In 1986 Larry moved back to Nashville where he had been offered a job with Lynn Anderson. That job never materialized, but about a week after arriving in Nashville, Larry was invited to an album listening party at Ricky Skaggs house by his long time friend Barbara Fairchild. There he met Rusty Goodman and songwriter/producer Don Potter. Larry and Don became close friends and later, when Don and producer friend Brent Maher were recording the "Born To Rock" album on Carl Perkins, they cut two songs from Larry Patton Music; one written by Larry and his wife Pamela and one written by Larry and Paul Overstreet. Larry also had the honor of singing harmony with the Jordanaires on that album.

In the first part of 1987 Larry took a house gig as guitar player and front man at a Nashville dive called Hassie's Swanging Country. It was at Hassie's that Larry first met Flying Burrito Brothers guitar player John Beland. The Burritos had taken some time off and John had been playing guitar for Bobby Bare. Bare wasn't working much at the time, so Larry asked John to play guitar at Hassie's. After a few months when Bobby Bare did go back to work he needed a bass player and Larry took the job. That band was Bobby Bare, Larry on bass, John Beland on guitar, Fred Cooper from the Goose Creek Symphony on drums and James Hooker of The Amazing Rhythm Aces on keyboards. Bobby Bare calls Larry the "Greatest Honky Tonk Singer in the World".

In June of 1987 the Flying Burrito Brothers were offered a tour starting in America and ending in France. For this tour they asked Larry to play bass and sing a few songs on the shows. The Burritos at that time were Sneaky Pete Klienow on steel guitar (one of the original members), Gib Guilbeau (Gib had replaced Graham Parsons in 1972) on vocals/fiddle/guitar, John Beland on vocals/ b-bender guitar (John had left the Ricky Nelson band and joined the Burritos in 1980), and Rick Lonow, long time drummer for the Bellamy Brothers. Larry worked the few tours the Burritos did for the next couple of years. He was still working shows with Bobby Bare during this time.  Read on...