He Was Country Music’s Most Creative Force. He Was the Legendary Roger Miller
If there was a 'Creative Music Artist Hall Of Fame', it would have to be named after Roger Miller. Here's a guy who could...well, check out the short video below, I'll let some of his fellow artist's explain.
I've said before that (for me) Kris Kristofferson is my all-time favorite songwriter, Willie Nelson (also a great songwriter, of course) is my favorite song stylist, Merle Haggard (huh, another great songwriter!) my favorite singer and Roger Miller my favorite creative song artist.
How great was Roger? Well, to give you an example: Any artist is absolutely thrilled to win a Grammy. Well, in 1964 & 1965, ol' Roger got 11! That's right, 11 Grammy's in those two years.
And while Roger Miller is best known for his humor with great classic's like 'King of the Road', 'Dang Me', 'You can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd' and 'England Swings', to me the genius of the man is that he could also turn that all around and write some of the most beautiful songs in country music history. I've always though 'Husbands and Wives' (which Brooks and Dunn also had a hit with) is one of the most touching and thought provoking songs ever.
And then there's the beautiful 'Old Friends', a song that I believe proves that the most heartfelt songs are often the simplest.
Roger passed away in 1992 at the much too young age of 56 from lung cancer. But thankfully we'll always have the creative force that was the great Roger Miller.