23 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Honky-Tonk Pioneer Once Dubbed the “Original Outlaw” by Willie Nelson

On this day (August 22) in 2003, pivotal honky-tonk artist Floyd Tillman died at his home in Bacliff, Texas, at age 88. Perhaps best known for the 1949 hit ”Slipping Around,” Tillman inspired some of country music’s biggest names — including Willie Nelson, who christened him the “original outlaw. Today, we’re honoring his life and career on the 23rd anniversary of his death.

Floyd Tillman: From Sharecropper’s Son to Honky-Tonk Legend

Born December 8, 1914, in Post, Oklahoma, Floyd Tillman grew up the son of a sharecropper in the cotton mill town of Post, Texas.

In the 1930s, he got his start playing mandolin and banjo with his brothers at local dances. Eventually, he expanded his repertoire to include guitar and singing,

Tillman moved to San Antonio to play lead guitar for Western swing bandleader Adolph Hofner.

During his time there, he immersed himself in other genres, including pop, jazz, and blues. He also joined the U.S. Army and served as a radio operator stationed near Houston, where he continued to write and record

Songwriting Success

Floyd Tillman would play with various other swing bands, including the Houston-based Blue Ridge Playboys, before striking out on his own.

His first taste of songwriting success arrived in 1938, when he sold his composition “It Makes No Difference Now” to country singer Jimmie Davis for $300.

Davis’ recording would become the most popular country song of 1939. Despite this, Tillman never received further compensation for its success, although he apparently regained the rights to the song 28 years later.

However, he did gain a recording contract with Decca. In 1944, he reached the top of the country charts for the first (and last) time in his career with the self-penned “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”.

Drawing on his own military experience, he also scored top-five hits with “G.I. Blues” and “Each Night at Nine”, both of which resonated with lonely service members during World War II.

Tillman’s other hits include  ”Driving Nails in My Coffin” (1946), ”I Gotta Have My Baby Back” (1949) and his final hit, ‘It Just Tears Me Up” (1960).

But his most famous work is perhaps “Slippin’ Around”, which is said to have birthed an entire country music subgenre of songs about cheating.

How He Influenced Willie Nelson

Floyd Tillman’s jazz-inflected guitar riffs and unpretentious songs about real-life matters left a lasting mark on the genre.

He most directly inspired the likes of Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard — all of whom joined him on his final album, a 2004 collection of duets called The Influence.

“You could tell right away that his music wasn’t the typical country music of the time,” Nelson said of Tillman after his death.

[RELATED: Born on This Day in 1914, the Musician Who Helped Create Honky Tonk and Was a Major Influence on Willie Nelson]

The “Always On My Mind” crooner continued, “He had some of those Django [Reinhardt] rhythms in his guitar playing, and he was singing about subjects that just weren’t being sung about at the time.”

Featured image by Paul Natkin/Getty Images