REAL GONE

Sam Spoons, Roy Clark, Francis Lai, and more, we thank you.

C&W guitarist, TV star BORN 1933

Born in rural Virginia in the Great Depression, Roy Linwood Clark was a five-string virtuoso, winning the USA Banjo Championship at 17. This earned $500 and a trip to Nashville; he never looked back. Lightning on the guitar, his instrumental prowess was perhaps overshadowed by a natural warmth on stage and screen. He won the CMA’s Comedian Of The Year Award in 1970 and Entertainer Of The Year in 1973, as well as several CMA Instrumentalist accolades. His solo career included crossover hits, the biggest being Yesterday When I Was Young in ’69. Alongside the late Buck Owens, he hosted TV’s Hee Haw for 22 years. The first C&W musician to open a theatre in Branson, MS, his guitar instruction books inspired Brad Paisley to be a musician. He died from pneumonia at his Tulsa home. Sid Griffin