Everything about Roy Acuff totally explained
Roy Claxton Acuff (
15 September 1903 –
23 November 1992) was an
American country musician known around the world as the "King of Country Music".
Early life
He was born in
Maynardville,
Tennessee to Ida Carr and Simon E. Neil Acuff, the third of five children. He played semi-professional
baseball, but a
sunstroke in
1929 and a
nervous breakdown in
1930 ended his aspirations to play for the
New York Yankees.
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Music career
He then turned his attention to his father's fiddle and began playing in a traveling medicine show, often performing in
blackface. He toured the
Southern United States and eventually formed a band called "The Crazy Tennesseans".
In
1936, he recorded his two most enduring songs, the traditional
The Great Speckled Bird and
The Wabash Cannonball. He debuted at the
Grand Ole Opry two years later. He was booked as a fiddler, and he should have played the
Turkey Buzzard for a square dancing segment, but he decided to try and sing The Great Speckled Bird. His decision wasn't well received, however. Acuff became a regular on the Opry, forming a backing band called the
Smoky Mountain Boys, led by friend and
Dobro player
Bashful Brother Oswald. By 1940 he was the star of the show.
Acuff's recording of
The House of the Rising Sun on
November 3 1938 is the first known commercial recording of the song. He released several singles in the
1940s such as
The Wreck on the Highway, Beneath That Lonely Mound of Clay and
The Precious Jewel. During the 1940s he also appeared in six movies.
In 1942, a man of many talents, he formed a music
publishing venture with
Chicago songwriter
Fred Rose.
Acuff-Rose Music became a country music phenomenon, owning huge numbers of copyrights including those by
Marty Robbins,
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and all of the songs of
Hank Williams.
As his record sales declined in the late 40s and 50s, Acuff spent most of his time on the road, becoming one of the hottest tickets in country music. In 1962 he was the first living musician elected to
The Country Music Hall of Fame. By the
1970s Acuff performed almost exclusively with the
Grand Ole Opry, at
Opryland USA, greatly legitimizing it as the top institution in country music. He made one rare appearance at Carlton Haney's Camp Spring Bluegrass Festival in 1971. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.
Political career
Acuff had a brief affair with
politics, losing a run for the office of
Governor of Tennessee as a Republican in 1944 and
1948. Acuff later campaigned in
1970 for his friend
Tex Ritter in his campaign for
GOP nomination for
U.S. Senate in Tennessee.
Trivia
- A popular legend is that Japanese troops during World War II would enter battle yelling, "To hell with Roy Acuff",
- In 1962, Roy Acuff was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. For his contribution to the recording industry, he's a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located on 1541 Vine St.
- Acuff was initiated as an Entered Apprentice at the East Nashville Freemasonry Lodge in 1943, and raised to Master Mason in 1944. He was made a 33rd Degree Mason on 21 October 1985.
- Acuff is thought to be one inspiration for Henry Gibson's character Haven Hamilton in Robert Altman's film Nashville. The fictionalized character was reportedly a composite of several well-known musicians, including Acuff and Hank Snow.
- Acuff on recording: "[A] little secret of my policy in the studio ... [w]henever you once decide that you're going to record a number, put everything you've got into it. Don't say, 'Oh, we'll take it over and do it again' because every time you go through it you lose just a little something ... [l]et's do it the first time and to hell with the rest of them" - on the classic album Will the Circle Be Unbroken.
- U.S. Olympian high jumper Amy Acuff is his distant cousin. Some sources erroneously list her as his daughter.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Roy Acuff'.
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