On January 25, 1969, Dolly Parton pranced into the locker room at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. A make-shift men’s dressing room, it was occupied by members of Knoxville’s Kountry Kings and Mel Tillis’s touring band in various stages of changing their clothes. Wearing high heeled boots and a skirt cut above the knees, she hiked one leg up on a chair and exclaimed, “boys, these boots are killing me!” and then unleashed her Tinkerbell laughter. It was a week after her 23rd birthday.

Dolly was on the bill that night, along with her boss, Porter Wagoner, Tillis and Conway Twitty, for one of WIVK radio’s legendary Country Shindigs. Performing with the Kountry Kings, as he did for the better part of a decade, was Ray Rose, who played bass and handled the group’s musical arrangements. Now 90, he said of the dearly departed Dolly, “oh good gosh, she was just fun to be around.” And he was around her quite a bit. Which is how I know this story.

A Knoxville native and Fulton High School graduate, Rose first started picking on a borrowed, high-strung guitar when he was 12 years old. His father wasn’t ready to get him his own six-string, thinking he’d plunk around with the one he had for a while until he got bored with it and set it aside. After watching his son learn to play until his fingers bled, he finally got him a new one, with a kinder, lower action. He never had what one would call formal music training. He’d pick up bits and pieces here and there from other friends who played.

Ray Rose identifying photos for Smoky Mountain Radio & Archives (photo: Bradley Reeves)

“Every time I ran out of something to play, I ran into someone who could play better than I could and learned something new,” he said.

Rose deserves his own biography. At 90, he still plays 12-14 gigs a month. He spent 56 years working at WATE-TV6, starting as a cameraman and eventually moving into mixing and editing. He didn’t retire until he was 76. But a little over 60 years ago, he got a phone call from his friend and workmate, steel guitar player Bill “Stoney” Stonecipher (both started at the former Channel 26, now WVLT, before moving to WATE). Stoney needed to put a band together. The Kountry Kings were born. They served as the house band for the WATE local music show, Startime. They also became the house band for WIVK’s Shindigs.

The Shindigs were held a few times year at the Coliseum (the first one was in 1965 featuring George Jones). Rose said the national and regional acts were generally booked by North Carolina promotor Carlton Haney (of Bill Monroe fame), but as a sponsor, WIVK wanted their own local talent in the house. For one thing, in those days, many new and upcoming solo artists didn’t go on tour with their own bands; their songs or albums were recorded with studio musicians. On a bill with just two or three acts, they might be backed by the headliner’s band. But on a bill that was five to eight deep, as the Shindigs were, a house band was called for. And each member had to be nimble enough to pick up each song quickly: it’s in C, in four, it’s a swing, and go.

Which brings me to why I initially called Rose in the first place. In a group message, I was sent the featured image at the top of this story. The photo is in the David West (of Ciderville fame) Collection at Smoky Mountain Radio & Archives of my friend Bradley Reeves. Taken in Knoxville with no date written on the back, there’s Johnny Cash, Red Rector (the mandolin half of Red and Fred), and an unknown gentleman identified only as “photographer” and Dolly. While we have yet to identify the photographer, I was able to figure out the where and when. We knew it was in Knoxville and suspected it was the Coliseum. And then I found the ad for Shindig #9: Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three, June Carter, Statler Brothers, Dolly, George Hamilton IV (not the actor who tanned too much), Red & Fred, Billy Craddock before everyone called him Crash and the Kings. Reeves knew Rose, so we thought maybe he knows. He did not.

Anther photo arrived in the group chat that was obviously taken at the same time, as it turned out, October 1, 1966. My friend Dean Russell, owner of Dean’s Restaurant & Bakery in Oak Ridge, shared a picture of his father, Ken, with Dolly backstage that night. Her hair and wardrobe matched the photo Bradley shared. Ken Russell was a DJ and advertising manager at WIVK for 27 years. His slot was originally called the Cousin Ken Show which he later changed to Big Music. That caught on so well people just started calling him that. Also a Fulton graduate, Ken’s voice was the first one to come crackling over WKCS Falcon Radio in 1952.

WIVK DJ Ken Russell and Dolly Parton, October 1966 (Photo courtesy of Dean Russell)

That 1966 Shindig was the first of four where Dolly performed. The night before, September 30, 1966, she was individually billed at a honky tonk out Asheville Highway, the Oak Grove Night Club. According to the Knoxville History Project, this was her first ticketed performance in Knoxville. The building is still there; it sits about a quarter to half mile east of John Sevier Highway on the right. So that would make her first WIVK Shindig her second ticketed performance in Knoxville. She performed her last one in January 1970.

It was a big year for Dolly in 1966: she turned 20, she got married, and had her first hit as a songwriter. Dolly-co-wrote Put It Off Until Tomorrow with her uncle, Bill Owens. It was recorded by and became the biggest hit of his career for Bill Phillips. Just three weeks after that performance at the Coliseum, she was at the Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville receiving a BMI Award for Song of the Year. A year later, she was on the Porter Wagoner Show.

Rose kept on trucking with the Kings, and played for just about everyone who played on that stage for WIVK: Dolly, Don Gibson, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Bill Phillips, and more than I’ve got room to name. He played the inaugural Honor Dolly Day in Sevierville back in 1970. He and Stoney were the primary Kings who remained for the duration. He said at least 12 members got poached away to Nashville or other bands over the years. Of his extraordinary life, he said “I have been blessed beyond belief. I thank God for it every day.”

Sources: Knoxville Journal Digital Archives, Smoky Mountain Radio & Archives

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

Enjoyed this article? Read more of Beth Kinnane’s stories about the people, places, and history that make our community unique.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our free newsletter. Comments may be sent to news@knoxtntoday.com