Modern country music owes a great debt to Roy Nichols. The groundbreaking guitarist was supporting “Bakersfield Sound” icon Lefty Frizzell when a fresh-out-of-juvenile-lockup Merle Haggard saw him play at a Las Vegas nightclub . Several years later, the “Okie From Muskogee” singer hired him to play guitar in his backing band. He was a mainstay of the Strangers for more than two decades until a stroke robbed him of his ability to play in 1996.
On this day (July 3) in 2001, Roy Nichols was being treated for a non-lethal infection at Bakersfield’s Mercy Hospital when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 68 years old.
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“Because of Roy, my career commenced,” Merle Haggard told the Associated Press after Nichols’ death. “He was the stylist that set the pace of the records I recorded in my high period.”
“Chet Atkins and Roy Nichols were the two most influential guitar players in [the last] century,” added the “Mama Tried” crooner.
About Roy Nichols
Born October 21, 1932, in Chandler, Arizona, Roy Ernest Nichols spent his childhood in California.
His parents owned a camp for migrant-farm workers in Fresno, and a band of traveling musicians often set up shop near the back end of the property.
As a child, Nichols spent many a night hiding in the shadows beyond the firelight and listening to them play. Eventually, the fascinated boy decided to pick up a guitar himself.
He learned chords from his father Bruce, a musician who played upright bass at local dances in the San Joaquin Valley. By age 11, Nichols was joining his father onstage for those performances.
At 14, he began earning $25 a week playing with swing band Curly Roberts and the Texas Rangers.
How Did He Meet Merle Haggard?
Roy Nichols continued playing the burgeoning San Juan Valley circuit, joining up with Frizzell in the early ’50s.
In 1960, he joined Wynn Stewart onstage in Las Vegas. There, he met Merle Haggard, at the time Stewart’s bass player.
In 1965, he flew to Phoenix to join Haggard’s backing band, the Strangers, on three conditions: “I don’t drive, I carry my own amplifier, and I know where my bed is every night”.
Haggard must have stayed true to his word, because Nichols spent the next two decades perfecting his picking skills and contributing his unique riffs to 33 top 10 hits.
Additionally, he wrote and published 19 of his own songs. That included “Street Singer”, which Haggard recorded and earned a Grammy nomination for in 1970.
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Nichols retired from touring in 1987. Throughout his tenure, the Strangers won seven Touring Band of the Year trophies from the Academy of Country and Western Music. Nichols also earned several Guitarist of the Year nods.
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