Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. Tempe is also the location of the main campus of Arizona State University.
A honky-tonk is both a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons and the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano used to play such music. Bars of this kind are common in the South and Southwest United States. Many eminent country music artists, such as Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Johnny Horton, and Merle Haggard to name a few, began their careers as amateur musicians in honky-tonks.
Gin Blossoms is an American alternative rock band formed in 1987 in Tempe, Arizona. They rose to prominence following the 1992 release of their first major label album, New Miserable Experience, and the first single released from that album, "Hey Jealousy". "Hey Jealousy" became a Top 25 hit and went gold, and New Miserable Experience eventually went quadruple platinum; four other charting singles were released from the album. The band's follow-up album, Congratulations I'm Sorry (1996), went platinum and the single "As Long as It Matters" was nominated for a Grammy Award. Gin Blossoms broke up in 1997. Since reuniting in 2001, the band has released Major Lodge Victory in 2006, No Chocolate Cake in 2010, and Mixed Reality in 2018.
The music of Arizona began with Indigenous music of North America made by Indigenous peoples of Arizona. In the 20th century, Mexican immigrants popularized Banda, corridos, mariachi and conjunto. Other major influences come from styles popular throughout the rest of the United States.
John LaGale Horton was an American country, honky tonk and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international hits. His 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans" was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first No. 1 country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska ".
Henry William Thompson was an American country music singer-songwriter and musician whose career spanned seven decades.
Roy Wayne Farris is a retired American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation from 1986 to 1991, where he performed under the ring name The Honky Tonk Man. He also performed for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994, and for Stampede Wrestling between 1982 and 1986. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2019 induction ceremony. A heel for the majority of his active professional wrestling career, he has been described by Bleacher Report as "one of the greatest villains to ever grace a professional wrestling ring". His 453-day reign as WWE Intercontinental Champion was the longest reign in the history of the title until it was broken by Gunther in 2023.
The Refreshments were an alternative rock band from Tempe, Arizona. The band is best known for the single "Banditos" from their 1996 breakthrough album Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, and also for "Yahoos and Triangles", the theme song to the long-running animated series King of the Hill. The latter was a piece the band traditionally performed at soundchecks. The Refreshments disbanded in 1998, although Roger Clyne and P.H. Naffah continue to tour and play Refreshments songs along with new music as Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is a 1952 country song written by J. D. "Jay" Miller, and recorded by Kitty Wells. It was an answer song to the Hank Thompson hit "The Wild Side of Life." First performed by Al Montgomery as "Did God Make Honky Tonk Angels" on the Feature label which was owned by songwriter J.D. Miller.
Billy Bob's Texas is a country music nightclub located in the Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas, United States. It promotes itself as "The World's Largest Honky Tonk," at 100,000 square feet of interior space and nearly 20 acres of parking space.
Roger Meade Clyne is the lead singer, primary songwriter, and rhythm guitar player for the American rock band Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. His previous bands include The Refreshments and the Mortals.
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in the downtown area in Nashville, Tennessee. It includes Lower Broadway, an entertainment district renowned for honky tonks and live country music.
Paul "P.H." Naffah is best known as the former drummer for the Refreshments. He is now the drummer for Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, the band he created with fellow Refreshment Roger Clyne.
The Wagoneers are a neo-traditional country band founded in Austin, Texas in 1986 and now enjoying a resurgence. As innovators who attracted critical acclaim with a fresh, high-energy interpretation of a historical country sound—part honky-tonk and part rockabilly—The Wagoneers influenced other artists and helped lay the foundation for the emerging Americana and alt-country movement of the 1990s.
Stephen Ashbrook is a Phoenix, Arizona based singer songwriter. Ashbrook rose to fame in the mid-1990s in his home state of Arizona, riding the wave of the Tempe music scene while performing with his band Satellite. Many bands, including the Gin Blossoms, The Refreshments and Dead Hot Workshop, found success with this guitar-driven rock music. Ashbrook has toured with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, among others, and has performed for President Bill Clinton.
Dead Hot Workshop is an American rock band based in Tempe, Arizona.
"Banditos" is a song by American band The Refreshments from their album Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy. The song is the band's best-known hit.
Nico Holthaus is an independent American autodidact/polymath, writer, musician, filmmaker, producer of music, haunted attractions, and documentary and narrative films. He has won critical acclaim as the executive producer of the national Main St. Inc series and Dear America, a documentary that promotes Senator Mike Gravel’s National Initiative for Democracy, featuring Direct democracy proponents such as Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Pete Seeger, Max Brooks, production members of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, ex-Nirvana bassist and chairman of FairVote Krist Novoselic and Chancellors, Senators, Representatives and other notable public figures around the world.
Arthur Eugene "Buddy" Edwards III is an American writer and musician. He has written three novels and the screenplay for the movie adaptation of his first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix. He was co-founder, co-songwriter and bass player with The Refreshments, a band that sold over 400,000 units worldwide, had a hit single "Banditos", and wrote and recorded the theme song for the Fox television series King of the Hill.
"A Church, a Courtroom, Then Goodbye" is a song by American country music singer Patsy Cline. It was composed by Eddie Miller and W.S. Stevenson. It was released as Cline's debut single in July 1955 via Coral Records.
