37 Facts About Roger Miller

1.

Roger Miller later began a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the mid-1960s, continuing to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit "Old Friends" with Price and Willie Nelson in 1982.

2.

Roger Miller wrote and performed several of the songs for the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood.

3.

Roger Miller died from lung cancer in 1992 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame three years later.

4.

Roger Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the third son of Jean and Laudene Miller.

5.

Jean Roger Miller died from spinal meningitis when Roger Miller was a year old.

6.

Roger Miller later said he was "dirt poor" and that as late as 1951 the family did not own a telephone.

7.

Roger Miller received his primary education at a one-room schoolhouse.

8.

Roger Miller was an introverted child who often daydreamed or composed songs.

9.

Roger Miller listened to the Grand Ole Opry and Light Crust Doughboys on a Fort Worth station with his cousin's husband, Sheb Wooley.

10.

Roger Miller began to run away and perform in Oklahoma and Texas.

11.

Roger Miller chose to enlist in the United States Army to avoid jail.

12.

On leaving the Army, Roger Miller traveled to Nashville to begin his musical career.

13.

Roger Miller met with Chet Atkins, who asked to hear him sing, loaning him a guitar since Miller did not own one.

14.

Out of nervousness, Roger Miller played the guitar and sang a song in two different keys.

15.

Roger Miller then met George Jones, who introduced him to music executives from the Starday Records label who scheduled an audition.

16.

Roger Miller returned to Nashville and wrote "Invitation to the Blues", which was covered by Rex Allen and later by Ray Price, whose recording was a number three hit on country charts.

17.

Roger Miller then signed with Tree Publishing on a salary of $50 a week.

18.

Roger Miller became one of the biggest songwriters of the 1950s.

19.

Roger Miller signed a recording deal with Decca Records in 1958.

20.

Roger Miller was paired with singer Donny Lytle, who later gained fame under the name Johnny Paycheck, to perform the Miller-written "A Man Like Me", and later "The Wrong Kind of Girl".

21.

Smash agreed to the proposal, and Roger Miller performed his first session for the company early in 1964, when he recorded the hits "Dang Me" and "Chug-a-Lug".

22.

Roger Miller was given his own TV show on NBC in September 1966.

23.

Roger Miller collaborated with Willie Nelson on an album titled Old Friends.

24.

In 1970, Roger Miller opened the King of the Road Inn, a Nashville hotel.

25.

Roger Miller continued to record for different record labels and charted a few songs, but stopped writing in 1978, feeling that his more "artistic" works were not appreciated.

26.

Roger Miller was absent from the entertainment business following the release of Old Friends in 1981, but returned after receiving an offer to write a Broadway score for a musical based upon Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

27.

Roger Miller acted the part of Huck Finn's father Pap for three months after the exit of actor John Goodman, who left for Hollywood.

28.

Roger Miller played a country and western singer who is severely burned while freebasing cocaine.

29.

Roger Miller left for Santa Fe to live with his family following the success of Big River.

30.

Roger Miller co-wrote Dwight Yoakam's hit "It Only Hurts When I Cry" from his 1990 album If There Was a Way, and supplied background vocals.

31.

Roger Miller began a solo guitar tour in 1990, ending the following year after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

32.

Roger Miller stated that it was the closest to his own that he had heard.

33.

Roger Miller married Barbara Crow, from Shamrock, Texas, when they were both 17.

34.

Subsequent public interest in Roger Miller led to the success he had long hoped for but brought with it struggles for the performer that are often associated with life in the entertainment business: periods of burnout as well as alcohol and substance abuse.

35.

The senior Roger Miller wrote the Christmas song "Old Toy Trains" for his son, who was two years old when it was released in 1967.

36.

Roger Miller died of lung and throat cancer in 1992, at age 56, shortly after the discovery of a malignant tumor under his vocal cords.

37.

Roger Miller was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995.