Biography
While pop culture experts chiefly associate Sheb Wooley with his late-1950s rock-and-roll comedy smash “Purple People Eater,” which moved more than three million copies, devotees of country music—particularly those drawn to cowboy material—regard him as the genuine article, or the closest approximation still active in recent decades. A lifelong rodeo rider who began competing as a boy, he was already earning his keep on the circuit as a teenager, long before music became a profession. He later moved into music and film, landing parts in Westerns such as High Noon well before his singing career took hold, and he spent six seasons portraying cowhand Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide even while continuing to release country recordings. His catalog spans cowboy ballads, classic country numbers, and hillbilly fare alongside the ever-present “Purple People Eater.” By the 1960s he had also created an inebriated comic alter ego named Ben Colder, whose satirical takes on country music, its listeners, and its attitudes briefly threatened to overshadow Wooley’s own identity.
Born in Erick, Oklahoma, on April 10, 1921, Wooley displayed an early passion for riding and was already entering local rodeos before age ten; by his mid-teens he ranked among the circuit’s top young competitors. Music remained a parallel interest, and he acquired his first guitar after his father traded a shotgun for the instrument. The family endured severe hardship throughout the 1930s, losing crops repeatedly to the harsh dust-bowl winds. In high school Wooley led his own country band, yet he initially supported himself as a welder in Oklahoma’s oil fields. Like many Oklahomans seeking improved prospects, he relocated to California in the late 1930s and worked briefly at a packing plant handling crates of oranges. By then he had married Melba Miller, the older sister of future country star Roger Miller. Classified 4-F during World War II because of rodeo injuries, he spent much of the conflict employed in defense plants.
In 1945 Wooley cut his first sides for Nashville’s Bullet label and began performing as a singer-guitarist on WLAC, an unpaid radio slot that nonetheless opened doors to paid gigs. Those Bullet recordings, made at WSM—the home of the Grand Ole Opry—received virtually no airplay. The following year he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, securing a sponsored radio program backed by Calumet Baking Powder. At a friend’s urging at WSM, Wooley headed to California in 1949 hoping to break into motion pictures; around the same time Hill & Range signed him as a songwriter, which led to a contract with the newly established MGM Records in 1950. Although the label already boasted Hank Williams, the postwar country boom left room for additional talent. Wooley also pursued acting lessons and ultimately appeared in small roles in forty feature films, beginning with Rocky Mountain, Errol Flynn’s final Western, released in 1949. His most prominent early screen performance came two years later in the classic High Noon (1952), where he portrayed Ben Miller, leader of the outlaw gang targeting marshal Gary Cooper. Additional notable parts followed in Little Big Horn (1951) with Lloyd Bridges and John Ireland, The Man Without a Star (1955), Giant (1956), and Rio Bravo (1959) opposite John Wayne.
Despite steady film work, Wooley kept writing and recording; his first significant hit arrived only in 1958 with the unexpected “Purple People Eater,” a send-up of monster-movie mania and other pop-culture fads. He had previously placed songs with other artists, most prominently “Are You Satisfied,” which reached number 11 on the country chart via Rusty Draper in 1955. MGM initially resisted releasing “Purple People Eater,” yet the track became one of the label’s biggest singles ever. Follow-up success proved elusive until 1962, when he scored a country number-one with “That’s My Dad.”
In 1958 Wooley joined the cast of the television Western Rawhide as Pete Nolan alongside Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood; the series premiered in January 1959. He later contributed scripts and, responding to viewer demand, recorded his own version of the show’s theme plus an album of Western material that failed to chart. Another folk-styled album timed to the release of the MGM epic How the West Was Won met a similar fate. Film commitments prevented him from cutting “Don’t Go Near the Indians,” which Rex Allen instead recorded for a hit. Wooley responded by issuing a comic parody titled “Don’t Go Near the Eskimos” and introduced the drunken Ben Colder persona to deliver it. From that point forward he balanced appearances as the straightforward country and cowboy singer Sheb Wooley with those of the inebriated comic Ben Colder—an arrangement reminiscent of David Johansen’s dual identity as Buster Poindexter. Among the alternate names he considered for the character were “Ben Freezin” and “Klon Dyke.” When Hee Haw debuted in 1969, Wooley became the program’s resident songwriter, supplying its comic musical segments.
Ben Colder enjoyed further chart entries, including “Almost Persuaded No. 2,” and in 1968 the persona was named Comedian of the Year. Wooley continued issuing records under both names into the 1980s, though his final chart single in either guise dated to 1971. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1998, he endured repeated hospital stays over the ensuing years. Sheb Wooley died on September 16, 2003, at age 82. The previous year Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson had saluted the singer, songwriter, and actor as an “American treasure.”
Born in Erick, Oklahoma, on April 10, 1921, Wooley displayed an early passion for riding and was already entering local rodeos before age ten; by his mid-teens he ranked among the circuit’s top young competitors. Music remained a parallel interest, and he acquired his first guitar after his father traded a shotgun for the instrument. The family endured severe hardship throughout the 1930s, losing crops repeatedly to the harsh dust-bowl winds. In high school Wooley led his own country band, yet he initially supported himself as a welder in Oklahoma’s oil fields. Like many Oklahomans seeking improved prospects, he relocated to California in the late 1930s and worked briefly at a packing plant handling crates of oranges. By then he had married Melba Miller, the older sister of future country star Roger Miller. Classified 4-F during World War II because of rodeo injuries, he spent much of the conflict employed in defense plants.
In 1945 Wooley cut his first sides for Nashville’s Bullet label and began performing as a singer-guitarist on WLAC, an unpaid radio slot that nonetheless opened doors to paid gigs. Those Bullet recordings, made at WSM—the home of the Grand Ole Opry—received virtually no airplay. The following year he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, securing a sponsored radio program backed by Calumet Baking Powder. At a friend’s urging at WSM, Wooley headed to California in 1949 hoping to break into motion pictures; around the same time Hill & Range signed him as a songwriter, which led to a contract with the newly established MGM Records in 1950. Although the label already boasted Hank Williams, the postwar country boom left room for additional talent. Wooley also pursued acting lessons and ultimately appeared in small roles in forty feature films, beginning with Rocky Mountain, Errol Flynn’s final Western, released in 1949. His most prominent early screen performance came two years later in the classic High Noon (1952), where he portrayed Ben Miller, leader of the outlaw gang targeting marshal Gary Cooper. Additional notable parts followed in Little Big Horn (1951) with Lloyd Bridges and John Ireland, The Man Without a Star (1955), Giant (1956), and Rio Bravo (1959) opposite John Wayne.
Despite steady film work, Wooley kept writing and recording; his first significant hit arrived only in 1958 with the unexpected “Purple People Eater,” a send-up of monster-movie mania and other pop-culture fads. He had previously placed songs with other artists, most prominently “Are You Satisfied,” which reached number 11 on the country chart via Rusty Draper in 1955. MGM initially resisted releasing “Purple People Eater,” yet the track became one of the label’s biggest singles ever. Follow-up success proved elusive until 1962, when he scored a country number-one with “That’s My Dad.”
In 1958 Wooley joined the cast of the television Western Rawhide as Pete Nolan alongside Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood; the series premiered in January 1959. He later contributed scripts and, responding to viewer demand, recorded his own version of the show’s theme plus an album of Western material that failed to chart. Another folk-styled album timed to the release of the MGM epic How the West Was Won met a similar fate. Film commitments prevented him from cutting “Don’t Go Near the Indians,” which Rex Allen instead recorded for a hit. Wooley responded by issuing a comic parody titled “Don’t Go Near the Eskimos” and introduced the drunken Ben Colder persona to deliver it. From that point forward he balanced appearances as the straightforward country and cowboy singer Sheb Wooley with those of the inebriated comic Ben Colder—an arrangement reminiscent of David Johansen’s dual identity as Buster Poindexter. Among the alternate names he considered for the character were “Ben Freezin” and “Klon Dyke.” When Hee Haw debuted in 1969, Wooley became the program’s resident songwriter, supplying its comic musical segments.
Ben Colder enjoyed further chart entries, including “Almost Persuaded No. 2,” and in 1968 the persona was named Comedian of the Year. Wooley continued issuing records under both names into the 1980s, though his final chart single in either guise dated to 1971. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1998, he endured repeated hospital stays over the ensuing years. Sheb Wooley died on September 16, 2003, at age 82. The previous year Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson had saluted the singer, songwriter, and actor as an “American treasure.”
Albums
Singles
Live
