Gordon’s first writing heroes were his cousin Peggy Goodin and his late father, Wayne Payne. Peggy wrote, “My Darling Clementine,” and “Take Care of My Little Girl,” both bestsellers and adapted to successful Hollywood films. His father wrote additional verses to gospel songs for the family trio, and kept one very special diary.

As a boy, Gordon marveled at the success of Peggy’s books and movies and often daydreamed about being an author.  “One day, Dad, my sister Sheila, and I were practicing a new song for the trio, we all felt the lyric was too short. Dad sat at the kitchen table and in ten or fifteen minutes, wrote another verse to the song. It was the most natural thing for him.”

His dad planted a seed that day that still bears fruit.

Out of high school, Gordon took his musical talent to the hot spots of Tulsa  where he began performing with local legends Don White and JJ Cale. Cale’s bass player, Bill Raffensperger, introduced Gordon to J.I. Allison of The Crickets.  “I am so grateful to those guys. They helped me get my foot in the door.” Over his career, Gordon preformed in live recording bands with Cale and White, Tanya Tucker, Waylon Jennings during the outlaw years, Okie--with Don White and Waylon’s drummer-producer Richie Albright, and spent ten years with The Crickets.

During those years he cultivated his word craft as a songwriter. Artists to record his songs include; Reba McEntire, Rosanne Cash, The Statler Brothers, Linda Davis, Johnny Rodriguez, Joe Stampley and Moe Bandy, Gus Hardin, John Schneider, The Crickets, The Whites, his buddy Waylon Jennings, and others. His solo album of 1978 was comprised of self-written R&B-Country-Rock-n-Roll styled songs. The self-titled A&M Records project, produced by Audie Ashworth and JJ Cale is widely considered ahead of its time.

Gordon spent his last ten years in music from 1985 to 1994, as lead singer-guitarist with his pals J.I. Allison and Joe B. Mauldin of The Crickets. With his wife Pat and sons Jackson and Coleman at home, the road began to take its toll. With twenty-five years in music, millions of road miles, and a wall of gold records to his credit, he left music and found a day gig. Several years later, with the boys grown and gone, and having enjoyed success
in sales as a small business owner, he began to think something was missing.  Then came black February 2002. Starting on the fifteenth with the death of his good friend and mentor, Waylon Jennings, by the end of the month Gordon had also buried his father, Wayne, on the twenty-second, and his father-in-law, Jack Wolcott, on the twenty-eighth.

A month later, hidden away in a lock box, the family found his dad’s World War II
dairy.  “Dad would never talk about the war, and after we read his account of it, we
knew why. That little book is the most inspirational piece I’ve ever read, and I
haven’t stopped writing stories since.”

Gordon now follows in the footsteps of his other wordsmith hero, Peggy Goodin. His first story submission, “The Peppermint Tree,” was accepted for the popular Barnes & Noble – WordWright.biz anthology, “Noble Generation Volume II.” “Long Road to Texas,” the hair-raising story of his move from Nashville, is featured in the January-February 2005 issue of “Guidepost Magazine’s” “Angels on Earth.”

Rice University Literary Professor Jacqueline Simon said, “All those years of  songwriting gave Gordon a unique prospective on the sound of words and dialog. His characters are real and they come alive on the page.”  He has recently finished his third book of fiction. His first manuscript is in the final editing stages and scheduled for publication later this year. Gordon is finally writing again, and somewhere Wayne Payne and Peggy Goodin are smiling.