![]() The Mercery-Starday record went nowhere, but Roger continued to work for them. In October of 1957, he and Jimmy Dean were paired together on the first single of Roger’s career. Roger also recorded some of his own songs, including the honkey-tonk weeper “My Pillow” and “Poor Little John”. They co-authored “Tall, Tall Trees”, recorded by Jones in 1957, and “Happy Child”, which Jimmy Dean recorded in 1957. George Jones and Roger rode to Texas together and wrote songs along the way. Auditioned at the Andrew Jackson Hotel, Roger impressed the Mercury-Starday group enough to be granted a session in Houston. Jones introduced Roger to Don Pierce and Pappy Daily of Mercury-Starday Records and asked them to listen to Roger’s material. His second break came when he met George Jones at the WSM radio station one night and played him some of his songs. Roger’s first break came when he was hired to play fiddle in Minnie Pearl’s road band. He would sing to anyone who would listen on the way up or down the elevator. Roger soon became known as the ‘Singing Bellhop’. Situated in the thick of Nashville’s music district, the Andrew Jackson gave him proximity to the vibrant Country scene. Needing to work while he was pursuing his dream, Roger took a job as a bellhop at the Andrew Jackson Hotel. Thankfully, Chet was kind about it and suggested that Roger work on his songs a little more. Roger was so nervous about playing in front of him that he proceeded to play in one key and sing in another. Seeing that Roger didn’t have a guitar, Chet loaned him his. Once there, he told Chet that he was a songwriter. Assigned to Special Services, he joined the Circle A Wranglers and played the fiddle.Īfter he was discharged from the Army, Roger headed to Nashville to see Chet Atkins. Towards the end of his tour with the Army, he was stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. Though homesick, Roger’s world was starting to grow. Before long, he was shipped to Korea, where he coined one of his favorite one-liners: “My education was Korea, Clash of ’52.” Although he was only 17, he chose to go into the service. Rather than putting him in jail, they offered to let him join the Army. Roger had wanted a guitar so desperately to write songs, and that seemed the only way. His drifting came to an abrupt halt when he stole a guitar in Texas and crossed back into Oklahoma. Going from town to town through Texas and Oklahoma, he would take whatever work he could find by day and haunt the honky-tonks by night. While Roger idolized Bob Wills and Hank Williams, Wooley represented the world of show business that Roger wanted.Įager to follow in Sheb’s footsteps, Roger started running away while still in high school. Wooley bought Roger his first fiddle and taught him chords on a guitar. They would listen to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights and the Light Crust Doughboys on Fort Worth radio by day. Sheb would take Roger out to fix the fencing, chase steers, and talk about stardom. Sheb Wooley was an Erick native who married Roger’s Cousin, Melva Laure Miller. “It’s a good thing that he made it in the music business, ’cause he would have starved to death as a farmer,” Sheb Wooley would say. Roger was a dreamer, and his heart was never in picking cotton or working on a farm. I always wanted attention, always was reaching and grabbing for it.” “I was one of those kids that never had much to say, and when I did, it was wrong. During recess, we would play cowboy and Indians, and things got pretty wild from my standpoint.”Įvery now and then, Roger would let down his guard to comment on how lonely he was a child. “The school I went to had 37 students,” he would say, “me and 36 Indians. Roger painted a somewhat more humorous picture of his school days. While walking three miles to his one-room school, he started to compose songs. He was lonely and unhappy, never accepting or understanding the separation from his mother. Jokes aside, Roger had a difficult childhood. He would later joke about how the town was “so dull you could watch the colors run” and was “so small that the town drunk had to take turns.” ![]() Unable to provide for her children, Jean’s three brothers came, and each took one of the boys to live with them.Īrmelia and Elmer Miller took Roger with them to a farm on the outskirts of Erick, Oklahoma. Laudene Holt Miller, Roger’s mother, was already struggling to care for three children by herself during the Great Depression. When he was only a year old, Roger’s father, Jean Miller, died of spinal meningitis when only 26. Roger Dean Miller was born on January 2, 1936, in Fort Worth, Texas, and was the youngest of three boys. star, a Broadway composer, and perhaps, above all else, one of the wittiest personalities in Country music. He was also a songwriter, a guitarist and fiddler, a drummer, a T.V. Roger Miller was more than just a honky-tonk man and singer.
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