Have you ever wondered about the offstage world of a professional musician? Every month in this column, bluegrass now will provide a glimpse into the lives of some of your favorite bluegrass stars. To see captions, just move your cursor over the photos! (Thanks so much to David P. Smith for the photos in this installment!)

Ten miles southeast of Nashville, there is a lake with the odd name of Percy Priest. It is considered by many smallmouth bass fishermen to be one of the finest lakes in the state of Tennessee. In an ordinary house on that lake lives an extraordinary man: the legendary Mac Wiseman. He is considered by many music fans to have one of the finest voices in the world of bluegrass.

Mac--who does not like to be called Mr. Wiseman--turned 70 last May, and he's not afraid to admit it. “No, I'm very proud of it! Once you get to this stage, you're just glad that you get another day. I've been in this business 60 years. It's been a wonderful life, doing something I thoroughly enjoy, and hopefully bringing a little pleasure to others, which is the greatest reward.”

Over his long career, Mac has performed or recorded with artists like Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Molly O'Day, the Osborne Brothers, Del McCoury, and Doc Watson. He was a founding member of the Country Music Association. He was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor in 1993. He's recorded over 600 songs!

Mac lives alone, in that ordinary house. “I'm still very active. I have the philosophy that I do everything I can, as long as I can, and so far I do most anything I want to!” His son Scott lives nearby, and Mac's also close to his daughter Maxine, who runs his office and handles bookings.

His home has a fireplace, and he likes to sit in front of it and daydream. He reads history and National Geographic, which he's loved since childhood. He knows his way around the kitchen. “I'm a pretty dang good cook,” Mac says. “I don't know that anybody else would eat it or not, but I whip up some neat things!”

He also listens to music. “I just got the Carter Family box set from Bear Family, which is blowing me away, and the box set with Lester Flatt. Three LPs Lester and I made in the early 1970s are included in that set!” Mac's own first Bear Family box set was released last fall. “It includes everything I recorded for Dot and Capital between 1951 and 1964--six CDs with 164 songs, and an 80-page hardcover book. Really a nice job!”

One of the most incredible products of Mac's long career, besides all that wonderful music, is his photo collection. “I've got filing cabinets full of 'em. I'm toying with the idea of putting out a photograph book. There's so many of places I've been . . .” Mac has performed in all of the 50 states except Hawai`i, but says he isn't likely to travel there. He now performs about 16 dates each year, none further than 500 miles from home.

A Mac Wiseman book of photos would undoubtedly include an image sent to him by country music's Man In Black. “I believe Johnny Cash did his first tour with me back in the 1950s. I was going through these files not too long ago, and ran across a picture he had sent me following that tour. He said, 'Thought maybe you'd like one of these for your files!'”

Johnny didn't live far from Mac, and the two were friends for decades. “I hadn't talked with John maybe in a year or two--just one of those things. But one Sunday in 2001 he called. He sent his driver to pick me up, and I went to his place in the woods. It was a brisk October evening. We had a campfire built. We were sittin' there telling stories. He all of a sudden got quite serious, and said, 'You know how I start my day every day?' Of course, I was very curious. He said, 'I start my day playing your recording of “When It's Reveille Time In Heaven.” That just gave me a chill. He said, 'Would you record that . . . with me?' as though he were hesitant to ask.”

Mac joined Johnny in the studio a few weeks later, and they cut the gospel classic, as well as Johnny's own “I Still Miss Someone.” They decided to record an album together. Less than a month before Johnny died, Mac returned to the little studio in the woods. “Since June's passing, he jumped into recording, I guess, to keep himself active. The record company told him to record anything he'd ever wanted to record that he hadn't! He played a lot of them for me. I was amazed.” Astonishingly, Johnny had recorded over 40 tunes, a huge variety of music that included old Hawaiian songs and cowboy tunes.

He and Mac made a few more, that afternoon. “We sat around his little studio with a small band, and reminisced and did what we wanted to do. I really treasure that.”