Shankar Vedantam

It was Steve's father, Ted, who really knew Riley.

Ted was a retired insurance agent and former Porterville mayor.

Steve says his dad and Riley bonded over a shared love of music.

They would just sit and listen to country western music, the old country western music, not the new stuff.

They were friends.

They were also business partners.

They wrote songs together.

They recorded a few songs together.

Mainly, though, they worked on Riley's encyclopedia.

Ted saw the genius in it.

They spent hours and hours and hours just collecting all the material and then categorizing it.

Steve says Riley was still consumed by the project.

Well, he had music spread all over.

I mean, he had tables and chairs and floor and everything, and he'd have this music spread out, and he was trying to get it in some sort of a...

chronological order and by the artist.

He was trying to get the artist with the song, and he would have the song, and then he would have the artist.

And so he would try to cross-reference all of those.

So it was a labor of love, I'll tell you that.

But he was...

He just, no, I haven't got time for that.