Musician. He was a versatile pedal steel guitar player known for his full chords and smooth tone. He began to play steel guitar at age 8, and by age 14, he was performing at local night clubs, concerts and on the weekly radio show in Mobile, Alabama. In 1946, he joined Pee Wee King and the Golden West Cowboys, moved to Nashville, Tennessee and performed with Pee Wee's band weekly on the Grand Ole Opry. Shortly after joining Pee Wee, he played steel guitar on the original RCA recording of "The Tennessee Waltz" (1947), which went to the top of the country music charts and became the third biggest record seller of all time. In the early 1950s, he played on the sound tracks for the Columbia Pictures' "Durango Kid" western film series and recorded numerous scores at King Records Ohio, for artist such as Cowboy Copas, Redd Stewart, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Joe Tex and Moon Mullican. With the advent of rock and roll, he joined Boyd Bennett and his Rockets, traveled the country performing, plus recorded hits to include "Seventeen" (1955), "My Boy Flat Top" (1955) and "High School Hop" (1959). By the 1960s, he was signed with Atlantic Records, wrote his own material and released the albums "Virgo Vibes" (1967), "Stone Soul Picnic" (1968) and "Daddy Bug" (1969). In addition, he produced the sound track for the movie "Coffy" (1973), plus his album "Running Away" (1977) and released number of singles on the Polydor Record label in the 1980s. He also holds a master's degree in physics and spent eight years in California, as an aerospace physicist and was Director of String Instrument Development at the Fender Musical Corporation, for two years before retiring in 2003. In 2005, he was inducted into the Pioneers of Swing Music Hall of Fame, Western Swing Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and was the 57th inductee into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2007.