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Folks who got to know him as a kid
simply called him Hoover and forgot his first name - unless they had known
his older brother, "Wheaties," longer. In that case they called him
"Little Hoover," or "Cheerios." The one name moniker stayed with him.
After starting out as a wondering troubadour and coffee house folk singer
in his teens, Hoover migrated to Nashville in 1960s and became a
songwriter. His songs were recorded by Tina Turner, Eddy Arnold and
country music outlaws Tompall Glaser and Waylon Jennings. He won an ASCAP
Award for music he wrote for the MGM motion picture,
"tick...tick...tick..." As a Monument and Epic recording artist he cut his
own songs. But after a decade Hoover grew bored with the recording
industry and blew out of town.
Thereafter things got checkered. There were stints as a woodland hermit,
gambler, bartender, restaurateur, political press secretary, and
newspaper columnist. In the '80s he moved to the West Indies, became an
expert on Antillian cockfights, lived on Old Tree Rum and went broke. By
the 90's he was a working journalist living by the sea in Hawaii.
Today, Hoover is regarded as the world's foremost authority on stringed
instrument plectrums. His book, "Picks!" was lauded by such guitarists as B.B. King and the late Chet Atkins. The last song Hoover ever wrote was
one he composed on leaving Nashville in the "70s. Titled "Jesus Died for
Two-Timin' Lovers (And I'm A No-Count Buckaroo)," it summed up Hoover's
existential take on things. The chorus goes as follows:
"...So I'll be moving along;
Tell Waylon and Willie I said so long, little darling;
The good life has been too good for me;
Don't shed a tear now that I'm gone." |
