The genius of Dennis Linde. Even if you’re not familiar with the hit songwriter Dennis Linde, you no doubt know his work. Linde was the mastermind behind many country hits of the ’90s, from “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” by Mark Chesnutt to Joe Diffie’s classic “John Deere Green.” But his catalog actually goes back quite a bit farther: Linde had his first major hit in the 1960s, and wrote the biggest song of his career when Elvis Presley record “Burning Love” back in 1972. Over his nearly five decade career, Linde managed to produce hits like “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” which was originally recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys before becoming a massive song for Garth Brooks, “Janie Baker’s Love Slave” by Shenandoah, and several hit songs for Roger Miller. But one thing that was unique about Linde was the world he created in his songs. In fact, Linde was so committed to the world that he created that he also kept a map in his home that showed the “locations” he included in his songs, things like the water tower that Billy Bob painted in “John Deere Green,” explaining that he had to have some way to keep up with the people he wrote about in his songs. And that’s why several recurring characters pop up in Linde’s songs. One of the most famous characters is a guy named Earl. We don’t know a ton about him, but we know from Sammy Kershaw’s hit “Queen of My Double Wide Trailer” that he rebuilds engines and he’s “the Charlie Daniels of the torque wrench.” The next time we hear about Earl is, of course, when he meets his untimely death in “Goodbye Earl” by the Dixie Chicks (now just known as The Chicks) at the hands of two best friends named Mary Ann and Wanda, who was being abused by Earl after getting married. But did you know that Earl isn’t the only character from the song that Linde had already introduced in his songwriting? In fact, by the time they fed Earl those black-eyed peas, we had already met both Mary Ann and Wanda in previous songs written by Linde. Mary Ann was the title character in a song first recorded by country duo Brother Phelps back in 1993 called “Mary Ann Is A Pistol.” In the song, we learn that Mary Ann is a tomboy who could get the attention of all the men in town – but even back then, she didn’t put up with any nonsense from the guys: “You might drink a few, and shoot some pool with her On a Friday night Don’t you put no moves on her, buddy She’ll punch out your lights” Wanda, on the other hand, first appeared in the 1994 song “Junior’s In Love” by Joe Diffie, which was released on his Third Rock From The Sun album. There, we learn that Wanda is dating a guy named Shorty (apparently before she found Earl – or maybe that was just his nickname), but another guy in town named Junior is more than a little obsessed with her – and basically kidnaps her from her front porch after tying up Shorty and throwing him in his truck bed. “Wanda walked down the front steps and said ‘I hate to break up the party But I’ve got to get to work by 5 Would you run me over there, Shorty?’ That’s when Junior turned bright red and said ‘I’m taking her to the diner’ And he threw Shorty in the truck bed With a busted nose and a shiner” Sounds like Wanda really knew how to pick ’em…and Junior wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. Well with all that backstory we know what happened from there: Wanda ends up marrying Earl, he’s a real piece of sh**, and gets what’s coming to him thanks to Mary Ann and Wanda. And it’s all thanks to the genius of Dennis Linde. “Mary Ann Is A Pistol” “Junior’s In Love” “Goodbye Earl” The post Did You Know That Mary Ann, Wanda & Earl From “Goodbye Earl” Are All Characters From Other Country Songs? first appeared on Whiskey Riff.