Webb Pierce

During the 1950s Webb Pierce ranked among the leading honky tonk vocalists, collecting more number-one singles than contemporaries such as Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Lefty Frizzell, and Ernest Tubb. Lavish Nudie suits made him, for much of the wider public, the most visible symbol of country music and its excesses; he frequently boasted of owning a pair of convertibles upholstered with silver dollars and a guitar-shaped swimming pool. Despite sustained chart success that extended well into the 1970s, Pierce never gained the lasting stature enjoyed by his peers. His fondness for ostentatious displays of wealth and his steadfast adherence to hardcore honky tonk left him without strong industry allies and unable to adapt to shifting popular tastes. Even so, he endures as a foundational figure in the honky tonk tradition, recognized for both his commercial dominance and his artistic contributions.

Growing up in West Monroe, Louisiana, Pierce developed an early passion for Gene Autry films and his mother’s hillbilly records, especially those of Jimmie Rodgers along with assorted Western swing and Cajun ensembles. He took up the guitar before reaching his teens and, at fifteen, began performing as a vocalist on Monroe’s KMLB. After enlisting in the Army during World War II, he married Betty Jane Lewis in June 1942. Following his discharge, the couple returned briefly to Monroe before relocating to Shreveport in 1944. There Pierce worked at Sears Roebuck while singing on radio broadcasts, in nightclubs, and at dances alongside his wife; their early-morning KTBS program preceded evening club appearances. Five years passed before the industry took notice. In 1949 the California-based 4 Star Records offered separate contracts to the pair: Webb recorded under his own name, while Betty Jane appeared with him on duets credited to Betty Jane and Her Boyfriends. Commercial success, however, eluded the duo and arrived solely for Webb; the couple divorced in the summer of 1950.

Late in 1949 Pierce joined the Louisiana Hayride on KWKH, a broadcast that helped launch numerous country careers. He assembled a band of Shreveport musicians that included pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist/vocalist Faron Young, bassist Tillman Franks, and vocalists Teddy and Doyle Wilburn. Songs written by the Wilburns and Franks formed the core of his early repertoire. With Hayride director Horace Logan he established the Pacemaker label and the publishing firm Ark-La-Tex Music; between 1950 and 1951 Pacemaker issued several singles intended mainly to generate local radio exposure. In 1951 Pierce secured a release from 4 Star, and Decca Records signed him at once. His second single, “Wondering,” reached number one early in 1952 and prompted his move to Nashville, where he met and married his second wife, Audrey Greisham. A second chart-topper, “That Heart Belongs to Me,” followed in June 1952. That September the Grand Ole Opry invited him to fill the vacancy created by Hank Williams’s dismissal. After Williams’s death, Pierce became country music’s most popular vocalist. Over the next four years every release reached the Top Ten, and ten of them attained number one, among them “There Stands the Glass” (1953), “Slowly” (1954), “More and More” (1954), and “In the Jailhouse Now” (1955).

In 1953 Pierce and Opry manager Jim Denny launched the publishing company Cedarwood Music; the partners later acquired interests in radio stations. Opry management disapproved of these outside ventures and urged the pair to abandon them. Meanwhile Pierce grew dissatisfied with the restrictions of Opry membership, feeling he received insufficient respect and wished to pursue more profitable touring opportunities. He departed the Opry in 1955 for appearances on the ABC network’s Ozark Jubilee, left that program in 1956, returned briefly to the Opry, and exited permanently the following year.

Hits continued through the close of the decade, though rock & roll’s emergence caused a noticeable decline in popularity. Pierce maintained his presence on the charts largely by cultivating relationships with disc jockeys nationwide, extending a streak of 34 consecutive Top Ten singles into 1957. He briefly experimented with covers of the Everly Brothers and pseudo-rockabilly recordings; when these efforts faltered, he returned to honky tonk and sustained Top Ten placements through 1964. By 1965 the country-pop orientation of the Nashville Sound had displaced honky tonk from the upper reaches of the charts. Pierce remained a recognized star yet posted fewer major successes in the latter half of the 1960s, the most prominent being “Fool Fool Fool” in 1967. With his music receding from the spotlight, attention increasingly focused on his extravagant lifestyle. Rather than substances, Pierce indulged in material possessions: Hollywood tailor Nudie Cohen lined two Pontiac convertibles with silver dollars, and a guitar-shaped swimming pool at his Nashville residence drew nearly three thousand visitors weekly, prompting neighbors led by Ray Stevens to sue for relief from the resulting traffic.

Throughout the 1970s Pierce continued recording, though the bulk of his earnings derived from astute investments. He left Decca in 1975 and issued a few singles on Plantation Records that achieved little chart impact. His final hit arrived in 1982 when a duet version of “In the Jailhouse Now” with Willie Nelson briefly appeared on the country charts. Despite his accomplishments, Pierce was never elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame while alive; many members apparently held his earlier break with the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville interests against him. He succumbed to pancreatic cancer on February 24, 1991, only months after falling short of the votes required for Hall of Fame induction. His career nevertheless remains one of the most triumphant in country-music history.