Roy Acuff - Biography
By J Poet
Roy Acuff – The King of Country Music – lived up to his name with a long and varied career. In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, he was country’s first post-Jimmie Rodgers superstar, sending dozens of 78 rpm singles to the top of the charts. If they’d had gold records back them, he could have built a mansion with his hits. His high, brokenhearted tenor has influenced almost every singer to come in his wake and his band, The Smoky Mountain Boys, was one of the finest ever, combining country, bluegrass, folk and old time music into a smooth sound that defined “hillbilly” music for decades. He also made the Dobro a prominent instrument. In 1942, he started a music publishing house, Acuff-Rose, with songwriter Fred Rose. It became the most successful and profitable Nashville-based publishing house for decades, handling the catalogues of Marty Robbins, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson and Hank Williams, just to name a few. He was one of the first country acts to tour Europe and Asia and was the top performer on the Grand Ole Opry until the late ‘60s. He performed regularly on the program until his death in 1992. He was the first living musician inducted into The Country Music Hall of Fame (1962), has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.
Acuff was born in Maynardville, TN in 1903 and didn’t initially express interest in becoming a musician beyond singing in the church choir. Although he loved listening to his father’s country music records and played fiddle tunes he learned from records and his neighbors, his goal was to be a ballplayer for the New York Yankees. In high school he earned 13 sports letters for baseball, basketball and football and was the star of the school’s drama club. In 1929 he was boxing and playing on minor league teams when he had a nervous breakdown following severe sunstroke.
It took almost three years to regain his health and during that time he began concentrating on playing his father’s fiddle; playing along with records by Gid Tanner & The Skillet Lickers and Fiddlin’ John Carson. In 1932, Dr. Hauer’s Medicine Show hired him as a fiddler/actor/pitchman, where he learned how to win over a crowd. In late 1932, he put together his first band, The Tennessee Crackerjacks. They soon landed regular gigs at two radio stations in Knoxville, WNOX and WROL. Thanks to their radio appearances they became the most popular band in Tennessee. In 1936, they made their first records for the American Record Company including “Great Speckled Bird,” (a surrealistic Gospel tune) and “The Wabash Cannonball.”
Acuff, like all country musicians, dreamed about appearing on the Grand Ole Opry, but his audition letters went unanswered. Then in 1938, Fiddling Arthur Smith—the show’s reigning star—quit, allowing Acuff and his band (now called The Crazy Tennesseans) were called in to replace him with almost no notice. They did “Great Speckled Bird” and in the weeks that followed the Opry mailroom was flooded with letters demanding a return engagement. “Great Speckled Bird” rocketed up the charts as did its follow-up, “Wabash Cannonball.” In 1939 the Opry suggested Acuff rename his band The Smoky Mountain Boys and that name stayed with him the rest of his life. In October of 1939, the NBC radio network picked up portions of Grand Ole Opry for national broadcast with Acuff the featured performer.
Columbia Records signed him in 1940 and the hits kept rolling, including “Wreck on the Highway” and “Fireball Mail” in 1942 and “Night Train to Memphis,” “Low and Lonely” and “Pins and Needles (in My Heart)” in 1943. These early records have been anthologized countless times: The Essential Roy Acuff (2004-Sony Legacy) is a good single CD collection. In 1942, he started the music publishing house Acuff-Rose with songwriter Fred Rose. The royalties they collected made both Acuff and Rose very wealthy. In the 1940s, he also appeared in films and ran for Republican governor of Tennessee.
By the late ‘40s, the rise of honky tonk music dampened Acuff’s record sales, but he still had hits. Some of them were pop crossovers, including “The Prodigal Son” and “I'll Forgive You, But I Can't Forget.” Between 1947 and 1958, he didn’t have any best sellers but he toured constantly. He headlined an Opry tour that played U.S. military bases in Europe in 1949 and did tours of Alaska, Korea, Japan, the Caribbean, Australia, and Europe as well.
In the ‘50s, his record sales continued dropping. Still, he made records for Capitol, Decca and MGM including Voice of Roy Acuff (1965-Capital), Hymn Time (1962-MGM) and Smoky Mountain Boys (1965-MGM). In 1957, he started recording for Hickory Records, a label he owned with Fred Rose and Wesley Rose. The albums often recycled his most famous hits but were solid offerings. Other highlights include Once More It’s Roy Acuff/King of Country Music (2004-Ace UK) (which packages his first two Hickory albums), Roy Acuff Sings American Folk Sings (1963-Hickory), Great Train Songs (1965-Hickory/2006-Varese), Roy Acuff Sings Hank Williams (1958-Hickory/2006-Varese).
After a car accident in 1965, he left the road completely except for select appearances in 1970. Participating in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s sessions for Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972-United Artists) introduced him to a new generation of both country music fans and rockers. His next album, Back in the Country (1974-Hickory), charted and spawned two hit singles, the title track and “Old Time Sunshine Song.” He continued appearing on the Grand Ole Opry almost until his death in 1992.