Jim Stafford Biography - Branson Tourism Center

Branson Missouri News Article

STAFFORD, JIM

Give Name:  James Wayne Stafford
Date of Birth:  January 16, 1944
Place of Birth:  Eloise, Florida

Marital Status:  1. Divorced 2. Bobbie Gentry (m. 1978)(div.)
Children:  Tyler

Musical Style:  Comedy/Pop-Country/Pop
Talents:  Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica, One-Man Band, Actor, Humorist

Management:  BLADE1
Booking:  AMERI
Recommend Record Albums:
"Jim Stafford" (MGM)(1973) [Re-released on Polydor (1974) and again in 1987] "Not Just Another Pretty Foot" (MGM)(1975)

Biography:
When Jim Stafford became an international star in 1974 with Spiders & Snakes, he not only launched his own career but was also instrumental in helping launch the Bellamy Brothers, because Jim had written the song with David Bellamy. Jims antecedents are rooted in Tennessee, where his forebears were Country musicians. His parents decided to relocate to Florida to pick citrus fruit, bringing their musical heritage with them. His father, Woody, who became a dry cleaner, played in a band called the Reelfoot Lake Stompers, while in Union City, Tennessee. By the time Jim was age 14, he was playing guitar in a Rock'n'Roll band in high school. He had wanted, at various times, to become a commercial artist and a preacher. He decided to become a guitarist, and when he graduated from high school, he headed straight for Nashville. He worked on the Grand Ole Opry backing Jumpin Bill Carlisle and worked Kansas City with Carl Smith. While in Nashville, he met Kent Lavoie, who came to fame as Lobo, and Lavoie would play a major part in Jims early career. While in Music City, Jim began playing with a drummer, but one day, the drummer quit, and Jim turned into a one-man band. In 1964, Jim entered Ted Macks Original Amateur Hour, playing Chet Atkins Yankee Doodle and Dixie, without success. He soon left Nashville and moved to Memphis and then Atlanta. By now, Jim was writing his "off the wall" songs. He started writing these novelty songs because he felt he didnt have a good enough singing voice. Jim played go-go bars and was often called upon to provide humorous dialogue during the dancers acts. While performing at the Shack Upon the Beach in Clearwater, Florida, he met up again with Lobo. Jim had written Swamp Witch and tried to pitch it to his friend, but Lobo felt that Jim should record it, and introduced him to producer Phil Gernhard. Mike Curb heard the song and liked what he heard and signed Jim to MGM Records, with Gernhard and Lobo producing. In 1973, Swamp Witch became Jims first Pop hit and reached the Top 40. However, it was the follow-up, Spiders & Snakes, that placed Jim in the international arena. It reached the Pop Top 3, Country Top 70, it was certified Gold in 1974 and reached No.14 in the U.K. Jim followed up with the sexually ambiguous song, My Girl Bill, which reached the Pop Top 15, the Country Top 70 and the U.K. Top 20. Next came another Top 10 Pop hit, Wildwood Weed (written by Jim and Don Bowman), which also went Top 60 on the Country chart. He ended the year with another novelty ditty, Your Bulldog Drinks Champagne, which went Top 25 on the Pop chart. That year, Record World listed Jim fourth in the "Top Male Vocalist" category, behind Elton John, Stevie Wonder and John Denver. In 1975, Jim began the Jim Stafford Show, an ABC-TV summer series. The regulars on the show included Mel Blanc (the voice behind so many animated cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny) and Deborah Allen (later a successful Nashville songwriter and singer). The show was produced by Stafford Entertainment, Inc./Fours Company. However, the series only ran for one season. In such regard was Jims guitar playing that in 1975, he was the subject of a feature in Guitar Player magazine, in which Jim related how he uses guitars made by Los Angeles-based guitar maker, Arturo Valdez, who had also built Jim a revolutionary guitar banjo. In 1975, Jim had his last Pop hit for MGM and the last of his singles produced by Lobo and Phil Gernhard, entitled I Got Stoned and I Missed It. Around this time, Jim was based in Hollywood in an old Spanish villa once owned by the silent screen stars, the Wayne Sisters. Jims last two Pop entries were Jasper (Polydor, 1976) and Turn Loose of My Leg (Warner Brothers, 1977), but neither was very successful. In 1977, Jim won the Esquire magazine "Lifestyle Award for Fashion," which proclaimed him as one of Americas best-dressed men in the company of Bob Hope and Telly Savalas. In 1978, Jim married singer Bobbie Gentry, but this marriage only survived for a couple of years. Jim, the consummate storyteller, had once said (before he and Bobbie married) that he couldnt understand Bobbies Ode To Billy Joe. In 1980, Jim co-hosted Those Amazing Animals for ABC-TV with Burgess Meredith and Priscilla Presley and appeared in the Clint Eastwood movie, Any Which Way You Can. From this came the wry Cow Patti, which gave Jim a Top 70 Country single the following year. In 1981, Jim co-hosted Nashville On The Road with Rex Allen, Jr. and Sue Powell. That year, Jim wrote three songs for the Walt Disney film, The Fox And The Hound. Jim had two more Country chart entries on Town House and Columbia, but neither made the Top 60. In 1989, Jim moved back to Florida to be near his son, who had moved with his mother (Bobbie Gentry) to Georgia. Jim played Las Vegas rooms, concerts and state fairs. Among Jims other accolades is honorary membership in the International Frisbee Association. Jim now lives in Branson, Missouri where he entertains at the Jim Stafford Theater.

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