Hail to the King of the Road
Former Winnipeger collects a host of stories about the wacky Roger Miller
Quentin Mills-Fenn

King of the Road is a part of pop culture.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the song, and I know the melody and words by heart. Throw in Dang Me and some other great songs and you have a big slice of American pop culture in the form of Roger Miller.

Miller was a poor country boy who moved to Nashville to try and make it as a performer. He played fiddle and wrote songs in coffee shops.

He moved to California, which was more to his liking, and his career exploded. He was a country music star with major crossover appeal. He had his own network television show in 1966 and guest-hosted The Tonight Show. He took home a record number of Grammy awards. He had a hit musical on Broadway and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died, at 56, in 1992.

Lyle E Style, Winnipegger and alt-country singer, came across Miller’s music in 1998 and became a die-hard fan. Wanting to do some research on his new idol, he was surprised to know that little literature was available. So, he put together this book.

Ain’t Got No Cigarettes (Great Plains Publications) is a testimonial to the genius of Roger Miller by the people who knew him. Style spent four years tracking down Miller’s friends and fellow performers. Along the way, he hooked up with some mighty big names: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and, Dwight Yoakam and dozens of others tell tales and provide insight.

The book is a tribute to the man’s innate intelligence, wit and... well, wackiness. Practically every interview mentions Miller’s sense of fun, his endless supply of one-liners and his crazy stunts. It seems the singer had a penchant for hiring Lear jets and dashing off on trips at all hours of the day or night.

Turns out there was a reason for all that energy. Throughout much of the ’60s and ’70s Miller was on amphetamines and later cocaine.

(The book includes a very funny anecdote about Miller and Glen Campbell, in a coked-up paranoia, trying to pick up some stuff in a complicated plan involving a Lear Jet, of course, and inter-state travel.)

But then, as more than one contributor points out, practically everyone was high on something in those days. One interviewee, from the world of rock, says he was surprised how many substances were consumed by the ostensibly clean-cut artists in country music world.

Miller’s legacy continues, of course. After all, the soundtrack to Brokeback Mountain features a cover of King of the Road by Rufus Wainwright, perhaps the gay Canadian version of Miller.

King of the Road is ideal for fans, both of Roger Miller and Nashville, but even the more casual reader will enjoy a story of great music, good times and the spark of genius.