Roy Clark

Roy Clark
Roy Clark on the set of A Conversation With Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, Tulsa, in 2014
Background information
Birth name	Roy Linwood Clark
Born	(1933-04-15) April 15, 1933 (age 83) Meherrin, Virginia, U.S.
Genres	Country music
Instruments	Guitar, Vocals, Banjo, Fiddle, Harmonica, Mandolin
Years active	1950–present
Associated acts	Hee Haw
Website	Official website

Roy Linwood Clark (born April 15, 1933) is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1992. Roy Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre.

During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark is highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist and banjo player, and is also skilled on classical guitar and several other instruments. Although he has had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), his instrumental skill has had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1987 and in 2009 was inducted into the The Country Music Hall of Fame.

Clark was born in Meherrin, Virginia and lived as a teenager in southeast Washington, D.C., where his father worked at the Washington Navy Yard. At 14, Clark began playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin, and by age 15 he had already won two National Banjo Championships and world banjo/guitar flatpick championships. He was simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first as a baseball player and then as a boxer, before dedicating himself solely to music. At 17, he had his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

At the age of 23, Clark obtained his pilot's license and then bought a 1953 Piper Tri-Pacer (N1132C), which he flew for many years. This plane was raffled off on December 17, 2012, to benefit the charity Wings of Hope. He has owned other planes, including a Mitsubishi MU-2, Stearman PT-17 and Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond 1A bizjet.