Today is the birthday of Floyd Tillman. He would be 112 today. Floyd Tillman grew up chasing cotton wagons through Post, Texas, on the South Plains. Oklahoma claims his birthplace, but West Texas dance halls raised his songwriting ear. By the 1930s, he helped invent honky-tonk before the genre even had that name. His song […]
Today is the birthday of Johnny Rodriguez. He would be 75 today. Johnny Rodriguez of Sabinal, Texas, once sang his way out of a jail cell. As a teenager, he landed in trouble for taking a goat, then found himself behind bars. A local sheriff heard him singing there and couldn't stop talking about it. […]
Stoney LaRue closes out the year at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth on Friday, December 11, 2026, bringing one of Red Dirt music's defining voices to the Stockyards for a night built for hardcore fans. Showtime is 10:00 PM inside the World's Largest Honky Tonk, where LaRue's gravelly voice and road-tested band typically turn […]
Today is the birthday of Billy Gibbons. He is 77 today. William Frederick Gibbons was born in Houston, Texas on December 16, 1949. His father was a professional musician and orchestra conductor. Billy grew up in a house full of music and discovered the blues through Muddy Waters and B.B. King records as a teenager. […]
Today is the birthday of Bobby Keys. He would be 83 today. Bobby Keys was born in Slaton, Texas on December 18, 1943 — a small railroad and cotton town on the South Plains, just southeast of Lubbock. He started playing saxophone as a teenager and was already touring with Buddy Holly's backing musicians by […]
Today is the birthday of Edgar Winter. He is 80 today. Edgar Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas on December 28, 1946 — younger brother of Johnny Winter, also born in Beaumont. The Winter brothers were the most musically gifted siblings the Texas Gulf Coast ever produced. Edgar played keyboards, saxophone, guitar, and drums with […]
Today is the birthday of Pimp C. He would be 53 today. Pimp C came into the world in Crowley, Louisiana, then Texas claimed him. His family settled in Port Arthur, Texas, while he was still a child. Refinery smoke and gospel music both shaped his early ears. His mother sang in a Port Arthur […]
Today is the birthday of Michael Nesmith. He would be 84 today. Robert Michael Nesmith was born in Houston, Texas on December 30, 1942. His mother Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper correction fluid and became a millionaire. Michael grew up in Dallas and San Antonio, wrote his first songs as a teenager, and moved […]
Today is the birthday of Roger Miller. He would be 91 today. Fort Worth handed Roger Miller his birth certificate on January 2, 1936, and then he was gone. His father died early. The family split. He was raised by an uncle in Erick, Oklahoma — a Panhandle town with more tumbleweeds than ambitions. But […]
Today is the birthday of Tex Ritter. He would be 122 today. Woodward Maurice Ritter came out of Murvaul — a Deep East Texas hamlet in Panola County — on January 12, 1905. He studied law at the University of Texas and sang cowboy songs on the side. The songs won. He moved to New […]
Today is the birthday of Ray Price. He would be 101 today. Ray Price built a shuffle beat so sturdy that honky-tonk still leans on it today. He grew up near Perryville in Wood County, Texas, deep in East Texas farmland. Ray Price's Wood County, Texas roots gave him a plainspoken, working-class sense of rhythm. […]
Today is the birthday of Janis Joplin. She would be 84 today. Port Arthur is a refinery town on the Texas Gulf Coast — the kind of place that smells like industry and feels like the edge of something. Janis Lyn Joplin was born there on January 19, 1943. She was odd from the start: […]
