SINGER

Born in Raleigh, NC

Lives in Franklin, TN

Wife: Naomi Judd

Step Children: Wynonna Judd & Ashley Judd

My father was an old fashioned Baptist minister. I grew up spending half my life in church, twice on Sunday and Wednesday nights every week. The rest of the week we were having some kind of bible study in our home.

My father loved music. He played a little guitar and my Mom and he would sing around the house. He also, was a big Gospel music fan. He particularly loved the quartets. He started taking me to gospel concerts when I was around ten years old. From my very first concert I was hooked on that quartet sound. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I got a cheap record player for Christmas one year and I played quartet music for hours every afternoon after school. I would stand in my bedroom and sing with those records until dinnertime. I was particularly infatuated with the bass singers and when my voice began to change I concentrated on singing that part. JD Sumner was one of those voices that I listened to and tried to emulate. Never dreamed that one day I would be standing beside him on stage as a member of The Stamps Quartet.

JD Sumner and The Stamps had been singing back up with Elvis for several years before I got the call to come to Nashville, Tn. and audition. Richard Sterben had left the group to join the Oak Ridge Boys and that left an opening. I was offered the job with the Stamps and immediately moved from Raleigh, NC to Nashville, TN and was on the road the next day singing in gospel concerts with one of the top quartets in the country. Talk about a life change.

A Few weeks later we joined up with Elvis in Las Vegas. There was very little rehearsing for me. I had to learn the show on the fly. As a young greenhorn to the whole music world I was scared to death and extremely intimidated that whole first week in Vegas. It was hard for me to accept and fully understand just exactly where I was and what I was doing. In reality, I was singing back up to the greatest singer/entertainer in the world with probably the top quartet in the world.

I was a part of over two hundred Elvis concerts. In the last year or so Elvis had me singing the tag line to It’s Now Or Never an octave under him each night. He would then introduce me and call me his alter ego. It is a very special memory for me.

I was part of the recording sessions that took place in the Jungle room. Singing on the Moody Blue and From Elvis Presley Blvd. records. I’m also on the live recording that was the CBS special. In 2018 I was part of the remaking of the gospel record that Lisa Marie sings on, Where No One Stands Alone.

Sadly, I sang, along with The Stamps Quartet, at Elvis’s funeral. A day and time I’ll never forget. Elvis was a friend, I loved him, and he could not have been more kind to me.