Volume 8 Article 11 Issue 4 Summer 7-15-1989 A Loving Salute to the King of the Road Ernestine Gravley Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westview Recommended Citation Gravley, Ernestine (1989) "A Loving Salute to the King of the Road," Westview: Vol. 8 : Iss. 4 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westview/vol8/iss4/11 This Nonfiction is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Westview by an authorized administrator of SWOSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PEOPLE A LOVING SALUTE TO Out around Erick, the natives and Amelia Miller near Erick, in a certain sergeant, Jethro, of the recognize Roger Miller, the famous Beckham County. He attended a comedy team of Homer and Jethro. songwriter and performer, as one one-room school and joined the His new friend convinced him to of Western Oklahoma’s most color­ Future Farmers of America though head for Nashville at the end of his ful characters. Back in 1965, his he had no intentions of farming. military service. “Otherwise, I “King of the Road’’ sold over 2.5 From age six, Roger’s ambition would go back to Oklahoma and million records. He won an unpre­ was to be like Sheb Wooley, a work in a gas station,” he said. cedented eleven Grammy awards country singer who lived up the In Nashville, no one took him and earned four gold records for road a ways and was married to seriously as a performer. He worked albums grossing a million dollars Roger’s cousin. Wooley was famous as a bellhop at the posh Andrew or more. for his “Purple People Eater” and Jackson Hotel, a fiddle player with Twenty years later, his versatile other novelty songs and acted in Minnie Pearl, a guitar player with talent took him to the top, to RAWHIDE and Western films. George Jones, a drummer with Broadway, and made him a Tony Sheb taught young Roger some Faron Young. He kept writing Award winner in recognition of his strings chords, and the boy picked songs. “Invitation to the Blues” outstanding original music and 400 pounds of cotton to buy a was recorded by Ray Price and by lyrics for “Big River: The Adven­ second-hand guitar. Patti Page, “Half a Mind” by Ernest tures of Huckleberry Finn,” his “I didn’t see much use to waste Tubb, and “Billy Bayou” by Jim first score for theater. It was named my time with algebra, so as soon as Reeves. He hung around Tootsie’s the best Broadway musical of 1985. I perfected my autograph in the Orchid Lounge with free spirits Rocco Landesman, producer, said: eighth grade, I quit school to become like Waylon Jennings and Willie “I wanted toget America’s greatest a singer. He left home and bummed Nelson. People in the music business novelist. Mark Twain would have around.. .a kid who stole milk from affectionately called him the Wild been proud.’’ Later, Roger Miller front porches to survive. Drifting Child, but his break didn’t come. remarked, “I was so dumb I didn’t from town to town, he worked as a “I almost let failure go to my know enough at first to get excited carhop, helper in a filling station, a head,” Miller declared. He decided about it.” dishwasher, herded and dehorned to go to California and “maybe Not bad for a two-mule cotton cattle, drove a tractor on a wheat study acting.” To finance the trip, patch “six miles the other side of ranch, rode Brahma bulls in rodeos. he recorded an album for Smash, a RESUME SPEED” and a boy who He was briefly a firefighter in subsidiary of Mercury on which never used a telephone until he Amarillo. “There were only two was his tune “Dang Me,” a song of was seventeen. He was reared with fires while I was there,” he said. self-disgust. It became a hit single no indoor plumbing and no electri­ “The first was a chicken coop. I within a week of release, selling city in the farmhouse. slept through the other one and more than a million copies. “There Roger Dean Miller was born on they fired me.” Evenings, he hung for a while, I thought I was Elvis,” January 2, 1936 in Fort Worth. His around honkytonks, sang for anyone Roger said of his sudden notice father died less than a year later, who would listen, and begged to sit among the guests. and his mother, in those Depression in with bands. He was on his way.. .appearances days, could not provide for her At seventeen, Miller joined the on the TONIGHT SHOW, Las three sons. She sent them to each U.S. Army and drove a jeep in Vegas bookings, which are the of the father's three brothers-----in Korea until his musical ability got most lucrative in show business, Arkansas, California, and Okla­ him into Special Services and a an NBC television series, THE homa. Roger was reared by E.D. country music band where he met ROGER MILLER SHOW. His output 2 2 W estview Suuvier 1989 Erick’s country-boy baritone THE KING OF THE ROAD By Ernestine Gravley was phenomenal. He wrote songs sleep. William Whitworth report­ Miller said, “I know. Let’s all go to on airplanes, in cars, in hotel ed in THE NEW YORKER Miller’s L.A. Let’s go to my house. Let’s go rooms, at recording studios, using penchant for marathon partying, see if I have any mail. Hey, Jerry,” whatever paper was available----- entertaining, and welcoming all he told his road manager, “Call the envelopes, napkins, gum wrappers. who cared to show up. Whitworth Lear.” He had two pilots available Many good songs vanished from attended one of these events which for any hour. Miller’s memory because he lost lasted not for hours but for days. When someone asked, “You look track of his “spearmint manu­ Roger came out of a bathroom of tired, Rodge. When did you last go scripts.” But his “treasure box,” a his suite in the Sahara at Las to bed?” He answered, “I don’t leather chest about three feet long Vegas tugging at the waist of his know, but it was before that.” In and two feet deep, is filled with slacks. “These----------------- things certain moods and while talk goes scraps of compositions that were are gaining weight,” he grumbled. on around him, the champ says, “I not lost. Overnight, Roger Miller He wore gray pants, a white shirt don’t know how to react to that. was making $10,000 a performance open at the throat, and an electric Ya’ll go ahead and talk about it.” “back in the poor days.” He made bluejacket. They took in a show by At other times, Roger, the lonely his debut in Carnegie Hall in 1966, Dobie Gray in the Congo Room seeker, the tender of heart (believe but the Big Apple reviews were for where Roger congratulated the it!) will say, “Aw, let’s don’t talk the most part unfavorable. performer: “Wow, man, that was about that. Why don’t we just hum No matter. His irresistible person­ real average.” for a while?” ality attracted attention and people. He slumped in his chair, overcome Roger Miller and his entourage William Price Fox of TV GUIDE with 24 or more hours wide awake. flew in his Lear jet back and forth said: “His coterie is like Sugar “I’m having a 92 percent good time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas Ray’s. .a strange mix of beards, out of a possible 96,” he said, for three days, and Miller didn’t frauds, disc jockeys, and silent sighing heavily. It was 4:30 A.M. miss a single performance. When staring Texans and Okies just “We may have to get out of here,” asked how long Roger could stay passing through.” Roger added. “I’m having too good awake, his drummer at the time “Everybody’s my closest friend,” of a time.” said, “Well, I’m not sure. I’ve only Roger told VARIETY. “Man, I ain’t Back in his suite, twenty or so of been with Roger a year and a half. I got room to breathe.” his entourage and droppers-by don’t know how long he was awake His television show was scheduled were ready to call it a night, but before that.” Miller later revealed opposite I LOVE LUCY and lasted Miller suggested, “We could go that his energy came from amphet­ only sixteen weeks. “They were watch the free parking at the amines during that period of his trying to make a country Andy Flamingo.” He fought sleep and life, an addiction he subsequently Willi ams out of me, writing my drank Coca-Colas. The liquid portion overcame and crusaded against. lines, putting words in my mouth of his diet is almost exclusively His Woodland Hills mansion in that didn't fit. .1 couldn’t think, Coke, and he often consumed a the Los Angeles area overflowed couldn’t sing, couldn’t write.” case a day. When things slowed with people. Roger showed his He returned to the nightclub down from weariness, he suggested, guests walls covered with gold circuit, kept writing and slept “I think it’s time we broke into a records, awards, plaques, the Popeye little. Accustomed as they were to series of folk dances.