Roy Clark Biography
Roy Linwood Clark, 15 April 1933, Meherrin, Virginia, USA. When he was 11, the family moved to Washington DC after his father, a competent musician who played guitar, banjo and fiddle, progressed from being a cotton picker to become a computer programmer, and augmented his pay for the government job by playing at local dances (his mother also played piano). Clark played banjo and mandolin at an early age and was playing guitar at dances with his father by the time he was 14. He won the National Banjo Championship at the ages of 16 and 17, the latter occasion resulting in an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. He considered a baseball career in his late teens but at 18 became a professional boxer. Fighting as a light-heavyweight, he won 15 fights in a row before the next fight convinced him he should look elsewhere for a living. He found work in clubs and appeared on local radio and television in such shows as theOzark Jubilee andTown And Country Time. In 1955, he joined Jimmy Dean on his Washington television show Country Style, and when Dean left for New York, Clark was given the show. He played instruments, joked and sang and gradually built himself a reputation, but in the early 60s, he decided to seek fame further afield and became lead guitarist and frontman for Wanda Jackson. He stayed with her for about a year and played lead guitar on her hit recording of ‘Let’s Have A Party’. When she gave up her band, Jim Halsey took on the role of Clark’s manager and soon found him a spot on one of the most popular network television shows, The Beverly Hillbillies. Here he appeared in the dual role of Cousin Roy and (dressed as a woman) his mother Big Mama Halsey. He also signed for Capitol Records and released his first album, which contained both songs and instrumentals. In 1963, he was given the chance to play on theTonight Show on television, owing to the fact that Jimmy Dean was hosting the programme. This led to further invitations to appear on other top television shows and his popularity rapidly grew. In later years he hosted many of the shows personally. He achieved his first chart success in 1963, when his version of Bill Anderson’s ‘The Tips Of My Fingers’ made both the US country and pop charts. He left Capitol Records, joining Dot Records in 1967. During the 60s, somewhat ironically, he had country hits with pop songs, when further double chart successes included Charles Aznavour’s ‘Yesterday When I Was Young’ and ‘September Song’. During the mid-60s, he fronted theSwingin’ Country television series and in 1969, CBS invited him to co-host their new country comedy show Hee Haw with Buck Owens. This programme became one of the most popular on television, so much so that when CBS dropped it in 1971 because they felt it did not create the right impression for the company, it was immediately syndicated by the show’s producers and even grew in popularity. During the 70s, Clark had a great number of country chart hits, including the very humorous ‘Thank God And Greyhound’, ‘Riders In The Sky’, ‘Somewhere Between Love And Tomorrow’ and ‘Come Live With Me’, his only number 1 US country hit. He also made several popular television commercials. Clark progressed to become one of country music’s biggest stars and to enable himself to keep up a punishing schedule of concert appearances, he learned to fly and piloted himself around the States. He was one of the first country artists to star in his own show on Las Vegas strip, where he still appears regularly, usually backed by an orchestra. Clark also became the first star to take his show to the Soviet Union, when in January 1976, he played to packed houses during a 21-day tour of Riga, Moscow and Leningrad. The same year, Clark also played concerts with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 1977, he appeared at Carnegie Hall, New York, and in 1979, he recorded an album with blues artist Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. Between 1979 and 1981, he recorded for MCA but during the late 80s, he was with several labels. Although he had no major hits, a version of ‘Night Life’ registered country hit number 50 for him in 1986. In later years, he become involved in cattle ranching, publishing, advertising and property. During his career, he has won many CMA awards including Comedian Of The Year 1970, Entertainer Of The Year 1973, Instrumental Group Of The Year (with Buck Trent) in 1975 and 1976 and was nominated as Instrumentalist Of The Year every year from 1967 to 1980, winning in 1977, 1978 and 1980. He guested on theOpry many times over the years but did not become a member until 1987. He has appeared in several films and in 1986, he co-starred with Mel Tillis in a comedy western calledUphill All The Way, which they both also produced. Clark is a talented multi-instrumentalist and all-round entertainer, who is equally at home with various types of music.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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