Ken Bridges/Contributing writer
Bob Wills was one of the earliest stars of country music in Texas just as radio became popular. Wills was one of the pioneers of western swing and inspired generations of country music artists.
James Robert Wills was born in the small community of Kosse, about 45 miles southeast of Waco, in 1905. He was born into a family of cotton farmers and musicians. His father, John Tompkins Wills, was a popular local fiddle player and reportedly won several competitions.
In 1913, the family moved to the small community of Turkey in the panhandle, eventually buying a farm in the area. In spite of the musical education he received playing with his siblings, he grew bored as a teenager and left home at the age of 16, spending several years traveling by freight train. He returned home after a few years, but the music was waiting, and Wills began playing with a renewed energy.
He moved to Fort Worth in 1929 where he began playing music and performing in travelling vaudeville acts. As he traveled, he learned more about other musical styles and steadily incorporated their influences into his music, including influences from Bessie Smith, an early African-American blues legend as well as early country artists Jimmie Davis and Jimmie Rodgers.
Wills formed the Wills Fiddle Band in 1930, which became a hit on radio. With a new sponsorship, it was renamed the Light Crust Doughboys. Wills left the band in 1933 and formed the Texas Playboys the next year. By this time, Wills was among a group developing the “western swing” sound.
In 1940, he released perhaps his most popular song, “New San Antonio Rose.”
He started appearing in western movies, ultimately appearing in twenty altogether, in the 1940s. In 1942, at the age of 37, he enlisted in the army. However, he was quickly discharged. Nevertheless, he wrote and performed several popular patriotic songs to support the troops during World War II.
He developed problems in the 1940s because of his increased drinking, but he continued to tour. In 1968, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His health continued to decline. In 1973, he had just started an album with country artist Merle Haggard when he suffered a massive stroke. Wills never recovered and spent the next two years in a coma before his death on May 13, 1975.
Bob Wills influenced a very diverse group of musicians, including such legendary acts as blues artist Fats Domino, rock stars Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones, and country artists such as Waylon Jennings as well as Haggard.
Wills’s 1936 hit “Right or Wrong” was re-recorded by George Strait in 1984. “Sugar Moon,” a number one single from 1947 was later recorded by Willie Nelson and K. D. Lang in the 1980s. In 1950, Wills released “Faded Love,” a song that he had written with his father and brother. The popular tune was later sung by Conway Twitty, Elvis Presley, and eventually, Willie Nelson. A multitude of artists perform other songs of his still to this day.
After Wills’s death, tributes poured in from around the country. He and the Texas Playboys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 for their contributions to the beginnings of rock and roll. In 2011, the Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring him by declaring western swing to be the official music of Texas. Waylon Jennings perhaps spoke for millions of Wills’s fans when he sang in his 1975 tribute, “I don’t care who’s in Austin, Bob Wills is still the king.”