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Singer, songwriter, fiddler, bandleader, music publisher, show-business booster, Roy Acuff was the "King of Country Music" for over 50 years, and continued to perform regularly at the Grand Ole Opry until shortly before his death at the age of 89.
As a teenager he suffered a sunstroke, which prevented him from realizing his ambition to play pro baseball. He took up the fiddle and later joined a traveling medicine show that was passing through his Tennessee mountain hometown - only after he had been assured that he'd work only after sundown. In medicine and tent shows traversing the South he perfected an act that included old-time string-band music, hymns, a few popular contemporary songs, and comedy routines (he was known for the yo-yo he played with onstage). In 1933 he formed the Tennessee Crackerjacks, with whom he performed on Knoxville radio. The next year, the group became the Crazy Tennesseans, and in 1936 they began recording . That same year Acuff recorded his two best known hits, "Great Speckled Bird" (a million-selling record in 1943) and "Wabash Cannonball."
In 1938 he changed the group's name to the Smoky Mountain Boys. Acuff and the Boys began appearing regularly at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, and Acuff became one of the Opry's first solo stars. His dry, high-pitched voice became familiar on such hits as "Night Train to Memphis," "Fire Ball Mail," and "Wreck on the Highway." His career sales total exceeds 25 million records. He also appeared in several feature films through the '40s, including The Grand Ole Opry.
In 1942 Acuff formed the Acuff-Rose Music Publishing Company with songwriter Fred Rose. Though Acuff continued to record, his success as a music publisher eclipsed that of his later recording career. Acuff-Rose eventually became one of the biggest country music publishing companies in the world, and in the process Acuff and Rose were mentors to many of Nashville's most successful songwriters and performers (Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, Boudleaux Bryant, and others). Such was Acuff's popularity and influence that in 1944 and 1948 he ran for the governorship of Tennessee. He continued to appear at the Opry and traveled the world to entertain troops during both World War II and the Vietnam War.
In 1962 he became the first living musician elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Among his many honors were the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1987) and the National Medal of Art and the Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award (both 1991). He recorded his last single in 1974. In 1971 his version of "I Saw the Light" from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken became his last charting single. In 1983 he moved into a home that was especially constructed for him on the grounds of the Opryland USA amusement park. He died of congestive heart failure.
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