 Bob Wills
Fiddler, songwriter, band leader
Born in Hall County, Texas, in 1905; died in 1975.
• Widely acknowledged direct inspiration for an entire generation of country
musicians, including every important performer to come out of Bakersfield in the 1950s and
’60s.
• Lives in Texas migrant camps as a child, picking cotton
• Makes his first solo appearance as a fiddler at the age of 10
• Lands a job on a Fort Worth radio program in 1931
• Forms the Texas Playboys, featuring lead singer Tommy Duncan, in 1934
• Trademark howl of “Ah-hah! San Antone!” a national catch phrase by the
early 1940s
• Relocates to California after World War II, organizing a new version of the
Playboys
• Plays throughout the San Joaquin Valley, at clubs such as Oildale’s
Beardsley Ballroom, well into the late 1950s
• Last recording session, in December 1973, at Haggard’s Kern River estate in
Bakersfield
• Haggard cuts a Wills tribute album in 1970, “A Tribute to the Best Damn
Fiddle Player in the World,” featuring many of the original Playboys
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