32. Gary Stewart

Roll out the red carpet; the king is here. Or according to Time magazine in the 1970’s, Gary Stewart is the “king of honkytonk”. As a teen, Gary was already writing songs, touring with bands and knew how to play the piano and guitar. While playing a show in Florida, Gary ran into (2007 Hall Of Fame inductee) Mel Tillis. Mel told him to take his songs to Nashville. While in Nashville, he signed with a couple small record labels. He got success with his songwriting for other artists, but couldn’t catch a break with his own solo career. That is until a handful of his demo tapes made their way over to RCA Records. After signing there, his first single flopped. But his second single became a top ten hit, allowing him to release a full album. That album “Out Of Hand”, has since been described as a masterpiece of honky-tonk music and one of the greatest country albums of the 1970’s. Unfortunately, his hits soon dried up after that album, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to record great material and gain millions of fans (including getting a very famous fan: Bob Dylan).