delivery truck for a dry cleaning company. Without his license he could not drive the truck, so he lost his job. At home with time on his hands, he played guitar, worked out arrangements, and began writing songs. Linde played in a band with St. Louis bandleader Bob Kuban who saw promise in Linde's songwriting abilities, and suggested he explore songwriting in Nashville. Linde visited there several times and pitched his songs to Bob Beckham, the CEO of Combine Music Publishing. In those days, writers from out of town sometimes stayed at Beckham's home. On one of his several visits, Linde caught the eye of Beckham's daughter Pam, who happened to be home from college. A romance was struck and Linde made the move to Nashville in 1969 to work for Combine. Love blossomed and the two were married in 1970. They subsequently had three children, Lisa, Will and Katie. Career Linde found a perfect fit at Combine— it allowed him to flourish alongside writers and artists like Dolly Parton and Mickey Newbury. Linde said, "Bob Beckham's building at Combine was a rickety old two-story place, and Kris [Kristofferson] lived in an upstairs room next door. I just had never run into so many talented people". His first hit about feeling alienated from the cultural and political polarization of the late 60s was "Where Have All the Average People Gone" recorded by Roger Miller. The song peaked at #14 on the Country Charts in December 1969. After writing for Combine for about a year, his first major hit was "Long Texas Road" recorded by Roy Drusky. That same year, 1970, Roger Miller recorded Linde's "Tom Green County Fair". The following year, he wrote "Burning Love" which became a worldwide hit when it was recorded by Elvis Presley. The song was written, Linde said, "on a lark". He had just bought a set of drums and was putting a drum track on tape at his home studio, sort of learning to play them, and the words and melody came to him. He then overdubbed the other instruments and vocals on his four-track machine (he played and sang all parts) and created a demo of the song. He completed it in 20 minutes. He credits the inspiration in part to the fact that he was a newlywed at the time and said " 'Burning Love' was a great newlywed title". The first