NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For more than sixty years, one man's built quite the fab tribute to his favorite band.
Richard Courtney is a realtor, author, and show host at Hippie Radio.
"I'm going to get a real job some day!" he laughed.
Let's not forget another title; curator of his in-home Beatles museum.
"I have about 5,114 items," he said. "I've really been collecting since I first heard of the Beatles in 1963."
That happened when a friend's sister put on a record called I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
"It changed my world!" Courtney said.
"Is that your Halloween costume from the 60s?" I asked him, looking over at a costume in a glass case.
"1964, I was in the fourth grade, and I bought this costume," Courtney nodded. "It's called Ben Cooper. This one is what I wore door-to-door in Columbia, Tennessee. It had a John Lennon mask, but it didn't last long. I've since bought originals with each Beatles' face on the masks."
The things in Courtney's museum can tell you the Beatles' story.
"These are the promotional copies of She Loves You that were sent to the DJs in America on Swan Records," Courtney said, holding up records. "This is the promo for when it flopped. When the Beatles hit it, Swan re-released it. It went to number one eventually."
He then held up a brick taken from a place with a famous name.
"Strawberry Field was an orphanage behind John Lennon's Aunt Mimi's house," Courtney explained. "There's a song called Strawberry Fields Forever, but the building was Strawberry Field."
Courtney has stories of meeting people in the Beatles orbit and some Beatles themselves.
A picture of Courtney with Sir Paul McCartney is among the first things you see walking into the museum.
"I really like Here Comes The Sun, it's so positive," Courtney said, reflecting on favorite Beatles songs.
Courtney's lived through some things where the positivity of a great song was especially important.
"I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2021," he said. "Two years later, I had basal cell carcinoma, back of my septum, and they had to amputate my entire nose. It took 15 surgeries to build it back."
Courtney remembers one time, getting back from an especially painful day of his treatments.
"I got home, and there were 300 people in my front yard who sang I Want To Hold Your Hand, All You Need Is Love, and Here Comes The Sun, and that made me feel really good," Courtney said.
Great people and great songs, you can never undervalue in the tough times.
Today cancer-free, Courtney is always sharing stories with anyone drops in.
"I have about three times this much in storage," he said, looking around the in-home museum. "This is the t-shirt Stella McCartney designed for the people who participated in Live Aid."
He's still adding to a grand collection.
"When I retire, I'm going to go find some more!" Courtney said.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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