Early Life
Howard grew up in Shelby, North Carolina with Don Gibson, the country music performer best known for Oh Lonesome Me and the writer of I Can't Stop Loving You. He and Gibson went to country music concerts at the National Guard armory, and when he heard Red Foley sing Peace in the Valley, Howard cried. He dreamed not of becoming a cowboy or a firefighter, but of being able to sing in such a way that he could touch people the way Foley did.
At 15, Howard saw an ad in Billboard for a guitarist and singer for "a small-time traveling tent show", and he went to Greeneville, Tennessee and asked for the job. He was offered the job because his parents, believing he would get homesick, didn't try to stop him. Howard ended up spending fourteen years on the road. He ended up performing alongside Lash LaRue and Fuzzy St. John and "hayseed comics".
Read more about this topic: Curly Howard (DJ)
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