TOM NEtHERLAND Special to The Herald Courier

New York Yankee Mickey Mantle was still swinging for the fences when in 1965 lanky Alabaman William Lee Golden joined famed gospel quartet the Oak Ridge Boys.

Much has since changed. Yet 60 years and generations of Yankee sluggers later, William Lee Golden still sings across the country as the baritone singer of the Oak Ridge Boys. Country Music Hall of Fame members, the Oaks return to Paramount Bristol in downtown Bristol, Tennessee, on Saturday, Sept. 6.

“Man, the Oak Ridge Boys have always loved coming to Bristol,” Golden said by phone from his childhood home in Brewton, Alabama. “We’ll do the songs you know from us and we’re doing about three or four gospel songs, too.”

Days earlier, Golden, 86, sat at home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

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