Marty Robbins

Marty Robbins (born Martin Robinson) was born in Arizona in 1925, and he was one of the most famous and talented country singers of his era.   Like many singers of his era,  he was born to a large and impoverished family.  At 17 he joined the US Navy and served in the Solomon Islands.   He learned to play the guitar and got to like Hawaiian Music.  He left the services in 1947 and married.  He began to play on the radio and in local venues in Phoenix Arizona. He met Little Jimmy Dickens, who got him a record deal with Columbia Records and he began to play at the Opry in Nashville.  He wore embroidered cowboy suits and many of his songs were about cowboys and the west... His most famous song was the ballad, El Paso, a story of a fight over a girl between cowboys, which ended in the death of the song’s narrator.

His style of singing and image began to be seen as “Nashville establishment” and overly conservative... In the 70s, there was a rebellion against this style.  The “outlaw movement” included great singers like Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, who dressed more simply and sang with an earthier rougher sound.

Marty  loved NASCAR racing, driving Dodge Chargers and spending as much time as he could spare form his work, maintaining and racing his cars.   But he suffered from heart trouble and had several heart attacks.  In 1982 at the age of 57 he had a bypass operation in Nashville. But he did not survive it. He died a few days after the operation.

He was married for 34 years and had 2 children.