Sonny Burgess, Director of Clinical Performing Arts

0:00Welcome to Untold, The Stories of Cook Children's. For Sonny Burgess, music has always been more than a passion. It's a way to connect, to comfort and to heal. After years performing and writing music, Sonny found a different stage inside the halls of Cook Children's. Today, as the director of clinical performing arts, he brings music directly to patients and families, helping children find joy and confidence during some of the hardest moments of their lives. This is Sonny Story. Hello, I'm Sonny Burgess. I'm the director of the clinical performing arts at Cook Children's. That title, it kind of wears many names, but mainly I get to do music with our patients. And sometimes family is sibling. We do different things for the departments and record certain songs that they have to help to promote what they're doing with their department and so at Cook Children's.

1:02But that's basically what I've been doing for the last, been on staff for 15 years. But I volunteer for like 40, I've been like the 1980s going up and singing and doing music with the patients and their families. I was born and raised in Cleveland, Texas, South Foot Worth, about 35 miles or so, and grew up in music. My dad really never played music, but he loved it, loved mainly country music. But my aunt and uncle's all singing and played music and after church on Sunday we'd all go to grandmiles and pick and sing and it was just, I mean I remember those days like they were yesterday and it sounded like a song titled, but anyway. But I grew up playing sports, you know, being in Texas team sports. So I guess I've always had the relationship with a band, you know, it's a team and being in sports so there's, I always said there's no I in band and there's no I in team, you

2:08know. So I've used that throughout my life and I think it's helped and it basically led me where I am today I think and who I am today with getting the opportunity to be at Cook Children's and it's just a dream come true to get to do what I do with the music every day of my life now with the patients. There's a huge difference in just being around music and lacking music and it becoming a part of you and actually I mean I was six years old I knew when it became a part of me. I mean you know we all do things and we don't do it, I've never done it for an ego, but I remember that that girl Karen in second grade I mean I thought she's cute. I actually my mom brings my guitar up there for a Halloween party you know of course in the fall second grade and she actually first time she looked at me I'm singing a Johnny Cash song or something but that was my first I think really besides my family noticing

3:14you know when I did it when I was sung around the home and grandma's house or whatever but that was the first time I noticed and all my peers my classmates all went wow that's neat and so I thought that's pretty cool you know and so right then I started performing I even had a band in the second grade we recall the miniatures but it was it was a blast but that's when I knew that music was more to me than just liking it it was a part of me I mean it became a part of me and again it wasn't an ego it was just it wasn't like look at me it never was that it was just trying to I guess spread some cheer and make people smile and make people happy that's just what it meant to me. I was drawn so much to music that I learned everything I played by ear you know of course on TV they had he hall and different things you'd watch the shows I watched their hands watch man uncles I had an uncle played mandolin and guitars a couple uncle play guitars

4:15and my aunt could sing and but I learned to hear the harmony all that at seven eight years old and I started sing too and and I would play I would play the lead you know and down the road you wonder where it's going to lead you and it kind of led me I got a they called a development deal in the nineties ninety three ninety four with Sony Columbia I was with a management company it actually managed Tim Tim McGraw Joe Diffie I was hanging around those guys kind of watching what they do and and you know I was I guess learning to be an artist and before that all all I wanted to do was play guitar you know I played for you know side me and I played guitar for Dave Brazil and I'd done some stuff with him

5:17and his management actually approached me and said have you ever thought of being a star because he actually recorded one of my songs and and I'd sing four or five songs before he'd come out on stage and I remember when I got through I was sung these three or four songs and I said all right now Dave Brazil's coming out and and I made a big deal about him you know I said man he's just amazing and all this stuff well after the show he said sunny man that's so great that you bragged about me when I came out of stage but don't do that you know you're you're an artist you're your star so act like it don't don't patronize me just introduce me you're on my level you need to act like you're on my and I was like what so that was my first learning experience I mean he chewed on me it was kind of chewed on me for about five or 10 minutes but I would hang around Joe and Diffie I ran Joe a lot we'd play golf and what a singer I mean this

6:19guy oh and he would always tell me this kind of the same thing man come on man you're you're sunny Burgess he'd say you're sunny gall darn Burgess you know come on boy be be that you know or something but but yeah I got to do that and then I guess the best thing that didn't really pan out with the Sony Columbia so I but I got on Charlie Pride's record label after that music city records just me and Charlie and Charlie like me on his label because I was a ball player you know I played baseball in college with double a ball but and he told me that he said you know you're a ball player so that we got that in common and and we sing that's that's what I like and so it really helped me I was in Walmart and you know my CDs and stuff back there and you know that was a big deal in Cleaver in my family and everybody going to my aunt and Uncle's seeing my CD there or in the only counter in Walmart I mean that I felt like I made it I would but still couldn't

7:26pay the light bill but I was in Walmart you know but anyway you know not only getting to play the star row and trying to work on all that but I met so many great people and I met so many great songwriters they teach you so many things and about life I mean the some of this stuff they write I mean it's just unbelievable what they come out with and collaborating with somebody like that one guy carry Kurt Phillips I mean this this guy he was kind of my mentor I would I was sleeping at the publishing house in Nashville and you know and I think they knew I was but nobody say anything about it because everybody leave and go home I had the code and I had had writer rooms upstairs and I'd sleep on the couch I had a coffee pot with hot water I am opening on anyway so one night it was like 12 at midnight I got to write and the songwriter was right with left him I heard somebody open the door and the code and come in and it was carried Kurt and he saw me he said what are you

8:30doing I said wow laying down he goes I'll be right back and I guess he went to the restroom he came back by and said get up so from then on I got to stay I stayed at his house and he had one of those log I mean his mailbox money had been good he had one of those log cabins that he bought from Johnny Cash's family and it was one from the Civil War and he had remodeled it and stuff but it was nice and he worked hard himself to make it look that way but he I stayed with him from then on but he would set me up with songwriters I actually got to write with Dean Dylan one time and you know Dean wrote all those hits for George straight and he was and he told me he said now listen this guy don't be like so and so it came in last week you know I set up writing he said when he gets quiet you get quiet you know because I made it he I was like okay okay it's sure enough man we were writing this song and Kerry Kurt had the title and and Dean got real quiet and

9:34thinking and man he just the whole verse and chorus came out from this guy and it was it was a astonishing I was like he looked at me and I was like I don't know what to say about that you know I mean what I wouldn't go to but you know but you're right you you've got to kind of put something so I came out with a few things and he liked it but you learn from getting to sit with somebody like that and and just from what they've lived doing their trade some of them come out with us on the road you know and spend some time and that's always fun you know and and of course I'd write songs with the band you know we do stuff sometimes and it makes them feel good too to be a part of the production part and and you know creating you know something that we all feel you know proud of yeah I wouldn't take for those days the road and and and songwriting it all goes hand in hand you know it's the small part is the show you know and but all of it together makes makes life

10:41for me it made me who I am in the midst of all the traveling and playing music I'd come home and and I was always drawn to go do some things that for the patients just have to cook children's and this was in the 80s actually I would sing with my guitar like once a month in the atrium and the dixie chicks would come in and it was before Natalie mains with singing it was one of the not one of the sisters but another girl and she was real sweet but Marty would play fiddle one of the sisters and she got to her since I was playing solo she'd play fiddle with me so it was kind of some cool days of getting to do that we ran across each other later in our careers and I believe that you know that all led me to where I am today you know and I met Rick Merrill you know the CEO in like 2006 2007 I was at Cook volunteering and he we started visiting and he said his passion for music you know he you know loved right songs and grew up like I did a lot so we

11:45became friends and and we started writing songs when I was home and so that connection we wrote three years quite a bit of songs and he mentioned to me out of the blue one day I got this vision I love to put a recording studio in our in our hospital at Cook and and so there you go and he asked me about maybe helping with that I actually knew through all the years of some pretty cool players that might help with that and so that's how kind of it all got started thanks to his vision and and music there you go again I mean somebody that loved music and we connected with music you know music had such a powerful way of healing my me through all the years I'd be sick I'd get my guitar out I'd play I still do that to this day if I'm not feeling well I'll do that well I one instance this young man he was eight years old he was fighting the sea of cystic fibrosis

12:47and he'd go in and get tuned up and I got to where I'd go see him and and he would just the nurses would come in he would just be start doing this when I'd play a certain any song he liked a certain song that I had recorded called smack dab I see I can remember that like it was yesterday and he just he just would start doing that and the they they he hasn't been wanting to do anything you know and they love him to move around you know especially when they're getting that tune up and trying to get that their lungs working right but I knew then that was a huge example not only for me I saw it with someone else that maybe that we're going through this really hard time you know medically I knew then this is a huge purpose for me and and so and he ended up he got along transplant and he's doing great God he's probably close to 40 years old now music

13:49has been the universal medicine I've seen it work with these these patients and and I've seen it with all ages you know I mean I I would go to nursing homes and see these you know these older people they just thrive on it and it would help them and make their you know make their day and so with the kids now even now it cook children's doctors come in and say hey hey thank you all for doing music with this patient they're taking less pain you know medication and and many times that happens and they go home they're they get to go home sooner and and a lot of times the patients that we're working with music it may be a distraction you know may we've had a cancer patient come down families you know diagnosed with leukemia and come down to the studio and

14:52start playing the drums and the patient smile and the whole family you can imagine the emotion we have patients that that otherwise would never get introduced to music and these patients some are right in these unbelievable songs positive you wouldn't know that life threatening that they have a terminal disease but they're writing this stuff and it's so positive and so we capture that and we record it and we've we've had a grandmother write write a song about her grandson and and and put music you know she writes words more like a hymn in church and put music to it like the chaplain came and told us this grandmother wrote this wrote this poem and we put music to it and we she sings it and she goes I can sing it yes and you know actually play

15:54it for her grandson her family I think we all forget what music has done for all of our lives you know and what it does healing distraction you know I know sometimes we forget we're driving down the road is the radio and you look up you're there well it's probably because you've been listening the radio and paying attention to great music you know and so I think a lot of people they just do not realize the power of music you know and and all this you know Rick Maryland I have became friends because of music I mean I mean he is you never know when you meet somebody say I write songs you always follow up because you never know there's that's the connection right and had no agenda I never had no idea that we were going to end up where we are today with this studio recording studio and broadcast studio at in the child live zone at cook

17:00children's had no idea that wasn't the plan and for it to happen now full circle to come back to all those years of knowing that yeah this will work I've already I've seen what it does to these these patients already and all over the country and now to get to do it here in footwork Texas wow and spread it's spread now thanks to you know these recording studios there maybe not maybe not as astounding as ours because I mean Rick we did this and right thanks to Garth Brooks and Troy Eggman one of my favorite songs it Rick and I wrote together was it's uh whoo it was uh it's strong it's a uh Joanne Sanders one of our nurses and she had this she know the story about these families these these patients are holding on they're terminal and they're just holding on

18:03for their family for their parents and and she says finally they they take the parents outside the room and say you're just gonna have to tell your child it's okay tell them it's okay and there's your title so you know they'd go back in and tell their child that it's okay so we're gonna be fine you're gonna be okay and and the child would you know pass inevitably in probably five minutes and so Rick and I actually we wrote that it's okay and he said you know we got to watch this this is this can be this can be pretty hard you know and but we wrote it in a positive way where the child the boy passes and he's he's getting to do everything he wanted to do and he's singing it telling it to his family and the girl is doing the perfect pirouette and uh and the boy never strikes out you know and and uh it's home runs I mean you know so

19:09it turns out that they're okay we recorded that that we were actually wrote that song before we finished the studio and everything so we recorded in Nashville good friend virus GFT who had actually ran word record label for a while good friend had helped us and we had Rebecca Lynn Howard who big major artist son the girl part I son guy part that's the only thing it's you know it not up to par but we wrote some songs that we've we've recorded put on they've been on radio and and uh he's got some he's always got some great titles he had one call all about the ride you know it can be rodeo we had tough heat emin on the front of the uh of the cover of the CD and it was the title of the CD and of course all about the ride's same thing with life right he just really a talent you know to to be the CEO and president of our our uh cook children's you know

20:11medical center and and all the vision that he has for the hospital and our patients to be able to sit down with some hillbilly like myself and ride a ride a song he's pretty amazing thanks to uh Rick's vision that the recording studio we've actually had a band in there I mean with a patient singing and uh and of course with a thanks to Raymond Turner our engineer producer he's amazing he's an angel so happy we have him we can build those tracks and everything for these patients and then we've actually had a patient in the vocal booth singing a cancer patient and a cancer patient at the the soundboard but they can come down there and they can just meet in a wonderful music environment and actually became friends and talk about each other you know the strife that they're going through with their their disease you know and we do look

21:12ukulele workshops we uh we actually in the broadcast studio me and one of the music therapists Katie Borland who's I call her singorella she's amazing she can do the Mary Poppins sound a music and then she can do these other recordings and vocals it's amazing boy we we have this thing called impromptunes that uh we have patients text in or call in or we have a studio audience of patients and they give us words like five words six whatever and we'll ride a song create a song on the spot for for that uh with those words and the kids get to be a part of it you know the families patients and why of having all these options for our patients and their families is some of them or introduce the music the first time and they realize wait a minute this isn't so hard I would like to do that you know and so that we put a ukulele in their hand the keyboard in their hand

22:17they they start creating their own music or maybe it is just a distraction maybe it's just something while they're in their room in isolation they have something to help them with the time they're they're having to deal with what they're having to deal with it's probably and it's again these these families they love to talk to you about what what's going on but sometimes the music helps that and not only the music they learn a certain instrument or learn how to ride or distraction but you can see the confidence in the in the child and just on how they communicate I mean they come out of their shell more I mean helps them the parents even have said they they say man our child is just really more open and discussing things that we

23:24we didn't discuss before because of the music and a lot of times the patients they're having a hard time with the diagnosis and they with because we're doing music they'll open up more then they do with their therapist or something you know with their their doctor their nurse I mean we're we're getting feedback from that and you know just the introduction you know the the patients that come into our hospital and we try to make it warm and inviting obviously but when they come in there and then they're introduced to the music to what we can do music especially our music therapist I do not want to ever leave them out they're amazing what they do but we can also give them instrument to to play and perform otherwise they would have never got that opportunity you know I mean and they tell us that oh I've never I've never got to play a ukulele or a guitar

24:28or a piano keyboard so we you know present that to them and a lot of them you can tell they have the gift they they want to enhance and just grow into to music and it and it does it helps them with what they're going through music has it has shaped me and who I am today I mean I go back to where I don't know who I'd be without it I mean it's it it has led me down a road with great memories it's made me a positive person I mean it's made me I don't there's no I don't look at any negative it's just it's all it's all good it's all positive and thanks to that I'm I'm doing where I'm really really supposed to be doing I'm supposed to be at cook childrens and doing this music and it's and to get to spread that kind of love to somebody that may not have ever had the

25:39opportunity to have that it's just I mean it's just I don't know words I can't explain and I'm just so happy to get to do it so I guess what really I hope for our world for just all of us in general I I really hope that everyone can in some form or fashion just let the music take over let the music be a part of you we all need it in our lives basically today in this world so I hope everyone out there will just try to find their voice in music and use it for others and themselves here we go he's ringing in his pickup truck hard way to earn the buck heading off to the rodeo

26:39christler do all the radio broken bombs and all his pain some say he's a little insane behind the shoot where there's rides and rope not his head it's time to ride the road doesn't matter what the price he'll drive all through the night paid his dues still got his fight with all the it's all about the ride he's thrown off but he gets back up some say he's down his love doesn't know the word you feed always lands on his feet he knows every eight second ride gonna ride ride past his pride the twist in turns he's found his life all he wants one more ride

27:46it doesn't matter what the price he'll drive all through the night paid his dues still got his pride with all the it's all about the ride when all the it's all about the ride music has always had the power to bring people together for the patients and families sunny Burgess meets every day it can also bring hope comfort and healing through every song every recording session and every moment shared with the patient sunny is helping children discover the power music and have even in the middle of a hospital stay thank you for listening and we'll see you next time on Untold the Stories of Cook Children's