Hello Every One. I am proud to say I was inducted into the Country Music Association of Texas Hall of Fame February 17th. Such an honor.

Standing Ovation for Rick Phillips for having the "Panther Hall" site. I would have to write a book to tell you every thing. Some of the best years of my life were at Panther Hall. I spent many a day hanging around with Corky and Bill. They set me up with the "Loft" and the Annex across the street. I became part owner of Panther Hall because of them taking such an interest in me. I'm for ever grateful to them. I opened the show with my band and then Bill Mack would come on stage and introduce the special guest. Some like Hank Thompson had their own band but most booked in as a single with my band backing them. Because of that I played with a host of big names. Most any name you can think of during that time crossed our stage. Loads of great memories not to mention friends.

I would really like to hear from any of you. Please write to me at pat@patgrogan.com

By CAROL MUNROE : Aransas Pass Progress
Aransas Pass has a world class musician keeping the Opry alive and well in this area. Resident Pat Grogan, a self described "side man" for such greats as Tex Ritter and Charley Pride, has performed with the South Texas Opry for 16 years.
The band appears at the Al Amin Shrine at 7:30 p.m. the third Thursday of each month to raise money for sick and injured children. The Al Amin Shrine Center is located at 2001 Suntide Road, (off exit 7 of Hwy 37) in Corpus Christi. The doors open at 6 p.m. and the cost is $4 per person, a real deal for an evening of toe-tapping country and swing music and hearty laughter.
Grogan is as colorful and funny as he is talented on the guitar, fiddle and other stringed instruments as well as keyboards. He rattles off story after story of off-stage antics of George Jones and other well known names. He deadpans anecdotes of his native Texas family with a twinkle in his eye, and you have to laugh even though you suspect you're being had.
Beginning at the age of 14, he's played with and for the best, including Ray Price, "Honky-Tonk Hero" Webb Pierce and Dolly Parton. "I was in the staff band. They didn't have traveling bands back then. I remember Dolly when she was just starting, before she was a blonde."
He started in the business in 1952 on KZTV Channel 10, and played with Elvis Presley in Corpus Christi in 1957.
He toured with Willie Nelson for three years in the 1960s. "Those were wild times," Grogan remembers with a wide grin, "I didn't drink and I didn't smoke, and a lot of the time I was sort of an early designated driver."
In 1966 he was the opening act at the Cowtown Jamboree, broadcast live from the Panther Hall Ballroom in Fort Worth. He became part owner of Panther Hall, the biggest nightclub in Fort Worth, a precursor to Billy Bob's. Pat owned The Annex across the street from Panther Hall and was the owner of a bar upstairs in Panther Hall called the Loft until 1971-1972.
Bob Wills was on the Cowtown Jamboree many times and Leon McCauliffe did "Steel Guitar Rag." All the major country stars played there, including the great Bill Mack, who would often open with his "Drinking Champagne" blues hit; George Jones, Lawton Williams, and Purty Little Miss Wanda Jackson.
Grogan played in the Desert Rose Band for 10 years and co-wrote "Hello Trouble, Come on In" which Buck Owens recorded. "It's still just as much of a thrill" to hear it on the radio now as it was then, Grogan says.
"We made a good living and had a great time," Grogan recalls.
He retired to South Texas and taught for 20 years at Clauson's Music in Corpus Christi. Then, as now, one of his passions was to find and develop young talent.
He's justifiably proud of his students. Zack Childs, a protegé for seven years, now plays with Brad Paisley, partly because "he did just what I told him to do, " Grogan says.
Current young talent Grogan is working with include 19-year-old Ashley Cudd and 15-year-old Jo Marie Prukop. Each have appeared with Don Bodine's South Texas Opry to gain experience performing before a crowd.
Grogan has a state-of the-art sound studio in his home, and still composes. Hopefully he'll pen some of the humorous stories he so loves to tell onstage during "The Pat Grogan Show"  part of the South Texas Opry, and the even livelier ones he tells off-stage.