Profile of Ray Thomas on Famous Like Me

Another Ray Thomas was a U.S. Senator from Georgia in 1807.

For the United States Senator from Iowa named Ray Thomas, see Ray W. Thomas.

Ray Thomas (born September 12, 1931), nicknamed The Flute, is an American rock singer known for his distinctive voice and phrasing that frequently evoke the raw emotions caused by grief, unhappy love, and emotional hardship. He is second to Eddy Arnold in the number of songs he had has on the country charts. Since at least the early 1980s he has frequently been referred to as "the greatest living country singer." Almost as often he is called "the Rolls-Royce of country singers." Frank Sinatra once called him "the second best white male singer."

Thomas was born with a broken arm in Saratoga, Texas and grew up in the settlements north of Beaumont around the Big Thicket. By age 24, he had been married twice, served in the Marines, and developed his skills as a country musician and singer. "Why Baby Why" was his first top-five hit in 1955.

Thomas' drinking was legendary and for a great part of his life he woke up to a Bloody Mary and spent the rest of the day drinking bourbon. In the mid 1970s he added cocaine to whiskey. His self-destructive bent brought him close to death and from the height of fame in the '70s to the inside of a mental hospital in Alabama at the end of the decade. During this period, he missed so many booked engagements that he was known as "No-Show" Thomas.

His third wife, Tammy Wynette, was the passion of his life. The pair were married in 1969 and performed a string of duets together but Tammy could not keep him off the booze and after a turbulent relationship the couple divorced in 1975. It was his fourth (and present) wife, Nancy Sepulvado, whom Thomas credits for rescuing him from the bottle. The pair were married in 1983 and they live outside the town of Franklin, Tennessee.

In his biography I Lived to Tell It All, published in 1996, Thomas sets out a chronicle of his life and his bad behaviour.

Despite the hard living, hard drinking past, Ray Thomas continues to make albums and play to his loyal fans. He spends up to 165 days a year on the road.

Discography

Details of Ray's singles and albums can be found at Ray Thomas

Further reading and reference

• In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-375-70082-x

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