How many times have you heard that expression? Now, I don't mean just in general terms but in Southern Gospel music. If you've spent much time visiting with groups at concerts, you've probably heard it many, many times.

I'm no different. I've heard that said so many times I stopped counting years ago. But not long ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of Southern Gospel's living legends. Because I don't want him to get bombarded with questions as a result of this diary entry, I'm not going to share his name - but if you will think of all the people who are still on the road today after getting the professional start in the 1950s, you can start narrowing it down fairly quickly. After he reads this - and if gives me the okay - I'll give you his name.

As we sat in the back of a south Georgia auditorium during sound check, I went out on a limb and point-blank asked him: "What were the crowds like during the hey days of Gospel Music?"

He thought for a minute and then wistfully said, "I'm not sure there were any hey days."

Hold the phone, stop presses and shut down the flights. Houston, we have a problem.

With just one sentence, this man may have erased a lot of notions I - along with many others - had about the past of Southern Gospel music.

He started clarifying his answer after some prodding from me. I specifically asked about concert attendence of days gone by. He said, that on average, most concert crowds were about what they were today. This needs an explanation.

He went to say that most people, when they think about huge crowds, tend to only think about the 20,000 that showed up at Bonifay. Or, the huge crowds that came into auditoriums in places like Long Beach. Or, the monthly all-nighters in Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, etc.

Then he dropped the bomb..."There were probably 30 to 40 dates a year like that. But we worked about 250 dates a year. So, guess what the other 200 or so dates were like."

He smiled and said, "Just about like most of our dates today. We'd work high school gyms and draw 300-500 people if it was just us on the program. Or, if there were two or three groups on the bill, we might have 800 to 1,000.

"Now, if it was one of those all-nighters or something like Bonifay, then the numbers would go up. But all in all, concert attendence then was not much different from today."

Naturally, the next question I had was "What's changed?"

He came back with a response that basically said "nothing really, just that there are no 'Mega-Concerts' (those are my words, not his) any longer."

He went on to say that throughout the five decades he's been on the road, he's seen spikes and dips in attendence numbers on a regular basis. He surmised that a lot of it was based on two basic things: good radio/TV coverage and the economy. When both were good, attendence was good. When both were bad, attendence was down.

So what did opinion did he have for the future?

That's for the next diary entry.