Country music first crossed over onto the pop charts, it was Roy Clark who did it. When a small town in the Ozarks became the live music capital of the world, boasting more seats than Broadway, it was Roy Clark who started it. When the longest-running syndicated television series in history was on the air, it was Roy Clark who starred in it.

For a Man who widely-acclaimed virtuosity on the guitar, homespun humor and down home business sense have made him a household name, humility is as natural to him as his smile.

Today, renowned good guy Clark remains one of the most popular of entertainers as he looks for new opportunities on stage, on record and on TV. For a man who didn’t taste major success until he was 30 years old, the key has not been some grand plan but rather taking everything in its own time. “Sure, I had dreams of being a star when I was 18. I could’ve pushed it too, but it wouldn’t have happened any sooner. I’m lucky. What’s happened, has happened in spite of me.”

He was raised in Washington, DC, often surprises people. Born Roy Linwood Clark on April 15, 1933 in Meherrin, Virginia, his family moved to DC when he was a youngster. His father played in a square dance band and took him to free concerts by the National Symphony and by various military bands. “I was subjected to different kinds of music before I ever played. Dad said, ‘Never turn your ear off to music until your heart hears it—because then you might hear something you like.’”

Beginning on banjo and mandolin, he was one of those people “born with the music already in them.” His first guitar, a Sears Silvertone, came as a Christmas present when he was 14. That same year, 1947, he made his first TV appearance. He was 15 when he earned $2 for his first paid performance, with his dad’s band. In the fertile, diverse musical soil of cosmopolitan DC, he began playing bars and dives on Friday and Saturday nights until he was playing every night and skipping shool-eventually dropping out at 15. “Music was my salvation, the thing I loved most and did best. Whatever was fun, I’d go do that.”

The guitar wizard soon went on tour with country legends suck as Hank Williams and Grandpa Jones. After winning a national banjo competition in 1950, he was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, which led to shows with Red Foey and Ernest Tubb. Yet he’d always return to DC to play not only country but jazz, pop, and early rock’n’rool (he’s prominently featured in the book Capitol Rock); to play with black groups and white groups; to play fast, to even play guitar with his feet. In 1954, he joined Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats, appearing in clubs and on radio and TV and even back in up Elvis Presley. In 1963, he had his first hit, The Tips Of My Fingers, a country song that featured an orchestra and string section.

Throughout the ‘60s, Clark recorded several albums, toured constantly, and appeared on TV variety shows from Carson to Mike Douglas to Flip Wilson. Then came “Hee Haw.” A countrified “Laugh-In” with music, shot in Nashville, “Hee Haw” premiered in 1969. Co-starring Clark and Buck Ownes, it was an immediate hit. Thought CBS canceled the show after two-and-a-half years, despite ranking in the Top 20, the series segued into syndication, where it remained until 1992.

In 1969, yesterday, When I Was Young charted Top 20 Pop and #9 Country (Billboard). Including Yesterday, Clark has had 23 Top 40 county hits, among them either Top 10s: The Tips Of My Fingers (#10, 1963), I Never Picked Cotton (#5) and Thank God And Greyhound You’re Gone (#6, 1970), The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counter Revolution Polka (#9, 1972), Come Live With Me (#1) and Somewhere Between Love And Tomorrow (#2, 1973), and If I Had It To Do All Over Again (#2, 1976). In addition, his 12-string guitar rendition of Malaguena is considered a classic and, in 1982, he won a Grammy (Best Country Instrumental Performances) for Alabama Jubilee.

From his home in Tulsa, Oklahoman, where he moved in 1974 with Barbara, his wife of now 40 years, Clark has begun to tour more than in the recent past. For him, live performance is what it’s all about. “Soon as you hit the edge of the stage and see people smiling and know they’re there to hear you, it’s time to have fun.

His recent cross Canada tour from British Columbia to Ontario was a tremendous success. It looks like Roy Clark will be coming back again in the near future.

At the end of each of Roy’s concerts, he tells the audience, “We had to come. But you had a choice. Thanks for being here.” With its smiles in return, audiences continue to thank Roy Clark for being here to.