LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS, Grand Ole Opry, Nashville 1992.

Little Jimmy Dickens stood just four feet ten inches tall but, wearing the right cowboy boots and hat – a white straw Stetson with a seven inch crown – he towered at five feet five inches. Known for his small stature, his comic songs, and his rhinestone-studded “Nudie suits,” Dickens has been called country music’s foremost entertainer and was the first country musician to circle the globe on a world tour.

Though he never had a consistent presence in the upper levels of the country charts, Dickens had a reputation as an outstanding ballad singer and managed to have hits in every decade between 1940 and 1980. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1983.

At his passing at the age of 94, Little Jimmy Dickens had been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for more than sixty-six years, longer than any other country artist in history.

The Grand Ole Opry had relocated to a new purpose building in 1974, having been originally held at The Ryman Auditorium since 1943. Fuff, Les, Ian and myself visited the Ryman the day after our drinking session at nearby Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (see previous post). We left the first home of country music carrying Hank Williams and Elvis Presley posters from the 1950s.

When we arrived at the new Grand Ole Opry I noticed a sign saying that taking photographs was forbidden, so I took some. Both Hank Williams and Johnny Cash had been banned from the Opry for misbehaving, so I figured I would be in good company if I got caught.