Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping country hits "King of the Road", "Dang Me", and "England Swings".

After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the U.S. Army, Miller began his musical career as a songwriter in the late 1950s, writing such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price. He later began a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the mid-1960s, continuing to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top-20 country hit "Old Friends" with Price and Willie Nelson in 1982. He also wrote and performed several of the songs for the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood. Later in his life, he wrote the music and lyrics for the 1985 Tony Award−winning Broadway musical Big River, in which he played Pap Finn in 1986.

Miller died from lung cancer in 1992, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame three years later. He was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2005. His songs continued to be recorded by other singers, with covers of "Tall, Tall Trees" by Alan Jackson and "Husbands and Wives" by Brooks and Dunn; both reached the number-one spot on country charts in the 1990s. The Roger Miller Museum — now closed — in his home town of Erick, Oklahoma, was a tribute to Miller.

Early life

thumb|Miller at age four

Roger Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the third son of Jean and Laudene (Holt) Miller. Jean Miller died from spinal meningitis when Miller was a year old. Unable to support the family during the Great Depression, Laudene sent her three sons to live with three of Jean's brothers; Miller grew up on a farm outside Erick, Oklahoma, with Elmer and Armelia Miller.

As a boy, Miller did farm work, such as picking cotton and plowing. He later said he was "dirt poor" and that as late as 1951, the family did not own a telephone. He received his primary education at a one-room schoolhouse. Miller was an introverted child who often daydreamed or composed songs. One of his earliest compositions went: "There's a picture on the wall. It's the dearest of them all, Mother." He then met George Jones, who introduced him to music executives from the Starday Records label, who scheduled an audition. Impressed, the executives set up a recording session with Jones in Houston. Jones and Miller collaborated to write "Tall, Tall Trees" and "Happy Child."

After marrying and becoming a father, Miller put aside his music career to be a fireman in Amarillo, Texas. Miller then signed with Tree Publishing on a salary of $50 a week. He wrote: "Half a Mind" for Ernest Tubb, "That's the Way I Feel" for Faron Young, and his first number one, "Billy Bayou", which along with "Home" was recorded by Jim Reeves. Miller became one of the biggest songwriters of the 1950s. Bill Anderson later remarked, "Roger was the most talented, and least disciplined, person that you could imagine", citing the attempts of Miller's Tree Publishing boss, Buddy Killen to force him to finish a piece. He was known to give away lines, inciting many Nashville songwriters to follow him around since, according to Killen, "everything he said was a potential song." Miller soon tired of writing songs, divorced his wife, and began a party lifestyle that earned him the moniker "wild child". He was dropped from his record label and began to pursue other interests.

Miller was given his own TV show on NBC in September 1966. It lasted for 13 weeks, and ended its run in January 1967. During this period, Miller recorded songs written by other songwriters. The final hit of his own composition was "Walkin in the Sunshine", which reached number seven on the country and number six on the adult contemporary charts in 1967. As Brian Carpenter wrote in Southern Cultures, "With its rooftop lounge and accompanying penthouse suite (complete with a swinging double bed), Miller's King of the Road Inn was, for a time, the unofficial center of Nashville's thriving music scene." It is now called the Holiday Inn Downtown Nashville-Stadium.

Miller continued to record for different record labels and charted a few songs, but stopped writing in 1978, feeling that his more "artistic" works were not appreciated. Miller took a year and a half to write the opening, but he eventually finished it. The work, titled Big River, premiered at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on April 25, 1985. The musical received glowing reviews, earning seven Tony Awards, including "Best Score" for Miller. He acted the part of Huck Finn's father Pap for three months after the exit of actor John Goodman, who left for Hollywood. In 1983, Miller played a dramatic role on an episode of Quincy, M.E. He played a country and western singer who is severely burned while freebasing cocaine. The song was released as a single in 1991, peaking at number seven on country charts. He began a solo guitar tour in 1990,

Style

Although he is usually grouped with country music singers, Miller's unique style defies easy classification. Many of his recordings were humorous novelty songs with whimsical lyrics, coupled with scat singing or vocalese riffs filled with nonsense syllables. Others were sincere ballads that caught the public's fancy, like his signature song, "King of the Road".

Miller's whimsical lyrics and nonsense-sounding style led to him writing and performing songs for children's films such as "Oo-de-Lally" for the Disney animated film Robin Hood. During his most successful years as a songwriter and singer, Miller's music was placed in the country genre due to his somewhat country- or folk-sounding voice and the use of an acoustic guitar. AllMusic wrote that in blending country with jazz, blues, and pop, Miller "utilized unusual harmonic and rhythmic devices in his sophisticated songcraft" and was an important influence on progressive country.

On his own style, Miller remarked that he "tried to do" things like other artists, but that it "always came out different", so he got "frustrated" until realizing, "I'm the only one that knows what I'm thinking." He commented that the favorite song that he wrote was "You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd". Johnny Cash discussed Miller's bass vocal range in his 1997 autobiography. He stated that it was the closest to his own that he had heard.

Personal life and death

Miller was married three times and fathered eight children. Miller married Barbara Crow, from Shamrock, Texas, when they were both 17. Together the couple had four children, the first of whom died shortly after birth. As Miller's young family grew, his desire for fame and success continued to grow as well. After moving the family to California for a short time, Miller and Barbara divorced. Subsequent public interest in Miller led to the success for which he had long hoped, but it also brought struggles that are often associated with life in the entertainment business: periods of burnout as well as alcohol and substance abuse. His amphetamine use in the 1960s has been described as both damaging to his career and helpful to his songwriting. In 1972, he referred to amphetamines as "a snake pit I got into" and supported a ban on the drug in Oklahoma.

Miller married Leah Kendrick of San Antonio in 1964. Together the couple had two children, Dean and Shannon.

After 14 years of marriage, Leah and Miller divorced in the mid-1970s. Miller eventually married Mary Arnold, whom he met through Kenny Rogers. Arnold was a replacement member in the First Edition, a band led by Rogers. After the breakup of the First Edition, she performed with her husband, Miller, on tours as a backup singer. This included a performance at the White House before President Gerald Ford. In 2009, she was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Since Miller's death, she has managed his estate. She sued Sony for copyright infringement in the 2007 case Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV Publishing, LLC, which went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Arnold was ultimately awarded nearly $1 million in royalties and rights to the songs Miller wrote in 1964.

Miller was a lifelong cigarette smoker. During a television interview, Miller explained how he composed his songs from "bits and pieces" of ideas he wrote on scraps of paper. When asked what he did with the unused bits and pieces, he half-joked, "I smoke 'em!" He also wrote a song about his habit, titled "Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit". Miller died of lung and throat cancer in 1992 at age 56, shortly after the discovery of a malignant tumor beneath his vocal cords. He was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995. Miller won 11 Grammy Awards. In Erick, Oklahoma, where he grew up, a thoroughfare was renamed "Roger Miller Boulevard" and a museum dedicated to Miller was built on the road in 2004.

Awards won by Miller:

  • 1964 — Grammy Award for Best Country Song: "Dang Me"
  • 1964 — Grammy Award for Best New Country and Western Artist
  • 1964 — Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "Dang Me"
  • 1964 — Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Performance, Male: "Dang Me"
  • 1964 — Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Album: "Dang Me"/"Chug-a-Lug"
  • 1965 — Jukebox Artist of the Year
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Country Song: "King of the Road"
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "King of the Road"
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (Rock 'N Roll), Single: "King of the Road"
  • 1965 — Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Album: "The Return of Roger Miller"
  • 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Best Songwriter"
  • 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Man of the Year"
  • 1973 — Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
  • 1985 — Tony Award for Best Score: Big River
  • 1985 — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics: Big River
  • 1988 — Academy of Country Music: Pioneer Award
  • 1995 — Country Music Hall of Fame (Inducted with Jo Walker-Meador)
  • 1997 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "Dang Me"
  • 1998 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "King of the Road"
  • 2003 — CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music: Ranked No. 23.

References

Further reading

  • Cooper, Daniel. (1998). "Roger Miller." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 347–8.
  • All Roger Miller Songs Written and Released
  • Episode of Quincy ME starring Roger Miller
  • Roger Miller Museum in Erick, Oklahoma
  • Roger Miller interview on the Pop Chronicles