Childhood and early life Atkins was born on June 20, 1924, in
Luttrell, Tennessee, near
Clinch Mountain. His parents divorced when he was six years old, after which he was raised by his mother. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl. He started out on the
ukulele, later moving on to the
fiddle, but he made a swap with his brother Lowell when he was nine: an old pistol and some chores for a guitar. He stated in his 1974 autobiography, "We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression." Forced to relocate to Fortson,
Georgia, outside of
Columbus to live with his father because of a critical
asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who became obsessed with music. Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a straight-back chair to breathe comfortably. On those nights, he played his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, a habit that lasted his whole life. While living in Fortson, Atkins attended the historic Mountain Hill School. He returned in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition. Stories have been told about the very young Chet who, when a friend or relative would come to visit and play guitar, crowded the musician and put his ear so close to the instrument that it became difficult for the visitor to play. His first guitar had a nail for a
nut and was so bowed that only the first few
frets could be used. He later purchased a semi-acoustic electric guitar and amplifier, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet, since his home didn't have electricity. Later in life, he lightheartedly gave himself (along with
John Knowles,
Tommy Emmanuel,
Steve Wariner, and
Jerry Reed) the honorary degree CGP ("Certified Guitar Player"). This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style.
Early musical career After dropping out of high school in 1942, Atkins landed a job at
WNOX (AM) (now WNML) radio in
Knoxville, where he played fiddle and guitar with the singer
Bill Carlisle and the comic
Archie Campbell and became a member of the station's Dixieland Swingsters, a small swing instrumental combo. After three years, he moved to
WLW-AM in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where Merle Travis had formerly worked. After six months, he moved to Raleigh and worked with
Johnnie and Jack before heading for
Richmond, Virginia, where he performed with
Sunshine Sue Workman. Atkins's shy personality worked against him, as did the fact that his sophisticated style led many to doubt he was truly "country". He was fired often but was soon able to land another job at another radio station on account of his unique playing ability. Travelling to Chicago, Atkins auditioned for
Red Foley, who was leaving his star position on
WLS-AM's
National Barn Dance to join the
Grand Ole Opry. Atkins made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 as a member of Foley's band. He also recorded a single for Nashville-based
Bullet Records that year. That single, "Guitar Blues", was fairly progressive, including a clarinet solo by the Nashville dance band musician Dutch McMillin and produced by Jim Bulleit, founder of Bullet Records. He had a solo spot on the Opry, but when that was cut, Atkins moved on to
KWTO in
Springfield, Missouri. Despite the support of executive
Si Siman, however, he soon was fired for not sounding "country enough". In 1952 he co-wrote the song "How's the World Treating You?' with
Boudleaux Bryant which was released as an RCA Victor single by The Beaver Valley Sweethearts in January, 1953. The song was also recorded by
Eddy Arnold in 1953 and
Elvis Presley in 1956.
Jim Reeves,
Don Gibson,
Rosemary Clooney,
Red Foley,
Connie Francis,
Sonny James, and
James Taylor and
Alison Krauss. While he had not yet had a hit record for RCA Victor, his stature was growing. He began assisting Sholes as a session leader when the New York–based producer needed help organizing Nashville sessions for RCA Victor artists. Atkins's first hit single was "
Mr. Sandman", followed by "Silver Bell", which he recorded as a duet with
Hank Snow. His albums also became more popular. He was featured on ABC-TV's
The Eddy Arnold Show in the summer of 1956 and on
Country Music Jubilee in 1957 and 1958 (by then renamed
Jubilee USA). Country Gentleman, model G6122, 1962 In addition to recording, Atkins was a design consultant for
Gretsch, which manufactured a popular
Chet Atkins line of electric guitars from 1955 to 1980. He became manager of RCA Victor's Nashville studios, eventually inspiring and seeing the completion of the legendary
RCA Studio B, the first studio built specifically for the purpose of recording on the now-famous
Music Row. Also later on, Chet and
Owen Bradley would become instrumental in the creation of studio B's adjacent building
RCA Studio A as well. and
Don Gibson's "
Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day". The once-rare phenomenon of having a country hit
cross over to pop success became more common. He and Bradley had essentially put the producer in the driver's seat, guiding an artist's choice of material and the musical background. Other Nashville producers quickly copied this successful formula, which resulted in certain country hits "crossing over" to find success in the pop field. Atkins made his own records, which usually visited pop standards and
jazz, in a sophisticated home studio, often recording the rhythm tracks at RCA and adding his solo parts at home, refining the tracks until the results satisfied him. In later years, when Bradley asked how he achieved his sound, Atkins told him "it was Porter." Porter described Atkins as respectful of musicians when recording—if someone was out of tune, he would not single that person out by name. Instead, he would say something like, "we got a little tuning problem ... Everybody check and see what's going on." occasionally on a primitive radio. He was sure no one could play that articulately with just the thumb and index finger (which was exactly how Travis played), and he assumed it required the thumb and two fingers—and that was the style he pioneered and mastered. He enjoyed jamming with fellow studio musicians, and they were asked to perform at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. That performance was cancelled because of rioting, but a live recording of the group (
After the Riot at Newport) was released. Atkins performed by invitation at the
White House for every U.S. president from
John F. Kennedy through to
George H. W. Bush. Atkins was a member of the
Million Dollar Band during the 1980s. He is also well known for his song "Yankee Doodle Dixie", in which he played "
Yankee Doodle" and "
Dixie" simultaneously, on the same guitar. Before his mentor Sholes died in 1968, Atkins had become vice president of RCA's country division. In 1987, he told
Nine-O-One Network magazine that he was "ashamed" of his promotion: "I wanted to be known as a guitarist and I know, too, that they give you titles like that in lieu of money. So beware when they want to make you vice president." He had brought
Waylon Jennings,
Willie Nelson,
Connie Smith,
Bobby Bare,
Dolly Parton,
Jerry Reed, and
John Hartford to the label in the 1960s and inspired and helped countless others. He took a considerable risk during the mid-1960s, when the
civil rights movement sparked violence throughout the South, by signing country music's first African-American singer,
Charley Pride, who sang rawer country than the smoother music Atkins had pioneered. Atkins's biggest hit single came in 1965, with "Yakety Axe", an adaptation of "
Yakety Sax", by his friend, the saxophonist
Boots Randolph. He rarely performed in those days and eventually hired other RCA producers, such as
Bob Ferguson and
Felton Jarvis, to lessen his workload. In later years, he returned to radio, appearing on
Garrison Keillor's
Prairie Home Companion program, on
American Public Media radio, even picking up a fiddle from time to time, and performing songs such as
Bob Wills's "
Corrina, Corrina" and
Willie Nelson's "
Seven Spanish Angels" with Nelson on a 1985 broadcast of the show at the
Bridges Auditorium on the campus of
Pomona College. ==Death and legacy==