Tennessee Ernie Ford Biography

Fast Facts

• Served in the U․S․ Army Air Corps during World War II, where he was a bomber navigator and became a lieutenant
• Attended Virginia Intermount College and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
• Got his first job at the WOPI radio station in Bristol, Tennessee, where he worked as a disc jockey
• Became a disc jockey at ABC radio in 1952 and later joined NBC's "The College of Musical Knowledge" in 1953
• Became the host of "The Ford Show," a musical variety program sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, in 1956
• Recorded more than 80 albums during his 40-year career and worked with singers like Kay Starr, Betty Hutton, and Ella Mae Morse
• Best known as a country western singer and television host whose hit songs included "The Shotgun Boogie" and "16 Tons․"
• His famous folksy catchphrases included "Bless your pea-pickin' hearts" and "Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rockin' chairs․"
• He and his band became the first pop music group to tour the Soviet Union in 1974 as part of a United States-Soviet cultural exchange program
• Was the first ever country music performer to play at the London Palladium