Vicki Abelson's Broadcast: The Road Taken

It’s always a warm delicious treat to sit down with James Lee Stanley. There’s a reason he’s opened for everyone from Bonnie Raitt, Art Garfunkle, Bill Cosby (before we knew), Robin Williams, Dionne Warwick, Robin Trower, and Steven Wright for 3 years. His 50+ years of friendship and musical partnership with Peter Tork were covered from start till two days before Peter’s passing when he was felled by rare cancer under his tongue. Shockingly, James survived his own bout of tongue cancer months later, when his beloved wife Evelina suggested an endoscopy, without cause. James was back performing mere months later. Last September, days after sitting down with us here, James fell off his roof, for the first time not under the watchful eye of his Evelina, broke his back, was airlifted for surgery, took no pain meds, and did a concert two weeks after surgery. This is a substance- sans substances. James treated us to a solo rendition of All I Ever Wanted, one of the many songs he and Peter recorded together. Just