Early Life
Grant was raised in Bessemer City, North Carolina. He was one of twelve children born of Willie Leander (1888–1968) and Mary Elizabeth (Simmonds) Grant. His siblings are Wade (1910–1985), Olson (1912–1993), Burlas (1914–1915), Vernal (1916–1971), Eulean (b:1918), Hershall (b:1921), Doris (1923–2006), Odell (b:1925), Ed (b:1931), Norma Jean (b:1935) and Aubrey Grant (b:1937).
Grant married Etta May Dickerson on November 9, 1946. They had one son, Randall.
Grant and his wife settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 1947. Grant worked as an mechanic; first for Wagner Brake Service, then C.M. Booth Motor Company, and later, Automobile Sales Company in Memphis. It was during this time that he met fellow Automobile Sales employees Luther Perkins and Roy Cash, Sr., older brother of Johnny Cash. When the younger Cash returned to Memphis after serving in the U.S. Air Force, Grant, Perkins and Cash began playing together as three rhythm guitarists, along with another Automobile Sales co-worker and steel guitar player, A.W. "Red" Kernodle. Grant was a self-taught musician, and learned to play the bass after the group collectively decided that Grant should switch to playing bass, and that Perkins would play lead guitar.
Grant was an important part of the trademark 'boom-chicka-boom' sound of Johnny Cash that would change the sound of country music. He recorded with Cash from 1954 until 1980. Grant also voluntarily took on the responsibilities of road manager for Cash's touring show. During his career with Cash, Grant played Epiphone upright basses and electric basses by Fender, Epiphone and Micro-Frets. On the album cover for Johnny Cash At San Quentin, Grant's Epiphone Newport bass is famously featured in the foreground. In the early 1970s, he endorsed Micro-Frets instruments and Sunn amplifiers.
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