Faron Young

Faron Young (born February 25, 1932, Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.—died December 10, 1996, Nashville, Tennessee) was one of the most popular American country music performers of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. An actor as well as a singer and composer, he was known as the “Young Sheriff,” which he later changed to the “Singing Sheriff” after playing a western film role as a deputy sheriff. Young was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

Young was the youngest of six children of an impoverished Shreveport dairyman. Shut out by his father after the death of a favorite son, Young craved attention throughout his life. He was a born entertainer and gifted singer, but he battled with alcoholism, abusive behavior, and depression throughout his adult life.

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His KWKH radio performances on the Louisiana Hayride country music show in 1951 provided exposure that garnered him a Capitol Records contract at age 19. He moved to Nashville in 1952 and joined the Grand Ole Opry.

That year, Young enjoyed his first hit record with his composition “Goin’ Steady,” which reached the top twenty in the country music charts. As it did, Young had newly been inducted into the U.S. Army. Assigned to Special Services of the Third U.S. Army for his two-year enlistment, Young led a group called the Circle A Wranglers, which entertained troops throughout the southeastern United States and assisted the U.S. Army recruiting effort.

Immediately following his 1954 discharge, Young formed the Country Deputies band, which backed him for the next forty years. Band members who went on to fame included Johnny Paycheck, the Wilburn Brothers, Roger Miller, Lloyd Green, and Darrell McCall.

“Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” (1955) was Young’s first chart topper. “Alone With You” stayed at the top for 13 weeks in 1958, and his recording of Willie Nelson’s “Hello Walls” spent nine weeks there in 1961. Following a series of hits in the 1960s, “It’s Four in the Morning” (1972) became his last number-one song. Throughout his career, he stayed loyal to fans of the classic country sound of a steel guitar, fiddle, and a shuffle beat, but to these he added vocal phrasing that resembled that of a Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, bringing a touch of the crooner style to country.

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Like many popular musicians of the time, Young appeared in films. In the 1950s, he had major roles in three westerns: Hidden Guns (1956), Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer (1956), and Raiders of Old California (1957), as well as the musical melodrama Country Music Holiday (1958). During the 1960s, he appeared in numerous country music movies as himself.

Young became an influential Nashville businessman, beginning with his purchase and leadership of trade magazine Music City News in 1963. He owned or co-owned publishing companies, a race track, a golf course, and other Nashville ventures. His Music City News Awards show, which began in 1967, pioneered the concept of fan-voted awards. The show still exists as the CMT Music Awards.

Young was renowned for his generosity, often giving money to friends and strangers in need alike. He was an early champion of the Black country singer Charley Pride, who credited Young with helping him break down racial barriers in the country music industry. Young’s own popularity endured throughout the 1970s, but the rising popularity of a pop sound in country music in the 1980s found him, along with stalwarts such as Johnny Cash and George Jones, a virtual outsider in Nashville. His last major-label record contract was canceled in 1981, although he released several albums on smaller labels, returning to the majors only once, in 1985, in a duet album with Willie Nelson highlighting compositions by both artists.

After retiring from performing in 1993, Young frequently expressed his displeasure at how older artists were ignored and unappreciated. He declined requests from friends such as Jeannie Seely to guest on the Grand Ole Opry. By 1996, he had alienated himself from his children and ex-wife. Suffering from emphysema, prostatitis, and depression, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on December 10, 1996. He found posthumous appreciation not only with his election to the Country Music Hall of Fame, but also with the rediscovery of his work by numerous “alt-country” and Americana performers in the 21st century.