WEBVTT

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Okay, I want to try a little experiment with

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you, just for a second. Close your eyes. I want

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you to conjure up a very specific image. Okay,

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I'm with you. It's a rooster, but not just, you

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know, a barnyard rooster. It's a cartoon rooster.

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Ah, I think I know where you're going with this.

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He's wearing a little green tunic, he's strolling

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through this beautiful watercolor forest, and

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he's strumming a lute. Yep. Now, in your head,

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whistle that tune. You know the one I'm talking

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about. Whistle stop! The intro to Robin Hood.

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Exactly. For millions and millions of people,

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that little sound, that's the sonic wallpaper

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of their childhood. Oh, absolutely. It's comfort.

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It's innocence. It's a rainy Saturday afternoon

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watching Disney. Right. So I want you to take

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that image, that innocent little rooster, squinch

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it up in your mind, and just throw it away. Okay.

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Gone. Now replace it with this. A guy standing

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on a massive Broadway stage is in a full tuxedo.

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And he's holding a heavy Golden Tony Award. The

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highest honor in theater. For writing a musical

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score that the New York literary critics are

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calling a masterpiece of American adaptation.

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A work of genius. A huge leap from a cartoon

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rooster. A huge leap. And then, just to make

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it really complicated, wipe that image away,

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too. Okay, where are we going now? Replace it

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with this. A guy in a grimy, cheap Nashville

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motel room. The ashtray is overflowing. He's

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popping amphetamines just to stay awake, maybe

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to stay sane. He's shaking. The wild child. And

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he's writing lyrics on a napkin that sound like

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absolute inspired gibberish to wackadoo. Check

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it out. The problem is you can't actually wipe

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any of those images away because they're all

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the same person. They are all Roger Miller. Today

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on this deep dive. We are trying to figure out

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how one person can be all of those things. How

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does Roger Miller even exist? He's arguably the

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most complex and maybe misunderstood figure in

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the entire history of country music. And that's

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saying something. And I don't use a word like

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complex lightly. Usually with artists, we have

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these neat little boxes we can put them in, you

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know. Right. You've got the tortured genius box

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or the novelty act clown box. Or the serious,

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earnest songwriter. Roger Miller was somehow

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all three of those all at the same time, sometimes

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in the same song. I mean, we're talking about

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a guy who literally started out picking cotton

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in the depths of the Great Depression. Dirt poor.

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An eighth grade education. And he ends up winning

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11 Grammys. Not over a lifetime. 11 Grammys in

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two years. It's an insane number. And that's

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really the paradox we need to try and solve today.

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Because on the surface, if you ask the average

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person, Roger Miller is the king of the road

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guy. Or the dang me guy. He's remembered for

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being funny, for being quirky, for the nonsense

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syllables. But then you talk to musicologists,

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or you talk to the people who are actually in

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the room with him, people like Willie Nelson

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or Chris Christopherson. They don't talk about

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him like he was a comedian. No, not at all. They

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talk about him like he was a Mozart -level savant

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who just happened to be born in rural Oklahoma

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and played a guitar. But that level of genius,

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it usually comes with a price tag. And in Roger

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Miller's case, the receipt was very, very long.

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Extremely long. This is really a story about

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the cost of creativity. It's about how that wild

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child attitude, that chaotic energy can fuel

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a legendary career. But at the same time, it

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can burn a life right down to the ground. It

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really can. So let's get into it. Our source

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material today is primarily the Roger Miller

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Wikipedia archives, looking at his biography,

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his discography, all the accolades, and to understand

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him. We have to start way, way back. Right at

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the beginning. And I think with a lot of these

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country legends, it's easy to glass over the

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humble beginnings part. We just say, oh, he was

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poor, and we move on to the hits. It's sort of

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a trope, isn't it? The log cabin narrative. But

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with Miller, the poverty, and more importantly,

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the tragedy, it seems absolutely structural to

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who he became as an artist. Oh, 100%. You cannot

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understand the humor if you don't first understand

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the trauma. I think that's the whole thesis here.

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So let's set the scene. Roger Dean Miller, born

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January 2nd, 1936, in Fort Worth, Texas. But

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his life, as he knew it, essentially ended and

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had to restart when he was just one year old.

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Yeah, this is the first and maybe the biggest

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tragedy. His mother, Jean, she contracted spinal

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meningitis. And she died. She died when Roger

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was... For all intents and purposes, still an

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infant, he would have no memory of her. Now,

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you have to zoom out for a second and think about

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the context. This is 1937. This is the absolute

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height of the Great Depression. This isn't just

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money is tight. This is people are genuinely

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starving. There is no social safety net. So his

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father, Ladeen, is suddenly a widower with three

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young boys. And he literally cannot feed them.

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It's an impossible, horrifying moral calculation

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that I don't think any of us can really imagine.

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To save your children, you have to give them

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away. The family is just dismantled. Completely.

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The brothers are all split up, sent to different

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relatives. And Roger, the youngest, is sent to

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live on a farm in Erick, Oklahoma, with his aunt

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and uncle, Amelia and Elmer Miller. OK, let's

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stop there for a second. Erick, Oklahoma. I looked

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this place up on a map. It's out there. It's

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on the far, far western edge of the state. It's

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flat. It's dry. It's windy. And in the 1930s,

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this was the heart of the Dust Bowl. This was

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desolation. When Miller described himself later

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in life as dirt poor, he was not using a figure

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of speech. He wasn't exaggerating for effect.

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He was picking cotton. He was picking cotton.

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He was plowing fields behind a mule. We are not

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talking about a tractor here. This is practically

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19th century manual labor happening in the middle

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of the 20th century. And the isolation must have

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been profound. I read a detail that their farm

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didn't have a telephone until 1951. Just think

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about that for a second. 1951. In the cities,

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you have the dawn of television. You have the

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atomic age. You have this whole modern world

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humming along. And in Eric, Oklahoma, Roger Miller

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is living in a kind of silence that we can't

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even comprehend today. There's no internet, no

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TV, not even a phone. If you wanted entertainment,

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you had to make it yourself. Which absolutely

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explains the introspection. It has to. All the

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biographies describe him as this intensely introverted

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child. He was the kid walking three miles to

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the one -room schoolhouse, just staring up at

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the telephone wires, making up songs in his head

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because there was literally nothing else to interact

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with. His entire world was internal. There's

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one detail from the research that I found really,

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really haunting. It's supposedly one of the first

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lyrics he ever wrote as a little kid. I know

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the one you're talking about. There's a picture

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on the wall. It's the dearest of them all, mother.

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It just creates a lump in your throat, doesn't

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it? It's so sad. It does. But it also, it sets

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up a psychological profile, doesn't it? He's

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spending his childhood worshipping a ghost. Right.

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He's writing an ode to a woman he has no memory

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of. A woman who left him. Involuntarily, of course,

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but... From a child's perspective, she's just

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gone. A psychologist would have an absolute field

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day with this. Yeah. You have this massive void

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in his life, the absent mother, the absent father,

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the absent brothers, and you have this kid trying

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to fill that void with words, with creativity,

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with rhymes. It's almost like he was trying to

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sing himself into existence because the world

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around him was just so empty and quiet. But he

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did have one lifeline to the outside world. The

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radio. The radio. The great connector for every

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rural kid in the American South. He could pick

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up the Grand Ole Opry on WSM out of Nashville.

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He listened to the Lightcrest Doughboys, a famous

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Western swing band from Fort Worth. But he had

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something else, something most kids didn't have.

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A family connection. A direct family connection

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into the entertainment business. His cousin's

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husband was a man named Sheb Woolley. Now, Sheb

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Woolley, for our younger listeners, that name

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might not ring a bell, but in his day... He was

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a star. Oh, he was a big deal. He wrote and sang

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the novelty hit The Purple People Eater. Right.

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And he was an actor. He was in the classic Western

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high noon. He was a known quantity. So for young

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Roger, this dream of being a songwriter wasn't

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just a fantasy. He could look at his cousin's

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husband, Sheb, and see a tangible path out of

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those cotton fields. Sheb was the proof of concept.

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And he was encouraging. He taught Roger his first

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few guitar chords. He even bought him a fiddle.

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He showed Roger that you could be a goofy, funny

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guy and still make a real living in music. But

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that ambition, especially when you're young and

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poor, it can make you do some stupid things.

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We have to talk about the stolen guitar incident.

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Yeah. Because I think it's usually framed as,

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oh, he was a young rebel. Yeah. But when I look

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at it, I just see pure desperation. I completely

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agree. It's not rebellion. It's hunger. He was

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17 years old. And he wanted to write songs so

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badly it was like a physical ache. But he didn't

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have an instrument. So he stole a guitar. He

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just slugged it. He just took it. Yeah. But then,

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and I think this is the key to his entire character

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for the rest of his life, the guilt ate him alive.

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Instantly. He didn't pawn it. He didn't try to

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sell it. He didn't run away. He walked to the

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police station the very next day and turned himself

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in. Which is just fascinating, isn't it? Yeah.

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He has the impulsive recklessness of a criminal,

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but the crippling conscience of a choir boy.

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And that duality, that push and pull between

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the wild child and the good boy, it follows him

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forever. But the law in 1950s Oklahoma wasn't

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exactly interested in psychological nuance. Not

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at all. He was facing real jail time for theft.

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So they gave him the classic small town ultimatum

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of that era. You can go to jail or you can go

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join the army. So he chose the army. He did.

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And he later called it his education. He had

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this great quote. My education was Korea. Clash

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of 52. But he never actually went to Korea, did

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he? No, not to the front lines. He was stationed

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mostly in the U .S. and Atlanta and South Carolina.

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But the education he was talking about was the

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rigid hierarchy of the military. Right. He was

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a born free spirit, a wild child even back then.

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And suddenly he's in this world where he's being

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told when to wake up, how to make his bed, how

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to shine his shoes. He hated it. But ironically,

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the Army gave him the structure and the connections

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to actually become a professional musician. This

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is where he meets the Circle of Wranglers. Exactly.

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He's stationed in Atlanta. He's got his fiddle

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and he starts playing in the special services

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band, a country group for the troops. And the

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guy who started that band was a big star named

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Farron Young. Farron Young is a massive name

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in country music at the time. Huge. Then later,

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when he's stationed in South Carolina, he meets

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a surgeon whose brother happens to be Jethro

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Burns of the legendary musical comedy duo Homer

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and Jethro. So he's rubbing shoulders with the

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industry. These are heavy hitters. And that sergeant,

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Jethro's brother, heard him play and basically

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told him, point blank, you have too much raw

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talent for this. As soon as you get out, go to

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Nashville. So he gets out of the army. He has

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his orders. Go to Nashville. But I want to pause

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here for a second because I think people have

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a really romanticized view of Nashville in the

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1950s. They picture everyone sitting around a

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campfire, strumming guitars and being friends.

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And it was nothing like that. By the late 50s,

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Nashville was a factory. It was an industry town

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and it was dominated by a very specific sound.

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The Nashville sound. Can you explain that for

00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.879
us? Sure. The Nashville sound was all about polish.

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It was a deliberate move led by producers like

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Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley to make So less

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twang. A lot less twang. They were actively removing

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the fiddles and the steel guitars, the things

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that sounded hick, and replacing them with smooth

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backing vocals, the oohs and ahs and lush string

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sections. They wanted to sell records to people

00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:46.179
in New York and L .A. They wanted smooth. And

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into this world of smooth, here comes Roger Miller.

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Who is the absolute opposite of smooth. He's

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frantic. He's twitchy. He's unapologetically

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rural. He's weird. Weird, he shows up in Nashville

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with nothing. No money, no connections really,

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no guitar. And somehow he manages to get an audition

00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:03.720
with the chief architect of the Nashville sound

00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:06.179
himself, Chet Atkins. It's the meeting of the

00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:09.879
unstoppable force and the immovable object. Miller

00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:12.639
walks into Chet Atkins' office at RCA Records,

00:12:12.899 --> 00:12:15.179
has to borrow a guitar from Chet because he doesn't

00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:17.240
own one. Which is already not a great start.

00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:20.679
Not a great look. And he completely chokes. He

00:12:20.679 --> 00:12:22.580
just freezes up. I bet it was at one of the sources

00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:25.809
say. Catastrophic. The story is that he was so

00:12:25.809 --> 00:12:28.490
nervous, his hands and his voice just went in

00:12:28.490 --> 00:12:31.009
two different directions. He was playing the

00:12:31.009 --> 00:12:33.970
guitar in one key and singing in a completely

00:12:33.970 --> 00:12:36.070
different key at the same time. Ah, that makes

00:12:36.070 --> 00:12:40.210
my skin crawl. Just imagining it. The dissonance.

00:12:40.529 --> 00:12:42.990
And Chet Atkins, who was a legendary perfectionist

00:12:42.990 --> 00:12:45.769
and a guitar virtuoso, he wasn't impressed. He

00:12:45.769 --> 00:12:48.110
basically patted him on the head and said, come

00:12:48.110 --> 00:12:50.629
back when you've had some more experience, kid.

00:12:50.850 --> 00:12:53.899
So that's a dead end. The main gate is closed.

00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.679
What does he do? He hustles. He becomes the singing

00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:59.799
bellhop. He gets a job carrying bags at the Andrew

00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:02.080
Jackson Hotel downtown. A famous spot where all

00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.240
the music people stayed. Exactly. And this becomes

00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:06.519
his strategy. He's carrying luggage, but every

00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:08.360
time he gets a captive audience in the elevator,

00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:11.500
a producer, a songwriter, an A &R man, he starts

00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:13.580
singing his original songs. It's relentless,

00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:15.580
isn't it? You have to admire the drive. It had

00:13:15.580 --> 00:13:17.419
to be. He had no other choice. But eventually,

00:13:17.580 --> 00:13:20.059
it was the fiddle that saved him. Minnie Pearl,

00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.600
who was absolute royalty at the... Grand Ole

00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.059
Ale Opry needed a fiddle player for her band.

00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.019
Roger got the gig. And that gets him in the door.

00:13:28.100 --> 00:13:31.019
That gets him backstage. Correct. And that opens

00:13:31.019 --> 00:13:33.360
up the songwriting rooms. Through Minnie Pearl,

00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:36.379
he meets George Jones, he gets a real audition

00:13:36.379 --> 00:13:39.240
at Starday Records, and suddenly people in town

00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:42.159
start to realize, okay, this kid is a real weird

00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:46.460
singer, but man, can he write a song? But even

00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:49.590
then, it wasn't a straight line to success. I

00:13:49.590 --> 00:13:51.649
was so surprised to read about the fireman chapter

00:13:51.649 --> 00:13:54.169
of his life. This is my favorite detour in his

00:13:54.169 --> 00:13:56.409
whole story. It's so telling. So he's writing

00:13:56.409 --> 00:13:59.409
songs with George Jones, a future legend. Things

00:13:59.409 --> 00:14:02.450
are starting to happen. But he's still broke.

00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:04.590
Totally broke. By this point, he has a wife,

00:14:04.730 --> 00:14:07.870
Barbara, and a new baby to support. The royalty

00:14:07.870 --> 00:14:09.490
checks are just trickling in. They're not coming

00:14:09.490 --> 00:14:12.460
fast enough. So he panics. He has a crisis of

00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:14.580
confidence and quits the music business entirely.

00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:17.159
He just leaves in Nashville. He packs up and

00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:19.379
moves his family to Amarillo, Texas, and joins

00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:22.039
the fire department. I cannot for the life of

00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:24.980
me picture Roger Miller, the scat -singing wild

00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.740
man, sliding down a pole and putting out fires.

00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:30.000
Well, neither could the Amarillo fire department,

00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:32.220
it turns out. He told a great story about it

00:14:32.220 --> 00:14:35.240
later. He claimed he only saw two fires the entire

00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:38.100
time he was on the job. Only two? One was a small

00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:40.399
fire in a chicken coop, and the other one...

00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.440
He slept through the alarm. He slept through

00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:45.659
a fire alarm at the fire station. That's the

00:14:45.659 --> 00:14:47.940
legend. So the fire chief basically pulled him

00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:50.539
aside one day and said, son, you're a nice guy,

00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.039
but you are going to get someone killed. Go back

00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:55.740
to Nashville and sing your songs. So he essentially

00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:58.480
failed at being a normal person. Exactly. And

00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:00.759
I think that's such a crucial insight into his

00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:03.460
psychology. He didn't choose music just because

00:15:03.460 --> 00:15:05.940
it was fun or glamorous. He chose it because

00:15:05.940 --> 00:15:08.159
he was fundamentally unemployable everywhere

00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:11.259
else. His brain just did not work. in a normal

00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:13.960
nine to five structured way. Let's talk about

00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:16.279
that brain, because when he does go back to Nashville,

00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:21.500
he enters this really fertile golden era of songwriting

00:15:21.500 --> 00:15:24.179
for other people. He's not the star yet. He's

00:15:24.179 --> 00:15:26.879
the guy behind the scenes. He joins Ray Price's

00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:29.379
band, the Cherokee Cowboys, and he starts churning

00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:32.539
out massive hits. Invitation to the Blues for

00:15:32.539 --> 00:15:35.919
Ray Price, Half a Mind for Ernest Tubb, and then

00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:39.360
the big one, Billy Bayou. For Jim Reeves. Billy

00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.059
Bayou was his first number one hit as a writer.

00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:45.580
Suddenly, he was the go -to guy in town if you

00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.059
needed a hit song. But the stories about how

00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:50.960
he wrote these songs are just unbelievable. Buddy

00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:53.179
Killen, who ran the Powerful Tree Publishing

00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:56.519
Company, said he basically had to stalk Roger

00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:59.600
Miller. Stalk him. Why? Because Roger's mind

00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:02.220
never shut off. He would just see things in casual

00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:04.620
conversation. He'd be telling a joke or ranting

00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:07.759
about something. And a brilliant... million dollar

00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:09.940
lyric would just fall out of his mouth. That

00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:11.720
he wouldn't write it down. He wouldn't even notice

00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:13.779
it. He'd just keep talking. So Buddy Killen literally

00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:15.659
had to follow him around town with a notepad

00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:17.799
writing down the genius things that Roger was

00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:19.940
just throwing away in conversation. It sounds

00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:22.019
like he had no filter between his brain and his

00:16:22.019 --> 00:16:25.500
mouth. Zero. The country star Bill Anderson famously

00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:28.080
described him as the most talented and the least

00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:30.100
disciplined person he had ever met in his life.

00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:33.009
And Miller had that great self -aware quote about

00:16:33.009 --> 00:16:35.570
his own brain. Which one? He said, it starts

00:16:35.570 --> 00:16:38.090
working before you're even born and doesn't stop

00:16:38.090 --> 00:16:40.730
again until you sit down to write a song. Meaning

00:16:40.730 --> 00:16:43.409
the moment he tries to work, the pressure makes

00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.269
it shut off. Exactly. The magic had to be spontaneous.

00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:49.169
It had to feel like play if it felt like work.

00:16:49.389 --> 00:16:52.450
He just couldn't do it. The well went dry. So

00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:55.389
he's a successful songwriter. He's finally making

00:16:55.389 --> 00:16:59.049
good money. But he wants to be the star. He wants

00:16:59.049 --> 00:17:01.370
to be the one singing the songs. Of course. Every

00:17:01.370 --> 00:17:04.890
songwriter does. And he tries. He gets a recording

00:17:04.890 --> 00:17:08.710
deal with Decca Records in 1958. And it flops.

00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:11.190
Completely bombs. They didn't know how to market

00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:14.029
him. So then he goes on tour as a drummer for

00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:16.690
Farron Young just to make money. And the story

00:17:16.690 --> 00:17:18.529
is he'd never even played the drums before. He

00:17:18.529 --> 00:17:20.829
was faking it. The ultimate hustler. Then he

00:17:20.829 --> 00:17:23.430
gets that second chance with RCA, signed by Chet

00:17:23.430 --> 00:17:25.589
Atkins, the same guy who rejected him years before.

00:17:25.789 --> 00:17:27.849
And he actually has a top ten hit this time.

00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:30.289
with a song he co -wrote with Bill Anderson,

00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:33.450
When Two Worlds Collide. So this should be it.

00:17:33.549 --> 00:17:35.990
This should be his moment. But then he completely

00:17:35.990 --> 00:17:39.329
blows it up. Why? Because the wild child persona

00:17:39.329 --> 00:17:42.690
wasn't an act. It was real. He got bored with

00:17:42.690 --> 00:17:46.029
success. He was restless. He divorced his wife.

00:17:46.170 --> 00:17:47.829
And he started hitting the pills. The amphetamines,

00:17:47.829 --> 00:17:50.430
yeah. They became a huge part of his life in

00:17:50.430 --> 00:17:53.430
the early 60s. He became unreliable. He was showing

00:17:53.430 --> 00:17:55.329
up late for recording sessions or not showing

00:17:55.329 --> 00:17:59.109
up at all. And RCA, a very buttoned down corporation,

00:17:59.529 --> 00:18:01.809
looked at the balance sheet and said, this guy

00:18:01.809 --> 00:18:04.009
is not worth the trouble. So they dropped him.

00:18:04.069 --> 00:18:06.170
They dropped him. So let's take Stock. It's now

00:18:06.170 --> 00:18:09.289
1964. He's been dropped by two major labels.

00:18:09.710 --> 00:18:12.730
He's divorced. He's broke again. He's got a reputation

00:18:12.730 --> 00:18:15.269
for being a flake. This feels like the end of

00:18:15.269 --> 00:18:17.329
the movie. It absolutely should have been the

00:18:17.329 --> 00:18:19.869
end. He thought it was. He was seriously planning

00:18:19.869 --> 00:18:22.069
to give up music and move to Hollywood to try

00:18:22.069 --> 00:18:24.130
to become an actor because he figured his recording

00:18:24.130 --> 00:18:26.839
career was dead. But he needed cash. Just gas

00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:28.839
money to get out of town. Right. So he walks

00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:31.539
into the smaller label, Smash Records. Smash

00:18:31.539 --> 00:18:34.559
wasn't a powerhouse like RCA, right? No, Smash

00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:37.500
was a subsidiary of Mercury Records. They were

00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:40.440
scrappier, more willing to take a risk. And Miller

00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.740
makes them an offer that sounds completely insane

00:18:42.740 --> 00:18:45.359
today. What was the deal? He basically says,

00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:49.859
look, I'm in debt. Give me $1 ,600 in cash right

00:18:49.859 --> 00:18:53.079
now, and I will give you 16 completed sides.

00:18:53.460 --> 00:18:56.380
Okay, explain sides for the younger listeners.

00:18:56.660 --> 00:19:00.319
16 finished songs. an album and a half's worth

00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.200
of material he was selling his art for a hundred

00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.019
dollars a song that is desperation pricing that's

00:19:06.019 --> 00:19:08.180
a fire sale and smash took the deal they probably

00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:10.240
thought hey he's a great songwriter maybe we'll

00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:12.700
get one or two usable tracks out of this they

00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:15.140
had no idea they were basically buying the winning

00:19:15.140 --> 00:19:18.640
powerball ticket for 1600 bucks so he goes into

00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.450
the recording booth And this session is now the

00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:23.910
stuff of Nashville legend. It really is. In one

00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:25.829
of his first sessions for Smash, he records,

00:19:25.970 --> 00:19:28.369
Dang me. Dang me, dang me, they ought to take

00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.549
a rope and hang me. Yeah. On the surface, it's

00:19:30.549 --> 00:19:33.190
just a silly, goofy song. It sounds like a nursery

00:19:33.190 --> 00:19:35.990
rhyme for delinquents. But if you listen closer,

00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:39.109
everything about it is bizarre. First of all,

00:19:39.150 --> 00:19:41.869
he claimed he wrote it in four minutes in a hotel

00:19:41.869 --> 00:19:45.549
room in Phoenix. Four minutes? Just pure, uncut

00:19:45.549 --> 00:19:48.690
stream of consciousness. But musically, it's

00:19:48.690 --> 00:19:51.170
really weird. It's got this shuffling, jazzy

00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:54.170
rhythm. It is not traditional country music.

00:19:54.329 --> 00:19:57.289
And his vocal performance. It's unhinged. He's

00:19:57.289 --> 00:20:00.150
doing these vocal riffs, these nonsense scat

00:20:00.150 --> 00:20:03.450
syllables, high from a heavy limb. He's almost

00:20:03.450 --> 00:20:05.849
yodeling, but he's swinging it like a beatnik

00:20:05.849 --> 00:20:08.150
jazz singer. It's that jazz influence finally

00:20:08.150 --> 00:20:10.369
coming on his own recordings. It is. It's like

00:20:10.369 --> 00:20:13.210
beatnik coffeehouse culture crashing headfirst

00:20:13.210 --> 00:20:15.769
into the Grand Ole Opry. And for some reason,

00:20:15.809 --> 00:20:18.450
it just connected. It exploded. It went to number

00:20:18.450 --> 00:20:20.589
one on the country chart and number seven on

00:20:20.589 --> 00:20:23.269
the pop charts, on the Hot 100. All of a sudden,

00:20:23.309 --> 00:20:25.049
the guy who's begging for gas money is one of

00:20:25.049 --> 00:20:27.450
the biggest recording stars in the entire country.

00:20:27.849 --> 00:20:30.130
And then from that same creative explosion, from

00:20:30.130 --> 00:20:32.930
those same sessions, comes the big one, the career

00:20:32.930 --> 00:20:35.569
-defining song. King of the Road. And what's

00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:37.849
so interesting is to contrast the creation of

00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:41.390
Dang Me with King of the Road. Oh, so. Dang Me

00:20:41.390 --> 00:20:43.470
took four minutes. It was a lightning strike.

00:20:43.710 --> 00:20:46.369
King of the Road, he labored over for months.

00:20:46.430 --> 00:20:48.210
Why the difference? What made that one so hard?

00:20:48.390 --> 00:20:50.450
Because King of the Road isn't a nonsense song.

00:20:50.569 --> 00:20:53.789
It's a masterpiece of lyrical economy. Every

00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:57.609
single word is perfect. Trailers for sale or

00:20:57.609 --> 00:21:01.829
rent. Rooms to let. 50 cents. He's painting a

00:21:01.829 --> 00:21:04.470
complete vivid picture with just a handful of

00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:06.549
words. And he got the idea from seeing a sign,

00:21:06.609 --> 00:21:08.710
right? Yeah, he saw a sign on the side of a barn

00:21:08.710 --> 00:21:11.150
outside Chicago that just said, trailers for

00:21:11.150 --> 00:21:14.029
sale or rent. And it stuck in his head, but he

00:21:14.029 --> 00:21:15.730
didn't know what to do with it for a long time.

00:21:15.890 --> 00:21:18.619
And then the hobo. Later, he was in an airport

00:21:18.619 --> 00:21:21.720
gift shop in Boise, Idaho, of all places, and

00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:24.180
he bought a little wooden statuette of a hobo

00:21:24.180 --> 00:21:26.700
and he just stared at it. And he started thinking

00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:29.079
about the life of a drifter, a man with no attachments.

00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:32.119
Which in many ways he basically was at that point

00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:34.460
in his life. Exactly. He was writing his own

00:21:34.460 --> 00:21:36.579
autobiography, but he dressed it up as this romantic

00:21:36.579 --> 00:21:40.480
hobo character. No phone, no pool, no pets. I

00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:42.960
ain't got no cigarettes. It's the ultimate anthem

00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:46.430
of freedom. And the sound of it. That cool jazzy

00:21:46.430 --> 00:21:49.349
bass line and the finger snap. The finger snap

00:21:49.349 --> 00:21:52.150
is iconic. When that record hit in 1965, it was

00:21:52.150 --> 00:21:55.089
an absolute phenomenon. It went gold almost instantly.

00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:57.210
And that royalty check. The royalty check he

00:21:57.210 --> 00:21:59.289
got that summer, just one check for that one

00:21:59.289 --> 00:22:03.430
song, was for $160 ,000. Okay, let's do the inflation

00:22:03.430 --> 00:22:06.769
calculator on that in our heads. $160 ,000 in

00:22:06.769 --> 00:22:10.640
1965 is what? Today, it's well over a million

00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:13.480
and a half dollars in one check. So he goes from

00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:15.380
I need sixteen hundred dollars or I'm quitting

00:22:15.380 --> 00:22:17.819
the business to being a millionaire in the span

00:22:17.819 --> 00:22:20.900
of about 18 months. What does that do to a person's

00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:23.480
psychology, especially a person who is already,

00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:26.619
by his own admission, unstable and undisciplined?

00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:29.180
It validates the chaos. That's the danger, right?

00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.720
If you act crazy, if you break all the rules

00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:33.400
and the world responds by handing you a million

00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:35.660
dollars and a pile of gold trophies, you learn

00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:38.740
that acting crazy works. And the trophies definitely

00:22:38.740 --> 00:22:40.700
came. We have to talk about the Grammy Awards

00:22:40.700 --> 00:22:44.400
because I think people hear 11 Grammys and they

00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:46.500
assume, oh, that's over a long, distinguished

00:22:46.500 --> 00:22:49.279
career. No, that's the incredible part. He won

00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:54.319
11 Grammys in two years, 1964 and 1965. That

00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:57.259
is statistically absurd. It's a level of dominance

00:22:57.259 --> 00:22:59.779
that's hard to even process. He was winning everything.

00:23:00.259 --> 00:23:03.799
Best country song for Dang Me. Best contemporary

00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:06.720
vocal performance for King of the Road. Best

00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:08.660
New Country and Western Artist. He was beating

00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:10.880
the Beatles in some categories. He was beating

00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:13.819
Frank Sinatra. He was beating serious jazz artists.

00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:17.259
For two years, Roger Miller was the undisputed

00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:19.559
center of the American musical universe. And

00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:22.019
he was just churning out hit after hit, Kansas

00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:24.380
City Star. Which is such a clever, funny song

00:23:24.380 --> 00:23:26.559
about a guy who's a big fish in a small pond

00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:29.380
and is too scared to leave. England Swings, Husbands

00:23:29.380 --> 00:23:31.339
and Wives. And Husbands and Wives is the one

00:23:31.339 --> 00:23:33.180
that really proves he wasn't just a clown. It's

00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:36.400
a sad... Beautiful, mid -tempo waltz. Two broken

00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:38.960
hearts, lonely, looking like houses where nobody

00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.140
lives. That is a devastatingly good line. It

00:23:42.140 --> 00:23:45.339
shows he understood pain just as profoundly as

00:23:45.339 --> 00:23:47.680
he understood nonsense. But then, just as quickly,

00:23:47.819 --> 00:23:50.599
he would pivot back to something like, you can't

00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:52.680
roller skate in a buffalo herd. Which he later

00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:54.799
said was his favorite song he ever wrote. And

00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:56.720
I love that about him. What's the philosophy

00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:00.200
there? I think the message is, life is dangerous

00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.000
and chaotic and unpredictable. It's a buffalo

00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:06.339
herd. But you can still be happy and find joy

00:24:06.339 --> 00:24:09.680
if you choose to. It's basically existentialism

00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:12.700
for cowboys. So we're at the absolute peak. It's

00:24:12.700 --> 00:24:17.059
1966, 1967. He's so famous he gets his own network

00:24:17.059 --> 00:24:19.759
TV show on NBC. The Roger Miller Show. It didn't

00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:21.559
last long, but it was a huge deal at the time.

00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:24.180
He even opens his own hotel in Nashville. The

00:24:24.180 --> 00:24:26.789
King of the Road Inn. And this place sounds like

00:24:26.789 --> 00:24:28.650
the setting of a Wes Anderson movie. It sounds

00:24:28.650 --> 00:24:30.930
completely surreal. It was. It was the height

00:24:30.930 --> 00:24:34.529
of 70s chic, even though it opened in 1970. It

00:24:34.529 --> 00:24:36.710
had a rooftop lounge and a swimming pool shaped

00:24:36.710 --> 00:24:39.210
like a guitar. And the penthouse suite where

00:24:39.210 --> 00:24:41.990
Miller stayed, it had a swinging double bed suspended

00:24:41.990 --> 00:24:44.269
from the ceiling. A swinging bed? It was the

00:24:44.269 --> 00:24:46.730
70s. We're close to it. It became the unofficial

00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:49.190
clubhouse for the entire Nashville music scene.

00:24:49.529 --> 00:24:52.069
If you were anybody, Waylon Jennings, Johnny

00:24:52.069 --> 00:24:55.599
Cash. Dolly Parton, you were hanging out at the

00:24:55.599 --> 00:24:57.960
King of the Road Inn. Miller was holding court

00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:00.640
every night. But this is also where the decline

00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:04.329
begins. Yeah. You can't maintain that pace. You

00:25:04.329 --> 00:25:06.430
can't sprint a marathon. The hits started to

00:25:06.430 --> 00:25:09.329
dry up. The music industry changed around him.

00:25:09.450 --> 00:25:11.410
The outlaw movement started happening. Exactly.

00:25:11.470 --> 00:25:14.349
You have Waylon and Willie and Kris Kristofferson

00:25:14.349 --> 00:25:16.609
coming in with a much grittier, more serious

00:25:16.609 --> 00:25:19.890
sound. And Miller was sort of caught in the middle.

00:25:19.970 --> 00:25:21.910
He was too pop for the outlaws, but he was too

00:25:21.910 --> 00:25:24.849
weird and country for the new pop music. He just

00:25:24.849 --> 00:25:27.269
started to drift. And the pills. The pills were

00:25:27.269 --> 00:25:29.549
a constant. He talked about it later. He called

00:25:29.549 --> 00:25:33.190
it a snake pit I got into. He was using amphetamines

00:25:33.190 --> 00:25:36.119
to... that manic creative energy firing to keep

00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:39.200
the brain going 2047 but eventually the crash

00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.359
always comes by the late 70s he had basically

00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:45.140
just stopped writing songs he felt like his best

00:25:45.140 --> 00:25:47.779
work was behind him that he wasn't really appreciated

00:25:47.779 --> 00:25:50.359
for his artistry anymore he felt irrelevant but

00:25:50.359 --> 00:25:53.000
then a fox and a bear save his career disney

00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.240
comes calling it is such a weird unexpected left

00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:00.019
turn in his story how does the king of the road

00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:03.420
the amphetamine -fueled wild child, end up as

00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:05.539
the voice of a rooster in Disney's Robin Hood.

00:26:05.700 --> 00:26:08.279
Disney was making the film in 1973, and they

00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:11.180
needed a narrator. They wanted a kind of folksy,

00:26:11.180 --> 00:26:14.180
wandering minstrel vibe. And someone on the production

00:26:14.180 --> 00:26:17.099
team had the brilliant, out -of -the -box idea

00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:20.579
to cast Roger Miller as the voice of the rooster,

00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:22.799
Alan Adele. And he didn't just do the voice.

00:26:22.900 --> 00:26:25.740
He wrote and performed three original songs for

00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:28.660
the movie. Oodalally, Not in Nottingham, and

00:26:28.660 --> 00:26:31.680
Whistle Stop. And Not in Nottingham is a surprisingly

00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:34.980
dark and melancholy song for a kid's movie. It's

00:26:34.980 --> 00:26:36.900
sung by the villagers who are in debtor's prison.

00:26:36.980 --> 00:26:39.200
It's about hopelessness and poverty. He tapped

00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:41.519
right back into that Eric Oklahoma Depression

00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:44.259
era feeling. Absolutely. But it was Whistle Stop,

00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:46.500
that little instrumental piece that had the weirdest

00:26:46.500 --> 00:26:48.940
afterlife of all. The hamster dance? Oh, the

00:26:48.940 --> 00:26:50.319
hamster dance. I feel like I have to explain

00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:52.279
this for our Gen Z listeners who might have missed

00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:56.119
it. In the late 1990s, the Internet was this

00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:00.349
new lawless place. And one of the very first

00:27:00.349 --> 00:27:04.190
viral memes was a single web page with rows and

00:27:04.190 --> 00:27:06.950
rows of crudely animated dancing hamsters. And

00:27:06.950 --> 00:27:09.150
the music playing on an endless maddening loop

00:27:09.150 --> 00:27:12.349
was a sped up version of Roger Miller's Whistle

00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:15.369
Stop from Robin Hood. Millions, maybe billions

00:27:15.369 --> 00:27:17.369
of people heard that song and had absolutely

00:27:17.369 --> 00:27:19.509
no idea it was written by the same guy who wrote

00:27:19.509 --> 00:27:21.589
King of the Road. You know, I think Miller would

00:27:21.589 --> 00:27:24.250
have absolutely loved that. It's pure, unadulterated

00:27:24.250 --> 00:27:27.289
absurdity. It fits his brand perfectly. So the

00:27:27.289 --> 00:27:52.549
Disney movie. To the New York theater elite.

00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:55.839
Country music was seen as lowbrow. It was simple.

00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:58.500
It was hillbilly music. And to the Nashville

00:27:58.500 --> 00:28:02.259
crowd, Broadway was, you know, fancy and pretentious.

00:28:02.460 --> 00:28:05.079
For a country singer to be asked to write...

00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:08.470
A full Broadway musical score. It was unheard

00:28:08.470 --> 00:28:11.029
of. It was seen as a joke. But the producers

00:28:11.029 --> 00:28:14.089
of a new show called Big River, which was a musical

00:28:14.089 --> 00:28:16.190
adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of

00:28:16.190 --> 00:28:19.289
Huckleberry Finn, they wanted authenticity. They

00:28:19.289 --> 00:28:21.309
didn't want a guy from Juilliard pretending to

00:28:21.309 --> 00:28:23.329
understand the Mississippi River Valley. They

00:28:23.329 --> 00:28:25.890
wanted the real thing. So they reached out to

00:28:25.890 --> 00:28:28.609
Roger Miller. And here is the kicker, the most

00:28:28.609 --> 00:28:30.970
unbelievable part of this story. Roger Miller

00:28:30.970 --> 00:28:32.890
had never read Huckleberry Finn. He hadn't read

00:28:32.890 --> 00:28:34.950
the book, one of the great American novels. Nope.

00:28:35.009 --> 00:28:37.150
But when the producers explained the story to

00:28:37.150 --> 00:28:39.950
him about a poor boy and a runaway slave floating

00:28:39.950 --> 00:28:42.130
down a river trying to find freedom, dealing

00:28:42.130 --> 00:28:44.589
with poverty and con men and the harsh realities

00:28:44.589 --> 00:28:47.390
of rural life, Miller said, I don't need to read

00:28:47.390 --> 00:28:49.990
the book. I know that story. That's my childhood.

00:28:50.130 --> 00:28:52.730
It resonated with the Eric Oklahoma experience,

00:28:53.109 --> 00:28:56.049
the poverty, the feeling of being an outcast.

00:28:56.519 --> 00:28:59.579
deeply but the writing process was absolute torture

00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:02.839
for him remember this is a guy who wrote dang

00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:06.819
me in four minutes writing a complex narratively

00:29:06.819 --> 00:29:10.019
driven musical score takes years of discipline

00:29:10.019 --> 00:29:12.119
work how did he handle that kind of structure

00:29:12.119 --> 00:29:15.369
and discipline Well, at first. The sources say

00:29:15.369 --> 00:29:17.230
it took him a year and a half just to get the

00:29:17.230 --> 00:29:19.509
opening number right. He wanted to quit a dozen

00:29:19.509 --> 00:29:21.609
times. He felt like a fraud. But he stuck with

00:29:21.609 --> 00:29:24.529
it. He did. And this is where his genius really

00:29:24.529 --> 00:29:26.990
matured. He realized he couldn't just wait for

00:29:26.990 --> 00:29:29.369
a lightning bolt of inspiration to strike. He

00:29:29.369 --> 00:29:32.180
had to sit down and craft it. Note by note, line

00:29:32.180 --> 00:29:34.460
by line. And the result? Big River opened on

00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:37.660
Broadway in 1985, and the critics who were sharpening

00:29:37.660 --> 00:29:40.059
their knives, ready to shred this country bumpkin,

00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:42.579
were absolutely floored. They loved it. The score

00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:45.019
is sophisticated, it's literary, it's deeply

00:29:45.019 --> 00:29:47.480
emotional and funny and wise. And the Tonys?

00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:50.500
It won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical,

00:29:50.700 --> 00:29:52.920
and Roger Miller won the Tony Award for Best

00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:55.160
Original Score. So he conquered the radio, he

00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:57.180
conquered television, and now he has conquered

00:29:57.180 --> 00:30:00.420
Broadway. It's the ultimate validation of his

00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:02.700
genius from the last place you'd ever expect

00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:05.579
it. It was. He even took over the role of Pap

00:30:05.579 --> 00:30:08.259
Finn, Huck's drunken, abusive father, in the

00:30:08.259 --> 00:30:11.559
show for three months. It was a massive, triumphant

00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:15.220
victory lap. But the body keeps the score. All

00:30:15.220 --> 00:30:18.220
those years of hard living. They do. Miller was

00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:21.500
a lifelong unrepentant smoker. I mean, a chain

00:30:21.500 --> 00:30:23.720
smoker. There's a famous clip of him on a TV

00:30:23.720 --> 00:30:26.680
show where the host asks him, what do you do

00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:28.960
with all the little bits and pieces of song ideas

00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:31.519
that you write down but don't use? And what did

00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:33.619
he say? He taps his cigarette and says, with

00:30:33.619 --> 00:30:35.759
a straight face, I smoke them. He joked about

00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.400
everything, even his own vices. He wrote a song

00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:40.960
called Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit. He

00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:43.680
did. But in 1991, he started having trouble with

00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:45.640
his voice. He was diagnosed with a malignant

00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:48.759
tumor. It was under his vocal cords. The cruelest

00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.400
possible place for a singer and a songwriter.

00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.680
He fought it for a while. He went through treatment.

00:30:53.980 --> 00:30:56.900
He did one last televised performance. It was

00:30:56.900 --> 00:30:59.119
a tribute to Minnie Pearl, the woman who gave

00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:01.339
him his first real job in Nashville all those

00:31:01.339 --> 00:31:04.279
years ago. The show aired the day after he died.

00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:08.880
He passed away on October 25, 1992. He was only

00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:11.920
56 years old. Which is just tragically young.

00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:13.819
When you think of all the music he still had

00:31:13.819 --> 00:31:16.079
in him. But his legacy, I mean, it didn't just

00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:19.019
end there. His third wife, Mary Arnold, who had

00:31:19.019 --> 00:31:20.759
been a singer in Kenny Rogers' band, The First

00:31:20.759 --> 00:31:23.359
Edition, she fought for him even after he was

00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:25.680
gone. That's a huge and important part of the

00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:28.039
story. She took over management of his estate.

00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:31.880
She famously sued Sony Music to get the copyrights

00:31:31.880 --> 00:31:33.680
to his songs back into the family's control.

00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.019
And she won a major victory. She made sure that

00:31:37.019 --> 00:31:39.059
he wasn't just remembered as a footnote, but

00:31:39.059 --> 00:31:41.380
as the owner and author of his incredible body

00:31:41.380 --> 00:31:43.720
of work. She's a huge reason his legacy is as

00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:46.150
strong as it is today. We've laid out all the

00:31:46.150 --> 00:31:48.970
facts. We've seen the dirt poor kid, the manic

00:31:48.970 --> 00:31:51.950
hit songwriter, the washed up star, and the unexpected

00:31:51.950 --> 00:31:54.349
Broadway legend. But I want to go back to that

00:31:54.349 --> 00:31:55.930
thought we started this whole deep dive with,

00:31:56.049 --> 00:31:59.130
the central paradox. The wild child versus the

00:31:59.130 --> 00:32:01.750
genius. We live in a world now that is completely

00:32:01.750 --> 00:32:04.470
obsessed with optimization. We want productivity

00:32:04.470 --> 00:32:07.529
hacks. We use AI to write our emails for us.

00:32:07.569 --> 00:32:09.910
We want everything to be efficient and clean

00:32:09.910 --> 00:32:12.690
and predictable. And Roger Miller was the absolute

00:32:12.690 --> 00:32:15.529
opposite of efficient. He was messy. He was chaotic.

00:32:15.890 --> 00:32:19.410
He was, by Bill Anderson's own words, undisciplined.

00:32:19.549 --> 00:32:22.930
And yet he produced art that an algorithm could

00:32:22.930 --> 00:32:25.990
never, ever predict. Absolutely not. If you fed

00:32:25.990 --> 00:32:28.349
a computer all the data on what made a hit country

00:32:28.349 --> 00:32:31.650
song in 1964, it would never in a million years

00:32:31.650 --> 00:32:33.710
spit out do -whack -a -do. It would never think

00:32:33.710 --> 00:32:36.269
to rhyme purple with maple -surple, which Miller

00:32:36.269 --> 00:32:38.470
essentially did by just bending the language

00:32:38.470 --> 00:32:41.140
to his will. He represents that purely human

00:32:41.140 --> 00:32:44.099
spark, the idea that maybe true creativity isn't

00:32:44.099 --> 00:32:46.819
an orderly process. Maybe it's actually a malfunction.

00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:49.680
It's your brain misfiring in a beautiful and

00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:51.900
unexpected way. It goes back to his quote, the

00:32:51.900 --> 00:32:53.859
human mind doesn't stop working until you sit

00:32:53.859 --> 00:32:56.079
down to write a song. That's the lesson, isn't

00:32:56.079 --> 00:32:58.589
it? Maybe we need to stop trying to tame the

00:32:58.589 --> 00:33:01.509
chaos in our own creative lives. Maybe we need

00:33:01.509 --> 00:33:03.789
to stop trying to be so efficient and just let

00:33:03.789 --> 00:33:06.390
the mind run wild a little bit more. You might

00:33:06.390 --> 00:33:08.769
end up in a snake pit. Sure, that's a real risk.

00:33:08.950 --> 00:33:11.170
But you also might just end up with King of the

00:33:11.170 --> 00:33:14.369
Road. And I think in the end, that is a risk

00:33:14.369 --> 00:33:16.809
worth taking. Absolutely. So next time you hear

00:33:16.809 --> 00:33:19.329
that cartoon rooster whistling, take a second

00:33:19.329 --> 00:33:22.420
to remember the guy behind the beak. the dirt

00:33:22.420 --> 00:33:24.940
poor eighth grade dropout genius from Oklahoma

00:33:24.940 --> 00:33:27.839
who smoked his bad ideas and turned the good

00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:30.200
ones into pure gold. Thanks for diving deep with

00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:32.420
us. See you next time. Welcome to the debate.

00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:36.660
Today we are opening the ledger on a man who

00:33:36.660 --> 00:33:39.339
might be the single biggest paradox in the history

00:33:39.339 --> 00:33:42.809
of American music. If you only know the radio

00:33:42.809 --> 00:33:44.930
hits, you likely know him as the guy who sang

00:33:44.930 --> 00:33:47.309
about, you know, trailers for sale or rent, or

00:33:47.309 --> 00:33:49.609
maybe as the voice of a rooster in Disney's Robin

00:33:49.609 --> 00:33:52.650
Hood. But if you look past the cartoons and the

00:33:52.650 --> 00:33:56.289
cigarette smoke, you find a man with 11 Grammys,

00:33:56.390 --> 00:33:59.890
a Tony Award winning Broadway score, and a reputation

00:33:59.890 --> 00:34:02.730
among his peers as a genius who simply couldn't

00:34:02.730 --> 00:34:05.109
be contained. We are talking about Roger Miller.

00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:07.660
So the question we really need to answer today

00:34:07.660 --> 00:34:11.360
is this. Was Roger Miller a sophisticated, genre

00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:13.840
-bending musical savant who just happened to

00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:17.420
work in Nashville? Or was he primarily a wild

00:34:17.420 --> 00:34:20.780
child novelty act whose success relied on humor,

00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:24.860
total lack of discipline, and the specific constraints

00:34:24.860 --> 00:34:27.219
of the country machine? Yeah, it's good to be

00:34:27.219 --> 00:34:29.960
here. And look, I'm not going to deny the hardware

00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:32.340
on his shelf. I mean, those Grammys are real

00:34:32.340 --> 00:34:35.260
and they are heavy. But I think we have to be

00:34:35.260 --> 00:34:38.239
very careful about this tendency to retroactively

00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:40.460
paint a portrait of some kind of high -minded

00:34:40.460 --> 00:34:43.199
auteur. When you actually look at the biography

00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:45.780
and specifically at how these songs were made,

00:34:45.840 --> 00:34:49.059
you don't find a disciplined composer laboring

00:34:49.059 --> 00:34:52.280
over high art. You find a man defined by instability.

00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.440
by spontaneity, and by a reliance on what critics

00:34:56.440 --> 00:34:58.820
at the time dismissed as, you know, nonsense

00:34:58.820 --> 00:35:02.139
syllables. So my argument is that Miller's brilliance,

00:35:02.260 --> 00:35:05.340
such as it was, came from his status as a wild

00:35:05.340 --> 00:35:08.539
child novelty star, not despite it. See, I think

00:35:08.539 --> 00:35:11.719
that sells him incredibly short. To categorize

00:35:11.719 --> 00:35:14.340
Roger Miller simply as a country singer or a

00:35:14.340 --> 00:35:18.000
novelty act is to fundamentally ignore the complexity

00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:20.960
of the music itself. There's a reason the biography

00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:23.519
Ain't Got No Cigarettes explicitly describes

00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:26.840
him as an uncategorizable talent. We aren't just

00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:28.920
talking about a guy strumming three chords and

00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:31.579
telling a joke. All music points this out very

00:35:31.579 --> 00:35:34.179
clearly. Miller was blending country with jazz,

00:35:34.380 --> 00:35:37.260
blues, and pop in a way nobody else in Nashville

00:35:37.260 --> 00:35:39.989
was doing. He was utilizing unusual harmonic

00:35:39.989 --> 00:35:43.170
and rhythmic devices. I mean, using jazz chords

00:35:43.170 --> 00:35:45.550
in a honky -tonk, playing with tempo in ways

00:35:45.550 --> 00:35:47.730
that threw off the metronome. That isn't the

00:35:47.730 --> 00:35:49.710
work of a court jester. That is the work of a

00:35:49.710 --> 00:35:51.869
musical savant who was bored with the rules.

00:35:52.190 --> 00:35:55.269
You say savant. I say someone who was flying

00:35:55.269 --> 00:35:58.349
by the seat of his pants. You mentioned his peers.

00:35:58.750 --> 00:36:01.750
Let's look at what they actually said. Bill Anderson,

00:36:02.130 --> 00:36:05.429
a giant in the industry, didn't call him a scholar.

00:36:05.900 --> 00:36:08.340
He called Miller the most talented and least

00:36:08.340 --> 00:36:11.119
disciplined person that you could imagine. That

00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:13.420
lack of discipline isn't a footnote. It's the

00:36:13.420 --> 00:36:16.119
headline. His breakthrough didn't come from a

00:36:16.119 --> 00:36:18.860
place of careful composition. It came from pure

00:36:18.860 --> 00:36:22.639
desperation. He needed cash. This is a man known

00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:25.079
as the singing bellhop at the Andrew Jackson

00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:27.599
Hotel. He got fired from the fire department

00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:30.199
in Amarillo for sleeping through a fire. His

00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:33.360
signature style, the scat singing, those vocalese

00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:35.480
riffs where he mimics instruments with his voice,

00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:38.300
Those were gimmicks. They served honky -tonk

00:36:38.300 --> 00:36:40.960
novelty songs like Chug -a -Lug and Doo -Walk

00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:43.820
-a -Doo. They were fun, absolutely, but let's

00:36:43.820 --> 00:36:45.940
not pretend they were high art. They were parlor

00:36:45.940 --> 00:36:48.679
tricks that paid the rent. I think you're mistaking

00:36:48.679 --> 00:36:51.980
the surface for the substance. My stance is that

00:36:51.980 --> 00:36:55.019
Miller was a transcendent artist. You're focusing

00:36:55.019 --> 00:36:57.539
on the novelty hits, but you're ignoring the

00:36:57.539 --> 00:37:00.739
sheer breadth of his career. This is a man who

00:37:00.739 --> 00:37:04.039
wrote the score for Big River in 1985. That show

00:37:04.039 --> 00:37:07.119
won seven Tony Awards. including best score for

00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:09.639
Miller himself, you don't stumble into a Tony

00:37:09.639 --> 00:37:11.639
Award because you're undisciplined or lucky.

00:37:12.039 --> 00:37:15.119
Furthermore, look at his range. He could write

00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:18.099
Husbands and Wives, which is this sincere, mid

00:37:18.099 --> 00:37:20.460
-tempo waltz about the painful quiet of marital

00:37:20.460 --> 00:37:23.219
strife, and then turn around and write the children's

00:37:23.219 --> 00:37:25.780
music for Disney's Robin Hood. That demonstrates

00:37:25.780 --> 00:37:28.420
a sophisticated craftsmanship that completely

00:37:28.420 --> 00:37:31.519
defies the novelty label. He wasn't just throwing

00:37:31.519 --> 00:37:33.920
things at the wall. He was a master who could

00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:37.039
work in any medium. And my position remains that

00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:39.880
while he was talented, his career was defined

00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:42.960
by that lack of discipline and a reliance on

00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:46.559
whimsical lyrics. The wild child persona wasn't

00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:49.960
an act. It was who he was. He admitted himself

00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:52.760
that he got into a snake pit with amphetamines.

00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:56.159
His creative process was chaotic. The fact that

00:37:56.159 --> 00:37:58.639
he had success on Broadway late in life doesn't

00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:01.039
erase the reality that his prime was built on

00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:04.199
being a clown prince. His charm lay in his inability

00:38:04.199 --> 00:38:06.960
to take things seriously, not in some secret,

00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:10.179
sophisticated plan. Okay, but let's dig into

00:38:10.179 --> 00:38:12.420
that chaotic process because I think it actually

00:38:12.420 --> 00:38:16.139
proves my point. You view his speed and his erratic

00:38:16.139 --> 00:38:19.039
nature as a lack of seriousness. I argue that

00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:21.440
his process reveals a mind that was just a constant,

00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:25.039
high -speed creative engine. I just don't buy

00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:29.940
that speed equals genius. Sometimes fast is just

00:38:29.940 --> 00:38:33.079
fast. Let's look at the story of how he signed

00:38:33.079 --> 00:38:36.320
with Smash Records. This moment is pivotal. He

00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:38.380
had been dropped from his previous label, he

00:38:38.380 --> 00:38:40.860
was broke, and he wanted to go to Hollywood to

00:38:40.860 --> 00:38:43.380
be an actor. So he goes to Smash Records and

00:38:43.380 --> 00:38:47.340
essentially begs for $1 ,600 in cash. He needed

00:38:47.340 --> 00:38:50.559
the money to get to L .A. Exactly. It was a transaction.

00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:55.340
He traded recording 16 sides for $1 ,600. That

00:38:55.340 --> 00:38:57.960
is not an artistic vision. That is a pawn shop

00:38:57.960 --> 00:39:01.159
deal. And what happened next? He wrote Dang Me

00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:05.320
in four minutes. Four minutes. He sat down in

00:39:05.320 --> 00:39:07.559
a room and knocked it out faster than it takes

00:39:07.559 --> 00:39:10.280
to boil an egg. He recorded Chuggalug in that

00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:13.340
same session. This suggests a volume over quality

00:39:13.340 --> 00:39:15.880
approach rooted entirely in immediate financial

00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:18.699
need. He was throwing debris at the tape machine,

00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:20.619
hoping something would stick so he could get

00:39:20.619 --> 00:39:23.340
his check. And Dang Me went to number one. If

00:39:23.340 --> 00:39:25.219
you can write a number one hit in four minutes,

00:39:25.300 --> 00:39:28.300
that speaks to a preternatural gift and not laziness.

00:39:28.599 --> 00:39:31.820
I mean, Mozart wrote fast too. But you were cherry

00:39:31.820 --> 00:39:34.019
picking the fast ones to suit your narrative.

00:39:34.460 --> 00:39:37.440
Let's talk about King of the Road. This is arguably

00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:39.920
his signature song. It topped the country in

00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:42.639
adult contemporary charts, hit number four on

00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:44.960
the Billboard Hot 100, and was number one in

00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:48.239
the UK. That song was not a four -minute throwaway.

00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:52.199
It took him months to write. Months? For a song

00:39:52.199 --> 00:39:55.539
that simple, it's basically a finger snap and

00:39:55.539 --> 00:39:59.059
a bass line. Simple is hard. King of the Road

00:39:59.059 --> 00:40:02.719
was a result of meticulous observation. He saw

00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:05.639
a sign in Chicago that read, trailers for sale

00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:08.139
or rent. He didn't just write a song right then.

00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:11.659
He filed it away. Later, he encountered a hobo

00:40:11.659 --> 00:40:14.619
at an airport in Boise, Idaho. He watched this

00:40:14.619 --> 00:40:17.260
guy, studied him. He bought a statuette of a

00:40:17.260 --> 00:40:19.880
hobo at an airport shop and stared at it for

00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:23.090
inspiration. He let those ideas marinate. He

00:40:23.090 --> 00:40:25.409
worked on it until every syllable was perfect.

00:40:25.650 --> 00:40:29.190
No phone, no pool, no pets. That rhythmic cadence

00:40:29.190 --> 00:40:32.269
isn't accidental. And the result? It was certified

00:40:32.269 --> 00:40:35.090
gold, won numerous awards, and earned him a royalty

00:40:35.090 --> 00:40:39.309
check of $160 ,000 in one summer. That proves

00:40:39.309 --> 00:40:42.050
he possessed the patience for sophisticated songcraft

00:40:42.050 --> 00:40:44.329
when the material demanded it. He wasn't just

00:40:44.329 --> 00:40:47.489
a machine gun firing off nonsense. He was a sculptor

00:40:47.489 --> 00:40:50.699
who knew when to chip away slowly. Okay, but

00:40:50.699 --> 00:40:53.780
have you considered how he treated his own ideas?

00:40:54.179 --> 00:40:56.900
You paint him as a sculptor, but he described

00:40:56.900 --> 00:41:00.039
his method as bits and pieces written on scraps

00:41:00.039 --> 00:41:02.880
of paper scattered everywhere. When he was asked

00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:04.960
in a television interview what he did with the

00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:08.780
unused ideas, he half -joked, I smoke them, referencing

00:41:08.780 --> 00:41:11.440
his chain -smoking habit. That doesn't sound

00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:14.400
like a man who reveres the craft. Even back at

00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:17.349
Tree Publishing, his boss Buddy Killen practically

00:41:17.349 --> 00:41:20.530
had to force him to finish pieces. Killen said

00:41:20.530 --> 00:41:23.210
people followed Miller around because everything

00:41:23.210 --> 00:41:25.750
he said was a potential song, and he was known

00:41:25.750 --> 00:41:28.050
to just give away lines to other people. Because

00:41:28.050 --> 00:41:31.030
he had so many. Or because he didn't value them.

00:41:31.369 --> 00:41:34.030
That is the behavior of a chaotic fountain of

00:41:34.030 --> 00:41:36.489
ideas, sure, but not a disciplined composer.

00:41:36.829 --> 00:41:39.610
He was leaking genius. He wasn't bottling it.

00:41:39.829 --> 00:41:42.809
But Miller himself had a deep reverence for that

00:41:42.809 --> 00:41:54.780
fountain. He's quoted as saying, That quote suggests

00:41:54.780 --> 00:41:56.980
a profound understanding of the subconscious

00:41:56.980 --> 00:42:00.139
nature of creativity. He understood that the

00:42:00.139 --> 00:42:02.920
work happens internally before it ever hits the

00:42:02.920 --> 00:42:05.860
page. Whether it took four minutes or four months,

00:42:06.019 --> 00:42:09.159
the processing power behind it was immense. He

00:42:09.159 --> 00:42:11.119
was trusting his gut in a way that, you know,

00:42:11.139 --> 00:42:13.690
academic composers often can't. I think we need

00:42:13.690 --> 00:42:16.130
to look at where this processing power came from,

00:42:16.210 --> 00:42:18.969
though. You can't separate the man from the environment.

00:42:19.610 --> 00:42:21.989
This brings us to the question of genre and identity.

00:42:22.489 --> 00:42:24.650
You want to paint him as this broad entertainment

00:42:24.650 --> 00:42:27.429
figure, but I would anchor him firmly in the

00:42:27.429 --> 00:42:30.070
country tradition. His roots are undeniable.

00:42:30.309 --> 00:42:33.170
He grew up dirt poor in Oklahoma, picking cotton

00:42:33.170 --> 00:42:35.969
and plowing. He was influenced by the Grand Ole

00:42:35.969 --> 00:42:39.130
Opry, Hank Williams, and Bob Wills. He isn't

00:42:39.130 --> 00:42:41.690
a jazz musician who got lost. He's a country

00:42:41.690 --> 00:42:44.289
boy who got bored. Everyone in that generation

00:42:44.289 --> 00:42:46.889
had those influences, but Miller went beyond

00:42:46.889 --> 00:42:49.429
them. He stretched the fabric of what country

00:42:49.429 --> 00:42:52.849
music could be. Did he? Really? Look at his early

00:42:52.849 --> 00:42:56.269
credentials. He didn't start on Broadway. He

00:42:56.269 --> 00:42:58.869
started as a fiddle player for Minnie Pearl.

00:42:59.170 --> 00:43:01.869
You don't get more establishment country than

00:43:01.869 --> 00:43:05.510
Minnie Pearl. He wrote Billy Bayou for Jim Reeves.

00:43:05.530 --> 00:43:08.260
He wrote... Invitation to the Blues for Ray Price.

00:43:08.679 --> 00:43:11.579
These are the pillars of country music. Even

00:43:11.579 --> 00:43:13.820
when he had massive success, what did he do?

00:43:14.099 --> 00:43:17.579
In 1970, he didn't move to Paris. He opened the

00:43:17.579 --> 00:43:20.099
King of the Road Inn in Nashville. It had a rooftop

00:43:20.099 --> 00:43:22.400
lounge and a penthouse with a swinging double

00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:24.920
bed. It became the unofficial center of the Nashville

00:43:24.920 --> 00:43:27.280
music scene. He was a country mogul, a honky

00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:30.300
-tonk hero. Even AllMusic admits he was an influence

00:43:30.300 --> 00:43:32.900
on progressive country. But that still keeps

00:43:32.900 --> 00:43:35.340
him within the genre. He was the king of Nashville.

00:43:35.800 --> 00:43:38.139
not the King of Pop. The King of the Road Inn

00:43:38.139 --> 00:43:41.679
is a great example of his excess, sure. And yes,

00:43:41.840 --> 00:43:44.480
he started in Nashville. But the evidence shows

00:43:44.480 --> 00:43:47.840
he outgrew that scene. By 1978, Miller stopped

00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:51.199
writing songs. Why? Because he felt his more

00:43:51.199 --> 00:43:54.340
artistic works were not appreciated by that very

00:43:54.340 --> 00:43:57.530
Nashville crowd you say he belonged to. He felt

00:43:57.530 --> 00:44:00.710
stifled. He said, I tried to do things like other

00:44:00.710 --> 00:44:03.289
artists, but it always came out different. He

00:44:03.289 --> 00:44:05.750
realized he was an outlier. And the ultimate

00:44:05.750 --> 00:44:09.309
proof of this is the Big River era. Big River

00:44:09.309 --> 00:44:12.170
is the exception that proves the rule. It was

00:44:12.170 --> 00:44:15.099
a fluke at the end of a career. It was not a

00:44:15.099 --> 00:44:17.860
fluke. It was the culmination of his genius.

00:44:18.079 --> 00:44:21.199
He wrote a Broadway score based on Mark Twain's

00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:23.760
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and here is the

00:44:23.760 --> 00:44:26.519
kicker, he hadn't even read the novel when he

00:44:26.519 --> 00:44:28.699
accepted the offer. Wait, wait, doesn't that

00:44:28.699 --> 00:44:31.940
support my wild child argument, accepting a job

00:44:31.940 --> 00:44:34.340
for a classic literary adaptation without reading

00:44:34.340 --> 00:44:37.420
the book? That sounds incredibly reckless. That

00:44:37.420 --> 00:44:39.079
sounds like the guy who slept through the fire.

00:44:39.260 --> 00:44:42.159
Or it sounds like supreme confidence in his ability

00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:45.420
to translate emotion into music. He didn't need

00:44:45.420 --> 00:44:48.039
the book to understand the river. He grew up

00:44:48.039 --> 00:44:50.780
on one. He discovered the story brought him back

00:44:50.780 --> 00:44:54.059
to his own childhood in rural Oklahoma. He took

00:44:54.059 --> 00:44:56.420
a year and a half to write the opening number.

00:44:56.559 --> 00:44:59.559
That is not the behavior of a singing bellhop

00:44:59.559 --> 00:45:02.460
looking for a quick buck. And the industry recognized

00:45:02.460 --> 00:45:06.079
it. Seven Tony Awards. He even acted in the production,

00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:09.119
playing Pop Finn. And speaking of acting, he

00:45:09.119 --> 00:45:12.019
wasn't just doing cameos. He had a dramatic role

00:45:12.019 --> 00:45:14.840
in Quincy M .E., playing a singer who was burned

00:45:14.840 --> 00:45:17.360
while freebasing cocaine, a role that required

00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:20.739
genuine dramatic chops. He was the narrator in

00:45:20.739 --> 00:45:23.159
Nestor the Long -Eared Christmas Donkey. He was

00:45:23.159 --> 00:45:25.920
Alan Adele in Robin Hood. These are not the footprints

00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:28.340
of a simple country singer. They are the marks

00:45:28.340 --> 00:45:30.900
of a multi -hyphenate entertainer who conquered

00:45:30.900 --> 00:45:33.760
every medium he touched. I will grant you the

00:45:33.760 --> 00:45:37.119
theatrical success. It's impressive. But we cannot

00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:40.480
ignore the content of the music itself. This

00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:43.719
brings us to the lyrics. You talk about sophistication,

00:45:43.719 --> 00:45:46.559
but the legacy he left for most people is one

00:45:46.559 --> 00:45:49.920
of humor, nonsense, and novelty. We are talking

00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:52.179
about the man who wrote You Can't Roller Skate

00:45:52.179 --> 00:45:55.239
in a Buffalo Herd. We are talking about My Uncle

00:45:55.239 --> 00:45:58.059
Used to Love Me But She Died. Those are classics,

00:45:58.179 --> 00:46:01.380
and they are brilliantly constructed. They are

00:46:01.380 --> 00:46:05.659
comedies. They are jokes set to music. Even Kansas

00:46:05.659 --> 00:46:09.119
City Star is a humorous take on a local TV personality

00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:12.840
who is afraid to fail in a bigger market. And

00:46:12.840 --> 00:46:16.059
then you have the scat singing, that nonsense

00:46:16.059 --> 00:46:19.059
-sounding style filled with vocalese riffs, bum

00:46:19.059 --> 00:46:22.750
-bum -bum -boo -wah. To me, that suggests he

00:46:22.750 --> 00:46:25.250
wasn't taking the music seriously. He was playing

00:46:25.250 --> 00:46:27.650
with sound because he didn't want to engage with

00:46:27.650 --> 00:46:30.809
deep, serious lyricism in the way a Kris Kristofferson

00:46:30.809 --> 00:46:34.210
or a Bob Dylan would. It was entertainment, pure

00:46:34.210 --> 00:46:36.969
and simple. He was the court jester, making us

00:46:36.969 --> 00:46:39.389
laugh while the serious artists made us think.

00:46:39.630 --> 00:46:42.210
You're assuming humor and depth are mutually

00:46:42.210 --> 00:46:46.250
exclusive. That is a massive mistake. The humor

00:46:46.250 --> 00:46:48.849
in Miller's work often masks to deeper, darker

00:46:48.849 --> 00:46:51.329
reality. You have to remember his background.

00:46:51.750 --> 00:46:54.409
His mother died of spinal meningitis when he

00:46:54.409 --> 00:46:57.869
was a year old. He was raised by his uncle. He

00:46:57.869 --> 00:47:00.530
was dirt poor. He didn't even have a telephone

00:47:00.530 --> 00:47:04.190
until 1951. That kind of trauma shapes a person.

00:47:04.489 --> 00:47:07.070
The humor was a survival mechanism, not a lack

00:47:07.070 --> 00:47:09.530
of seriousness. He was laughing to keep from

00:47:09.530 --> 00:47:12.429
screaming. Trauma doesn't automatically make

00:47:12.429 --> 00:47:16.070
Doo -Wah -Ka -Doo a deep song. Sometimes a silly

00:47:16.070 --> 00:47:18.809
song is just a silly song. Perhaps not on the

00:47:18.809 --> 00:47:21.309
surface. But look at Old Friends. That was a

00:47:21.309 --> 00:47:23.550
collaboration with Willie Nelson and Ray Price.

00:47:23.769 --> 00:47:27.070
It's incredibly poignant. Or look at Husbands

00:47:27.070 --> 00:47:30.349
and Wives. There is no scat singing there. It

00:47:30.349 --> 00:47:32.949
is a stripped -down, painful look at pride and

00:47:32.949 --> 00:47:36.989
separation. Two broken hearts, lonely, looking

00:47:36.989 --> 00:47:40.289
like houses where nobody lives. That is a devastating

00:47:40.289 --> 00:47:44.159
lyric. And even the Disney songs take Not in

00:47:44.159 --> 00:47:46.719
Nottingham from Robin Hood. It is a song about

00:47:46.719 --> 00:47:49.380
imprisonment and poverty. It carries a distinct

00:47:49.380 --> 00:47:52.579
melancholic weight beneath the whimsy. The humor

00:47:52.579 --> 00:47:55.619
was a vehicle for complex expression. And regarding

00:47:55.619 --> 00:47:58.579
the amphetamine use, he called it a snake pit.

00:47:58.800 --> 00:48:01.380
That manic energy you dismiss as instability

00:48:01.380 --> 00:48:04.719
was actually the fuel for a very intense, sometimes

00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:07.699
dark artistic output. He was burning the candle

00:48:07.699 --> 00:48:10.179
at both ends to create that light. It is true

00:48:10.179 --> 00:48:12.860
that the wild child moniker came from his party

00:48:12.860 --> 00:48:15.900
lifestyle and that amphetamine use. But I would

00:48:15.900 --> 00:48:18.320
argue that the drugs and the mania were responsible

00:48:18.320 --> 00:48:21.519
for the nonsense style. It's that frenetic energy

00:48:21.519 --> 00:48:23.780
that produces lines like engine, engine number

00:48:23.780 --> 00:48:26.780
nine. It's catchy, it's rhythmic, but is it profound?

00:48:27.400 --> 00:48:29.679
I still maintain that his best work happened

00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:32.219
when he leaned into that chaotic honky -tonk

00:48:32.219 --> 00:48:34.800
spirit. When he tried to be too polished, he

00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:37.440
lost what made him Roger Miller. We loved him

00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:39.980
because he was a mess who could sing. We are

00:48:39.980 --> 00:48:42.320
seeing the same evidence but interpreting the

00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:45.340
intention differently. You see the chaos as the

00:48:45.340 --> 00:48:48.119
defining feature. I see the chaos as the raw

00:48:48.119 --> 00:48:51.500
material that his genius refined into gold. He

00:48:51.500 --> 00:48:53.460
took the mess of his life and turned it into

00:48:53.460 --> 00:48:56.739
melody. Well, as we wrap this up, the duality

00:48:56.739 --> 00:48:59.659
is undeniable. We are looking at a man who wrote

00:48:59.659 --> 00:49:03.079
Do Walk a Do and the score for Big River. Exactly.

00:49:03.400 --> 00:49:06.599
A range that very few artists in history can

00:49:06.599 --> 00:49:09.469
claim. Look. For me, it really comes down to

00:49:09.469 --> 00:49:12.940
this. Roger Miller's brilliance was inextricably

00:49:12.940 --> 00:49:16.159
linked to his lack of discipline and his deep

00:49:16.159 --> 00:49:19.519
country roots. The bits and pieces on scraps

00:49:19.519 --> 00:49:23.039
of paper, the smoke -em attitude, the songs written

00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:25.719
in four minutes, that was the essence of his

00:49:25.719 --> 00:49:28.599
genius. If you had tried to tame him, if you

00:49:28.599 --> 00:49:31.139
had tried to make him a serious composer from

00:49:31.139 --> 00:49:33.940
day one, we wouldn't have King of the Road. His

00:49:33.940 --> 00:49:37.199
charm lay in being the hobo poet, the guy who

00:49:37.199 --> 00:49:39.559
stole a guitar at 17 because he was desperate.

00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:42.699
to write songs. He was the king of the road,

00:49:42.800 --> 00:49:45.139
not a polished Broadway star who happened to

00:49:45.139 --> 00:49:47.239
sing country. And I will maintain that Roger

00:49:47.239 --> 00:49:50.519
Miller was a genius whose talent was simply too

00:49:50.519 --> 00:49:53.500
big for one genre to hold. While he certainly

00:49:53.500 --> 00:49:56.139
used country music and humor as his entry points,

00:49:56.300 --> 00:49:59.360
his rhythmic innovations and, let's not forget,

00:49:59.500 --> 00:50:01.679
Johnny Cash said Miller's vocal range was the

00:50:01.679 --> 00:50:04.340
closest to his own bass range he had ever heard.

00:50:04.440 --> 00:50:07.139
And his theatrical success proved he was a serious

00:50:07.139 --> 00:50:10.480
artist. He defied easy classification. He was

00:50:10.480 --> 00:50:13.500
an uncategorizable talent who could write a hit

00:50:13.500 --> 00:50:15.920
about a buffalo herd and then turn around and

00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:19.460
win seven Tonys for adapting Mark Twain. He wasn't

00:50:19.460 --> 00:50:22.980
just a wild child, he was a wizard. Whether wild

00:50:22.980 --> 00:50:26.760
child or wizard, he certainly left a mark. Indeed,

00:50:27.179 --> 00:50:30.719
Roger Miller died far too young at the age of

00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:34.719
56 from lung and throat cancer. But whether you

00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:37.800
view him as a novelty act or a musical genius,

00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:42.940
his impact on American music is undeniable. From

00:50:42.940 --> 00:50:45.840
the honky -tonks of Nashville to the stages of

00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:48.460
Broadway and the animated forests of Disney,

00:50:48.679 --> 00:50:51.719
he did it all. That's all the time we have for

00:50:51.719 --> 00:50:54.119
today. Thank you for listening to The Debate.

00:50:54.199 --> 00:50:57.989
Thank you. Welcome back to The Critique. Today,

00:50:58.110 --> 00:51:00.750
we're looking at a biographical profile of Roger

00:51:00.750 --> 00:51:03.469
Miller, the king of the road, submitted by a

00:51:03.469 --> 00:51:06.949
listener. And they want to know if they've captured

00:51:06.949 --> 00:51:10.170
the essence of this really unique country music

00:51:10.170 --> 00:51:13.010
icon. So let's just get straight into it. I'm

00:51:13.010 --> 00:51:15.789
ready. I've got the draft right here. And honestly,

00:51:16.010 --> 00:51:18.989
I've had doo -waka -doo stuck in my head just

00:51:18.989 --> 00:51:21.210
from, you know, reading the introduction. It's

00:51:21.210 --> 00:51:23.909
catchy stuff. And that actually, that leads us

00:51:23.909 --> 00:51:25.829
right into the first major issue with this piece.

00:51:26.239 --> 00:51:29.659
Okay. The draft asserts repeatedly that Roger

00:51:29.659 --> 00:51:32.719
Miller was a genius. It actually uses that word,

00:51:32.820 --> 00:51:36.480
genius. Yeah, I saw that. It lists his 11 Grammys.

00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:39.239
It lists the Tony Awards. It calls his lyrics

00:51:39.239 --> 00:51:42.000
whimsical. But here's the problem. Relying on

00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:45.300
a trophy case to prove artistic genius is a weak

00:51:45.300 --> 00:51:47.519
argument. Okay, but can I play devil's advocate

00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:50.420
for a second? Please. 11 Grammys is a lot of

00:51:50.420 --> 00:51:53.059
hardware. Doesn't that sort of objectively prove

00:51:53.059 --> 00:51:55.469
he was great? Why does the writer really need

00:51:55.469 --> 00:51:57.789
to do more work than that? Because a list of

00:51:57.789 --> 00:52:00.349
awards tells me that he won, but it doesn't tell

00:52:00.349 --> 00:52:03.409
me why he won. It doesn't get me into the listener's

00:52:03.409 --> 00:52:06.170
ear at that time. Gotcha. So the weakness in

00:52:06.170 --> 00:52:09.070
this draft is that we are told he is uncategorizable,

00:52:09.250 --> 00:52:11.809
but we aren't shown the mechanics of that sound.

00:52:12.150 --> 00:52:14.869
The writer gives us the resume, but what we need

00:52:14.869 --> 00:52:17.050
are the engineering schematics. So you're saying

00:52:17.050 --> 00:52:20.329
we need to get under the hood. Exactly. My suggestion

00:52:20.329 --> 00:52:23.449
for the writer is to take the style section which

00:52:23.449 --> 00:52:25.889
is currently just, you know, a list of adjectives

00:52:25.889 --> 00:52:29.190
like funny and unique, and really expand it to

00:52:29.190 --> 00:52:32.050
deconstruct the specific sonic choices Miller

00:52:32.050 --> 00:52:34.809
made. Okay, but how technical do we want to get

00:52:34.809 --> 00:52:37.309
here? I mean, this is a biography, not a music

00:52:37.309 --> 00:52:39.409
theory textbook. If the writer starts talking

00:52:39.409 --> 00:52:41.750
about, like, mixolydian modes, they're going

00:52:41.750 --> 00:52:44.070
to lose the general audience. You don't need

00:52:44.070 --> 00:52:47.190
music theory. You need vivid description. Okay.

00:52:47.269 --> 00:52:49.550
Look at the source material. There is a gold

00:52:49.550 --> 00:52:51.650
mine of a detail in there about his time with

00:52:51.650 --> 00:52:54.730
Farron Young. Mm -hmm. The text mentions that

00:52:54.730 --> 00:52:56.769
Miller toured as a drummer for Farron Young.

00:52:57.130 --> 00:53:00.269
But the kicker is, and the draft mentions this

00:53:00.269 --> 00:53:03.010
but just breezes past it, Miller didn't actually

00:53:03.010 --> 00:53:05.250
know how to play the drums. Right, I saw that.

00:53:05.369 --> 00:53:09.789
He just faked it? He faked it. Now, the current

00:53:09.789 --> 00:53:12.130
draft treats this as a funny fake -it -till -you

00:53:12.130 --> 00:53:14.590
-make -it anecdote about his job history. But

00:53:14.590 --> 00:53:16.409
stop and think about the musical implication

00:53:16.409 --> 00:53:18.809
of that. Yeah. If you have a guy on the drum

00:53:18.809 --> 00:53:21.449
kit who doesn't know the formal rules of drumming,

00:53:21.789 --> 00:53:25.769
What does the rhythm sound like? Chaos? Or, I

00:53:25.769 --> 00:53:27.650
don't know, maybe inventive? It's going to be

00:53:27.650 --> 00:53:31.329
loose. It's going to be unorthodox. He's probably

00:53:31.329 --> 00:53:33.489
hitting things a trained drummer wouldn't hit.

00:53:34.389 --> 00:53:37.510
The actionable advice here is to use that anecdote

00:53:37.510 --> 00:53:40.789
to explain his uncategorizable rhythm later in

00:53:40.789 --> 00:53:45.289
his career. I see. His style was born from necessary

00:53:45.289 --> 00:53:48.769
invention. He wasn't a technician. He was a guy

00:53:48.769 --> 00:53:52.820
trying to survive the song. That is a much more

00:53:52.820 --> 00:53:54.840
interesting narrative than just saying he was

00:53:54.840 --> 00:53:57.440
a drummer. That's a great angle. It reframes

00:53:57.440 --> 00:54:02.559
incompetence as style. But what about the singing?

00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:05.780
The text mentions he was influenced by jazz,

00:54:05.940 --> 00:54:08.400
and it references all music calling him progressive

00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:11.900
country. But when I listen to Chuggalug, I just

00:54:11.900 --> 00:54:14.820
hear a guy making funny noises. Is it really

00:54:14.820 --> 00:54:17.500
jazz? That is exactly the question the writer

00:54:17.500 --> 00:54:20.460
needs to answer. You just hit the nail on the

00:54:20.460 --> 00:54:23.340
head. The current draft calls the lyrics whimsical.

00:54:23.639 --> 00:54:27.099
Yeah. That's a soft word. It implies he's just

00:54:27.099 --> 00:54:30.000
goofing around. But if you look at the scat singing,

00:54:30.219 --> 00:54:33.559
the shotgun, handgun, Volkswagen, bag of bones

00:54:33.559 --> 00:54:37.019
delivery, that is pure rhythmic improvisation.

00:54:37.139 --> 00:54:39.719
So he's using his voice as a percussion instrument.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:42.659
Precisely. He's doing what jazz vocalists do.

00:54:43.050 --> 00:54:46.150
So the suggestion here is to explicitly link

00:54:46.150 --> 00:54:48.829
those nonsense syllables to the jazz traditions

00:54:48.829 --> 00:54:51.829
that influenced him. Don't just say he was funny.

00:54:51.969 --> 00:54:55.250
Say he was sneaking high -concept jazz phrasing

00:54:55.250 --> 00:54:57.769
onto country radio under the guise of novelty

00:54:57.769 --> 00:55:00.849
songs. That is where the genius lies, in the

00:55:00.849 --> 00:55:03.250
subversion. I like that. It elevates him from

00:55:03.250 --> 00:55:06.050
a clown to a subversive artist. And we have to

00:55:06.050 --> 00:55:08.829
talk about King of the Road. The draft mentions

00:55:08.829 --> 00:55:11.110
it won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Rock and

00:55:11.110 --> 00:55:13.409
Roll Single. Which is bizarre, right? It's a

00:55:13.409 --> 00:55:15.969
country song. It is, but the draft misses the

00:55:15.969 --> 00:55:18.289
chance to explain why it crossed over. Think

00:55:18.289 --> 00:55:21.769
about the production of 1965 Nashville. The Nashville

00:55:21.769 --> 00:55:25.550
sound. What did that sound like? Lush. Orchestral.

00:55:25.809 --> 00:55:28.630
Strings. Background choirs. The Anita Kerr singers.

00:55:28.849 --> 00:55:31.250
It was a wall of sound. And what does King of

00:55:31.250 --> 00:55:34.449
the Road sound like? Finger snaps. A bass line.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:38.099
And that's about it. Silence. It sounds like

00:55:38.099 --> 00:55:40.519
silence. The concrete example for the writer

00:55:40.519 --> 00:55:44.380
here is to describe that empty space. Don't just

00:55:44.380 --> 00:55:47.099
list the award. Describe the audacity of releasing

00:55:47.099 --> 00:55:49.820
a song with no drums and no orchestra in the

00:55:49.820 --> 00:55:52.159
middle of the most produced era of country music.

00:55:52.440 --> 00:55:55.320
The genius wasn't adding things. It was taking

00:55:55.320 --> 00:55:58.840
them away. Okay. If the writer paints that picture.

00:55:59.400 --> 00:56:02.199
the lonely sound of a finger snap against a bass

00:56:02.199 --> 00:56:04.880
line, the reader immediately understands the

00:56:04.880 --> 00:56:07.179
isolation of the hobo character in the song.

00:56:07.440 --> 00:56:10.940
Okay, I'm sold. That transforms the style section

00:56:10.940 --> 00:56:14.719
from a list into an actual scene. But if we're

00:56:14.719 --> 00:56:16.940
talking about his chaotic style, we have to talk

00:56:16.940 --> 00:56:19.340
about his chaotic life. Yeah. And reading this

00:56:19.340 --> 00:56:21.280
draft, I feel like I'm reading about two different

00:56:21.280 --> 00:56:24.079
people. You notice that bifurcation too. It's

00:56:24.079 --> 00:56:27.019
jarring. You have a section called career where

00:56:27.019 --> 00:56:29.380
everything is hits and awards. Then you have

00:56:29.380 --> 00:56:31.659
a section called Personal Life, where he's a

00:56:31.659 --> 00:56:34.719
wild child on amphetamines. Yeah. It's like the

00:56:34.719 --> 00:56:37.000
writer is afraid to let the two touch. That is

00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:39.139
the second major weakness we need to address,

00:56:39.340 --> 00:56:42.079
the narrative disconnect. The source material

00:56:42.079 --> 00:56:44.900
explicitly states that the drugs and the wild

00:56:44.900 --> 00:56:48.300
child behavior were, quote, helpful to his songwriting.

00:56:48.500 --> 00:56:51.119
Right. You cannot sequester the volatility in

00:56:51.119 --> 00:56:53.440
a biographical sidebar if it is the fuel for

00:56:53.440 --> 00:56:56.280
the engine. But isn't there a risk here? I mean,

00:56:56.300 --> 00:56:58.559
if we start saying the drugs helped him right,

00:56:58.719 --> 00:57:01.739
are we glorifying addiction or are we just looking

00:57:01.739 --> 00:57:04.260
for a sensational angle? We are looking for the

00:57:04.260 --> 00:57:07.440
truth of his process. We aren't judging it. We

00:57:07.440 --> 00:57:10.280
are documenting it. Look at the timeline. The

00:57:10.280 --> 00:57:12.880
draft mentions that Dang Me was written in four

00:57:12.880 --> 00:57:15.480
minutes in a hotel room in Phoenix. Four minutes?

00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:18.199
That's absurd. It takes four minutes just to

00:57:18.199 --> 00:57:20.320
listen to the song twice. And then on a separate

00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:23.139
page, the draft mentions he was deep into amphetamines

00:57:23.139 --> 00:57:25.940
in the 60s. The writer needs to put those two

00:57:25.940 --> 00:57:28.280
sentences next to each other. Ah. The suggestion

00:57:28.280 --> 00:57:30.480
is to weave the volatility into the timeline

00:57:30.480 --> 00:57:32.880
of the hits. The speed of that writing, that

00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:35.619
manic four -minute burst, is a direct symptom

00:57:35.619 --> 00:57:37.820
of the chemical intervention. So instead of a

00:57:37.820 --> 00:57:40.679
career chapter and a drugs chapter, you want

00:57:40.679 --> 00:57:43.719
a chronological descent. I want a psychological

00:57:43.719 --> 00:57:47.059
profile. You can't understand the frantic energy

00:57:47.059 --> 00:57:50.099
of Duwakadu if you don't understand the frantic

00:57:50.099 --> 00:57:52.820
energy of the man writing it. And speaking of

00:57:52.820 --> 00:57:55.320
frantic energy, we have to talk about the fireman

00:57:55.320 --> 00:57:58.639
story. Oh, my God. I read that three times. He

00:57:58.639 --> 00:58:01.719
was a fireman who slept through a fire? He slept

00:58:01.719 --> 00:58:04.679
through a fire. And not just any fire. The draft

00:58:04.679 --> 00:58:07.099
says he saw the chicken coop burn and then went

00:58:07.099 --> 00:58:09.980
back to sleep. And the fire department politely

00:58:09.980 --> 00:58:15.159
suggested he seek other employment? That is hilarious,

00:58:15.320 --> 00:58:18.679
but the draft just sort of drops it in as a fun

00:58:18.679 --> 00:58:21.980
fact about his resume. Right. Like he was a soldier,

00:58:22.139 --> 00:58:25.039
a fireman, and a singer. It is funny, but the

00:58:25.039 --> 00:58:27.440
writer needs to see the tragedy inside the comedy.

00:58:27.639 --> 00:58:30.940
This isn't just a quirky job switch. This is

00:58:30.940 --> 00:58:33.840
a man who was fundamentally incapable of functioning

00:58:33.840 --> 00:58:36.380
in a structured environment. He physically could

00:58:36.380 --> 00:58:39.260
not do a normal job. So the stakes are higher.

00:58:39.500 --> 00:58:42.739
Much higher. The suggestion for the rewrite is

00:58:42.739 --> 00:58:45.219
to use that anecdote to set up his return to

00:58:45.219 --> 00:58:47.539
Nashville. He didn't go back to music because

00:58:47.539 --> 00:58:49.760
he wanted to be a star. He went back because

00:58:49.760 --> 00:58:52.480
he was unqualified for literally anything else.

00:58:52.639 --> 00:58:55.679
He was desperate. That actually aligns with the

00:58:55.679 --> 00:58:58.980
Smash Records story. The text says he asked the

00:58:58.980 --> 00:59:02.440
label for $1 ,600 in cash in exchange for recording

00:59:02.440 --> 00:59:05.679
16 sides. Right. Now, in the current version,

00:59:05.880 --> 00:59:08.619
that reads like a business transaction. But look

00:59:08.619 --> 00:59:10.559
at the context the writer has buried elsewhere.

00:59:10.980 --> 00:59:14.159
He had just been dropped by RCA, he was divorced,

00:59:14.420 --> 00:59:17.159
he was known as a wild child, and he was broke.

00:59:17.320 --> 00:59:20.719
So that $1 ,600 wasn't a fee, it was a lifeline.

00:59:20.920 --> 00:59:23.980
It was, I need to pay rent money. It was, I need

00:59:23.980 --> 00:59:26.860
to eat money. If the writer links the party lifestyle

00:59:26.860 --> 00:59:30.000
and the divorce directly to that moment, the

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:32.840
scene changes. It becomes a high -stakes gamble.

00:59:33.480 --> 00:59:37.840
He walks into Smash Records desperate. asks for

00:59:37.840 --> 00:59:42.920
cash, and then he records Dang Me and Chuggalug.

00:59:43.139 --> 00:59:46.280
And Dang Me goes to number one. It's almost cinematic.

00:59:46.679 --> 00:59:49.639
He's backed into a corner, sleeping through fires,

00:59:49.719 --> 00:59:52.159
high on pills, and he pulls a rabbit out of the

00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:56.239
hat. Exactly. And that tension drives the narrative.

00:59:56.679 --> 01:00:01.619
But then, the narrative changes. And this brings

01:00:01.619 --> 01:00:05.239
us to the third major critique, the Big River

01:00:05.239 --> 01:00:09.050
section. The Musical. The Musical. In the current

01:00:09.050 --> 01:00:12.269
draft, this section feels like a footnote. It

01:00:12.269 --> 01:00:15.110
reads like, and then in the 80s he wrote a play,

01:00:15.250 --> 01:00:18.550
won some Tonys, and passed away. I get that.

01:00:18.630 --> 01:00:21.590
It feels like the epilogue, after the country

01:00:21.590 --> 01:00:25.289
hits. But to be fair, for a country fan, isn't

01:00:25.289 --> 01:00:28.329
the Broadway stuff less important? Absolutely

01:00:28.329 --> 01:00:33.110
not. This is the climax of his entire life. Think

01:00:33.110 --> 01:00:36.889
about the arc we just discussed. Okay. The illiterate

01:00:36.889 --> 01:00:39.710
boy from a one -room schoolhouse in Erick, Oklahoma.

01:00:40.190 --> 01:00:43.469
The guy who couldn't hold a job. The guy who

01:00:43.469 --> 01:00:46.929
faked playing the drums. That guy goes to New

01:00:46.929 --> 01:00:49.730
York City and writes a score that wins seven

01:00:49.730 --> 01:00:54.269
Tony Awards? That is the story. It is a massive

01:00:54.269 --> 01:00:56.969
jump. But the draft does mention he wrote the

01:00:56.969 --> 01:00:59.269
score for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But

01:00:59.269 --> 01:01:01.309
did you catch the specific detail the source

01:01:01.309 --> 01:01:04.250
material offers? He accepted the job, but he

01:01:04.250 --> 01:01:07.070
had never read the book. Wait, seriously? He

01:01:07.070 --> 01:01:09.889
wrote a musical based on Twain? Without reading

01:01:09.889 --> 01:01:12.789
Twain... He hadn't read the novel. The writer

01:01:12.789 --> 01:01:15.090
has to make that the central hook of this section.

01:01:15.250 --> 01:01:17.750
How do you write a Broadway score for a literary

01:01:17.750 --> 01:01:20.070
masterpiece you haven't read? Well, the source

01:01:20.070 --> 01:01:22.630
says he connected to it because of his childhood

01:01:22.630 --> 01:01:25.769
in rural Oklahoma. Exactly. He didn't approach

01:01:25.769 --> 01:01:27.730
it intellectually. He approached it emotionally.

01:01:28.130 --> 01:01:31.409
He knew the dialect. He knew the dirt. The suggestion

01:01:31.409 --> 01:01:34.210
here is to frame Big River not as a departure

01:01:34.210 --> 01:01:36.949
from his country roots, but as the ultimate validation

01:01:36.949 --> 01:01:40.130
of them. Okay. He bypassed the New York elites

01:01:40.130 --> 01:01:42.590
because he was the real thing. I see a really

01:01:42.590 --> 01:01:44.550
interesting contrast we could pull out here,

01:01:44.590 --> 01:01:47.789
too. We talked about Dang Me taking four minutes

01:01:47.789 --> 01:01:50.429
to write. Yes. The source notes say that for

01:01:50.429 --> 01:01:53.210
Big River, it took him a year and a half just

01:01:53.210 --> 01:01:56.570
to write the opening number. That is the contrast.

01:01:57.199 --> 01:01:59.940
That is the character development. The writer

01:01:59.940 --> 01:02:03.000
needs to put those two facts side by side. The

01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:05.400
four -minute manic burst of youth versus the

01:02:05.400 --> 01:02:08.099
18 -month disciplined grind of his later years.

01:02:08.320 --> 01:02:12.219
It shows he finally tamed the wild child. He

01:02:12.219 --> 01:02:14.980
learned to sit still. It proves that his talent

01:02:14.980 --> 01:02:18.019
wasn't just a drug -fueled accident. When he

01:02:18.019 --> 01:02:20.500
applied discipline, he created something enduring.

01:02:21.179 --> 01:02:23.719
If the writer focuses on that transition from

01:02:23.719 --> 01:02:25.960
spontaneous songwriter to disciplined composer,

01:02:26.340 --> 01:02:28.920
the biography gains a profound sense of closure.

01:02:29.079 --> 01:02:31.340
That's powerful. It gives the reader a reason

01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:33.659
to care about the musical, even if they hate

01:02:33.659 --> 01:02:37.260
musicals. It's about the man, not the show. Finally,

01:02:37.400 --> 01:02:39.599
let's look at how we anchor this whole story.

01:02:39.840 --> 01:02:42.659
The fourth critique is about validation. The

01:02:42.659 --> 01:02:45.400
material makes a strong case that Miller was...

01:02:45.599 --> 01:02:49.179
famous, but it lacks external validation. We

01:02:49.179 --> 01:02:51.860
see names like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,

01:02:51.960 --> 01:02:54.860
and Johnny Cash, but they feel like name drops.

01:02:55.340 --> 01:02:58.579
You mean they are just listed as friends? Right.

01:02:58.940 --> 01:03:02.219
He was friends with Johnny Cash. Okay, cool.

01:03:02.420 --> 01:03:04.840
But what did Johnny Cash think of him? Is there

01:03:04.840 --> 01:03:07.179
a risk that we are relying too much on other

01:03:07.179 --> 01:03:09.780
people to define him? I mean, shouldn't his music

01:03:09.780 --> 01:03:12.900
stand on its own? In a biography, peer respect

01:03:12.900 --> 01:03:16.280
establishes hierarchy. If I tell you Roger Miller

01:03:16.280 --> 01:03:19.400
was a great singer, that's my opinion. If Johnny

01:03:19.400 --> 01:03:21.380
Cash tells you Roger Miller was a great singer,

01:03:21.559 --> 01:03:25.119
that's a historical fact. I see. The source material

01:03:25.119 --> 01:03:27.920
has a quote from Cash where he discusses Miller's

01:03:27.920 --> 01:03:31.199
vocal range. I saw that. Cash said Miller's bass

01:03:31.199 --> 01:03:33.420
range was the closest to his own that he had

01:03:33.420 --> 01:03:36.239
heard. That is a concrete tool for the writer.

01:03:36.860 --> 01:03:38.900
Currently, the draft doesn't really describe

01:03:38.900 --> 01:03:41.840
Miller's voice. Is it raspy? Is it high? Is it

01:03:41.840 --> 01:03:44.630
smooth? By using the Cash quote, you accomplished

01:03:44.630 --> 01:03:47.349
two things. You described the instrument, it

01:03:47.349 --> 01:03:49.889
was deep, it was resonant, and you validated

01:03:49.889 --> 01:03:51.710
through the voice of the god of country music.

01:03:51.969 --> 01:03:55.170
It also counters the novelty label again. If

01:03:55.170 --> 01:03:57.630
Johnny Cash respects your voice, you aren't just

01:03:57.630 --> 01:04:00.150
a comedian. Exactly. And look at the collaboration

01:04:00.150 --> 01:04:02.809
with Ray Price and Willie Nelson on Old Friends.

01:04:03.070 --> 01:04:06.050
The draft mentions it as his final hit, but the

01:04:06.050 --> 01:04:08.369
suggestion is to frame that collaboration to

01:04:08.369 --> 01:04:11.170
show that the serious outlaws considered him

01:04:11.170 --> 01:04:13.869
a peer. He wasn't the mascot. He was an equal.

01:04:14.130 --> 01:04:16.590
He was an equal. But there is one quote in the

01:04:16.590 --> 01:04:18.909
notes that I think tops them all. It's from Bill

01:04:18.909 --> 01:04:20.969
Anderson. I know exactly which one you mean.

01:04:21.170 --> 01:04:23.949
Anderson called him the most talented and least

01:04:23.949 --> 01:04:27.409
disciplined person you could imagine. That is

01:04:27.409 --> 01:04:30.849
the golden ticket. It's so brutal, but so accurate

01:04:30.849 --> 01:04:33.510
based on everything we've discussed. My final

01:04:33.510 --> 01:04:36.170
and perhaps most important suggestion for the

01:04:36.170 --> 01:04:38.429
listener is to take that Bill Anderson quote

01:04:38.429 --> 01:04:41.889
and move it. Don't bury it in the middle. Put

01:04:41.889 --> 01:04:44.090
it at the very top. Make it the thesis statement?

01:04:44.309 --> 01:04:47.150
The most talented and least disciplined. If the

01:04:47.150 --> 01:04:49.630
writer opens the entire biography with that line,

01:04:49.789 --> 01:04:52.630
every single story that follows makes sense.

01:04:53.329 --> 01:04:55.869
Hmm. The drumming for Farron Young, talented

01:04:55.869 --> 01:04:58.690
but undisciplined. The amphetamines, talented

01:04:58.690 --> 01:05:01.570
but undisciplined. The sleeping through the fire.

01:05:01.989 --> 01:05:04.429
Definitely undisciplined. It gives the reader

01:05:04.429 --> 01:05:07.050
a lens through which to view the entire chaotic

01:05:07.050 --> 01:05:10.380
life. It turns a series of anecdotes into a coherent

01:05:10.380 --> 01:05:13.260
story about the tension between gift and curse.

01:05:13.420 --> 01:05:16.159
It really ties it all together. It explains why

01:05:16.159 --> 01:05:18.519
he was the king of the road, but also why the

01:05:18.519 --> 01:05:21.599
road was so bumpy. So let's recap the main actionable

01:05:21.599 --> 01:05:24.219
takeaways for our listener to transform this

01:05:24.219 --> 01:05:28.320
draft. First, deepen the musical analysis. Don't

01:05:28.320 --> 01:05:31.300
just list genres or awards. Yeah. Describe the

01:05:31.300 --> 01:05:34.239
silence in King of the Road. Connect the scat

01:05:34.239 --> 01:05:37.219
singing to jazz. Show us the mechanics. Second,

01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:40.340
integrate the chaos. Stop protecting the reader

01:05:40.340 --> 01:05:43.579
from the drugs and the wild child antics. Use

01:05:43.579 --> 01:05:45.719
the four -minute writing time of Dang Me and

01:05:45.719 --> 01:05:48.260
the Fireman Story to drive the narrative forward

01:05:48.260 --> 01:05:51.800
and explain his desperation. Third, elevate Big

01:05:51.800 --> 01:05:55.539
River. It is the climax, not a footnote. Focus

01:05:55.539 --> 01:05:58.500
on the irony of an illiterate man writing a literary

01:05:58.500 --> 01:06:01.480
masterpiece and contrast the 18 -month writing

01:06:01.480 --> 01:06:04.099
process with his earlier speed to show his growth.

01:06:04.400 --> 01:06:07.800
And finally, let the legend speak. Use the quotes

01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:10.260
from Johnny Cash and Bill Anderson to validate

01:06:10.260 --> 01:06:13.519
his standing. Use that most talented, least disciplined

01:06:13.519 --> 01:06:16.980
line to frame the entire piece. Roger Miller

01:06:16.980 --> 01:06:20.119
was a complex figure. He deserves a biography

01:06:20.119 --> 01:06:23.519
that is just as dynamic, unexpected, and rhythmic

01:06:23.519 --> 01:06:27.119
as he was. We invite you to take these suggestions,

01:06:27.380 --> 01:06:30.079
rewrite your draft, and please send it back to

01:06:30.079 --> 01:06:32.539
us. Yeah. We want to read the version that starts

01:06:32.539 --> 01:06:35.239
with Bill Anderson. Absolutely. I want to read

01:06:35.239 --> 01:06:37.739
the story of the man who couldn't be tamed, not

01:06:37.739 --> 01:06:41.119
by genres, not by the army, and not by the music

01:06:41.119 --> 01:06:44.239
industry. Good luck with the rewrite. Until next

01:06:44.239 --> 01:06:44.539
time.