22 Facts About Roy Nichols

Roy Ernest Nichols was an American country music guitarist best known as the lead guitarist for Merle Haggard's band The Strangers for more than two decades.

Roy Nichols was known for his guitar technique, a mix of fingerpicking and pedal steel-like bends, usually played on a Fender Telecaster electric guitar.

Roy Ernest Nichols was born in Chandler, Arizona, to Bruce and Lucille Nichols, as the first born of seven children.

The Roy Nichols family moved to Fresno, California, when he was two, where they owned a camp for migrant farm workers.

Sometimes a traveling gypsy band would stay at the camp and the young Roy Nichols would hide and watch them play.

Roy Nichols's father Bruce was a musician, playing upright bass at local dances on the weekends in the San Joaquin Valley.

Roy Nichols learned some basic chords from his father and began playing in his father's band on the weekends when he was only 11.

Shortly before his 16th birthday, Roy Nichols met Fred Maddox, of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, a colorful hillbilly band, who heard Roy Nichols playing guitar on Fresno DJ Barney Lee's Saturday-morning radio program.

Roy Nichols was one of a kind, but the music aside, he was like any 16-year-old kid - feisty, causing us trouble.

Roy Nichols stayed up all night playing dances several nights a week while still returning to the station to play his 7 am show.

In 1954, Roy Nichols returned to work for another year at the radio station with Maxidon.

In 1955, Roy Nichols joined Cousin Herb Henson's Trading Post Gang's TV show.

Roy Nichols remained there for 5 of the 11 years the show ran.

Roy Nichols played at the Foothill Club in Long Beach with Billy Mize and Cliff Crofford.

Roy Nichols toured with Johnny Cash during that same time.

Roy Nichols was so good with his left hand that he bent the strings in tune as he played depending on where he was on the neck.

On June 15,1965, Roy Nichols was hired straight out of Stewart's band by Haggard, and flew to Phoenix, Arizona, to join the singer on his first tour with his band The Strangers.

Roy Nichols was the first to be hired for Haggard's new band.

Roy Nichols gave three conditions for being hired by Haggard: "I don't drive, I carry my own amplifier, and I know where my bed is every night".

Roy Nichols continued to tour with Haggard in the United States and overseas with notable performances at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Gardens, and the White House two times.

Roy Nichols was later inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in Sacramento, California.

Roy Nichols was being treated for a nonlife-threatening infection at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, California, when he had a heart attack and died on July 3,2001.