was not kept away from music. The Bare household welcomed songwriters, including Silverstein, and Bobby Jr. later described songwriting as the family\u2019s highest calling. When the summer tour ended, the children returned to school rather than continuing as a family act.<\/p>\n

Bobby Jr. eventually chose his own musical direction, playing rock clubs and making original music distinct from his father\u2019s country career. Their roles shifted in 2005, when the younger Bare produced The Moon Was Blue<\/em> for his father. The boy who once sang beside him was now helping shape a record from the control room\u2014a collaboration made possible, in part, by the space each had been allowed to occupy.<\/p>\n