Roy Acuff

Roy Acuff

        For this week’s Country Music Great I have chosen Roy Acuff. Acuff originally did not want to become an entertainer. He was going to try out for a Major League baseball team but never made it because he had sunstroke while on a fishing trip. During recovery, he decided that baseball was out of the question. That is when he decided to learn to play the fiddle and to sing. He started out being an assistant on a medicine man show. There he traveled around but never got his big break until he started to perform the old gospel song "The Great Speckled Bird." After many performances of this song, Acuff was asked to record the song with ARC, who distributes records nationally. During this recording session, he also recorded one of his most famous songs, the "Wabash Cannonball."

This made his career take off. The Grand Ole Opry asked him to perform in 1938 and he did such a wonderful job that they asked him to be on their list of full-time performers. He stayed on at the Opry for many years. In 1942, he started his own music publishing company with another songwriter, Fred Rose. During the 1950s, he focused on touring and did not come out with any big hits but in 1962, he was the first living person to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Afterwards he continued to tour but by the end of the 1960s, he decided to quit touring and just work at the Grand Ole Opry.  There he stayed until the 1980s, when he decided to quit because his health was getting the better of him. He did though buy a house near the Grand Ole Opry so that he could still see his friends and the fans. Then in 1992 he died from heart failure, leaving behind a huge legacy.