Roy Clark

Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and in helping to popularize the genre.

Clark on the set of A Conversation with Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2014

During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler. He was skilled in the traditions of many genres, including classical guitar, country music, Latin music, bluegrass, and pop. He had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), and his instrumental skill had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1987, and, in 2009, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He published his autobiography, My Life—in Spite of Myself, in 1994.

Quotes about Roy Clark

• As the co-host of Hee Haw and a mainstay on broadcast television for years, Roy Clark was an extremely visible ambassador of country music in the '60s and '70s. And while many know Clark for his TV work first, that shouldn't diminish his very real abilities as a guitarist.
  • Dan Orkin of Reverb.com (December 29, 2017) [1]