Click here to see The Music Barn's selection of Roy Acuff recordings for sale
When Roy Claxton Acuff was born in that little three room house in Maynardville, Tennessee, no one had any idea what would become of him. It is doubtful that on that morning of September 15, 1903, anyone would even dream that he was destined for greatness, a world-wide statesman of and for country music.
Acuff’s first love was sports -- in particular, baseball. He earned over a dozen varsity letters while attending high school in Fountain City after the family moved there. After high school, he went on to play minor league ball and was being scouted for a tryout with the New York Yankees. We may have known him for his greatness on the baseball diamond, with his name listed along with those of Gherig, Ruth, DiMaggio and such but for a severe sunstroke suffered while vacationing in Florida. He was essentially bedridden for the better part of two years, recovering from its debilitating effects. During that time, he passed the hours listening to music (particularly fiddle tunes) and learning to play his father’s fiddle. With all that time to practice, he got pretty good at it.
Once he started feeling better, he desperately wanted something to do and to get out of the house. An opportunity arose for him to join up with a traveling medicine show so he packed up the fiddle and went out on the circuit with Doc Hare’s troupe. It was to be, as I said, something to do – a year to enjoy himself before really getting serious about making a living. But by the season’s end, in 1932, he had formed a band called The Crazy Tennesseans and his fate had been cast. He was officially in show biz. He and the band did a regular spot on a radio show out of Knoxville and they traveled the area playing dates. Of course, this was during the depression and the money was a little on the thin side. He dreamed of playing a gig where the gate would break the hundred dollar mark. Little did he know then that, scarcely ten years later he’d be pulling in better than $200,000 a year! Any of you who were around in the 40's know that 200 grand wasn’t really a small fortune in those days – it was huge!
In 1936, Roy Acuff made his first recording, "The Great Speckled Bird." By now the band’s name had changed to The Tennessee Crackerjacks and already included the distinctive sound of the Dobro guitar. At the time, it was being played by Clell Summey but later on, came the man we know and love as Brother Oswald (Pete Kirby). Also during this early session with ARC records (later to become Columbia) he recorded what was to become one of his greatest classics, "The Wabash Cannonball." That same year, he made another momentous beginning. He married Mildred Douglas.
A couple years later, Roy was asked to do a fill-in and thus, an audition, on the Grand Ole Opry. He had been experimenting with the vocal stylings of popular singers like Crosby and Sinatra and he performed "The Great Speckled Bird" in his new "crooning" style. Well, that just didn’t fly on the Opry show and, to top it off, he was so nervous he didn’t play the fiddle very well either. He figured that was that for the Opry but a while later, when the Opry needed another fill-in, one of his supporters campaigned for him and he was asked to give it another shot. This time he did the song in the down home hillbilly style that he (and the audience) was used to. He was a rollicking success and the mail started pouring in to WSM asking that he be on the show again. He became a regular and before long, topped Uncle Dave Macon as the Opry’s most venerated performer. He did manage to successfully borrow one little wrinkle from Sinatra however. Pop music prior to Sinatra and what was then called Hillbilly music, prior to Roy Acuff, was primarily instrumental. Oh sure, there were lyrics to at least most of the songs and the singer would come in somewhere in the middle of the piece for a verse or two and then the band finished it out. Frank and Roy, each in his own way, turned that tradition around. Now, almost all music, whatever the genre, is mainly vocal, with the band getting, if they’re lucky, a brief instrumental break here and there. Even Bluegrass and Blues, perhaps the last bastions of traditionalism in American music, are primarily vocal and in them and in today’s Country Music, unlike most of today’s Pop and Urban forms, you can still hear and understand the words.
In 1942, Acuff teamed up with Fred Rose and formed the Acuff-Rose Publishing Company. It was the first publisher to devote its catalog entirely to country music and was, for many years, the leading company in the field. One of their early signees was Hank Williams. The story goes that Fred Rose was a little dubious that this lanky Alabama boy had really written all those songs, so he gave him a story line and asked him if he could write a song around it. Rose took Hank’s wife, Audrey to lunch and, while they were gone, Hank wrote "I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You." Needless to say, Rose was convinced and the Acuff-Rose Publishing Company made a gigantic coup in signing Williams.
Roy’s (and the now Smoky Mountain Boys’) records were doing extremely well during the 40's too. Some of his hits during that period were, "Wreck On The Highway," "Fireball Mail," "Night Train To Memphis," "That’s What Makes The Jukebox Play" and "The Precious Jewel." He, at times, even topped the charts over the aforementioned Frank Sinatra, who was widely thought of as the uncontested singing sensation of the day. He was making such an impact and the Opry had gained such nationwide popularity that the Governor of Tennessee complained that Roy Acuff had given Nashville the reputation of the Hillbilly Capitol of the World. Taking exception to that remark, Mr. Roy decided to run for Governor in l944. He was unsuccessful in the primary that year but he tried again in 1948. This time he won the primaries and campaigned for the State of Tennessee’s top job. He got a lot of votes but not enough. Actually, there were (and are) a great many folks who thought he already had the top job in Tennessee, The King of the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1962, Roy was inducted as the first living member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. In ‘82, he was feted with a two-hour TV special celebrating his 50 years in country music and, in a tribute that was piped in from the White House, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed him "the epitome of the American dream." Other awards included the Music City News Living Legend Award in 1983, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, the Music City News Minnie Pearl Award in 1989 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in l997.
He was instrumental in moving the Grand Ole Opry from its downtown location at the Ryman Auditorium to the more modern and spacious Opry hall at Opryland. Of course, first he had to get Opryland built. Of course, Opryland is now but a memory, as it has given way to Opry Mills, but the Opry House still remains and the Grand Ole Opry is still alive and well. At least he didn’t live to see Opryland’s demise. He died on November 23, 1992. While he was alive, he was the "Mayor" of Opryland, strolling the grounds, shaking hands, posing for pictures and signing autographs – generally, being the ambassador of country music he had been since he first picked up his daddy’s fiddle because there wasn’t much else he could do. You see, there is good in everything, even a near deadly sunstroke and out of what most would call an incredible episode of bad luck, came the music sensation, Roy Acuff.
Cal Adams