Texas Originals

Bob Wills

March 6, 1905–May 13, 1975

Known as the "King of Western Swing," Bob Wills was born near Kosse, Texas, in 1905. He grew up hearing the blues sung in cotton fields and country tunes played on his father’s fiddle. Wills spent his lifetime adapting new musical forms rooted in both traditions.

During the Depression, radio beamed live music programs across the country, building huge audiences. Wills’s fame began when he and his band—the Light Crust Doughboys—were heard on radio stations throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

Fellow Doughboy Milton Brown eventually left the group to form what has been called the first Western Swing band. But it was Wills’s relentless schedule of radio and live shows that spread Western Swing’s popularity.

By 1934, Wills had formed a new band, the Texas Playboys. To the traditional fiddle and guitar, he added steel guitar, brass, reeds, and drums, producing a bigger, jazzier sound. The Playboys' "New San Antonio Rose" became a hit, catapulting them to national fame.

World War II interrupted Wills’s career, but he soon rebuilt his band in California, drawing big crowds and even appearing in Hollywood films.

Wills continued recording into the 1960s. At his death in 1975, he was acknowledged as a pioneer of a uniquely American musical genre—one that fused conventional string band sounds with the brass of big band, the swing of jazz, and elements of polka, bluegrass, and folk.

For More about Bob Wills

The Bob Wills Museum in Turkey, Texas, features photographs and mementos from Bob Wills’s life. The museum is open Monday through Saturday and offers free admission to the public.

The Bob Wills Music Collection at the Briscoe Center for American History in Austin contains materials from 1944, 1947, and 1948 related to Wills’s career. The collection includes sheet music, recordings, broadcast transcripts, and promotional materials.

The Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame at Texas State University contains material from the 1930s-90s pertaining to the Hall’s members. As the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, Bob Wills features prominently in the collection, which includes his hat and fiddle.

The Bob Wills Heritage Foundation features a website with information on the musician’s life, career, and music, as well as links to current Western Swing events around the state.

The historic Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas originated as Bob Wills’s Ranch House. Built in 1950 by Dallas millionaire O. L. Nelms, Wills served as host of the establishment for several years.

Selected Bibliography

"Bob Wills." Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Accessed September 28, 2022.

Boyd, Jean A. The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

Kingsbury, Paul, Michael McCall, and John W. Rumble, editors. The Encyclopedia of Country Music, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Knowles, Ruth Sheldon. Hubbin' It: The Life of Bob Wills. Kingsport, TN: Kingsport Press, 1938.

Rhodes, Gary Don, director. Fiddlin' Man: The Life and Times of Bob Wills. 2004. New York: View Video, 2004.

Townsend, Charles R. "Light Crust Doughboys." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed September 21, 2022.

Townsend, Charles R. San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.

Townsend, Charles R. "Wills, James Robert." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed September 21, 2022.

Listen to the audio

Signed publicity portrait of Bob Wills, circa 1940. Originally published in an ad on page 347 of Billboard 1944 Music Yearbook.

Publicity photo of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.