Roy Acuff

A perennial favorite on the Grand Ole Opry until his death in 1992, Roy Acuff stands as one of the most influential and well known artists of the early country music era. Acuff became an overnight sensation when he played the now classic "The Great Speckled Bird" on the Opry in 1938, introducing America to his characteristically intense vocal style -- a style that left an indelible mark on country music. In addition to performing archaic, fiddle-happy mountain songs, bawdy country novelties (under the pseudonym the Bang Boys), and Gospel standards picked up in the backwoods of pre-war Tennessee, Acuff proved himself a businessman of no small talent as well. Culling thousands of songs he wrote (and claimed to have written) under the umbrella of mammoth publishing house Acuff-Rose, he and songwriter Fred Rose for a time were co-owners of just about every song identified with Nashville, from Hank Williams to the Everly Brothers.