While fighting in Germany he was severely injured by a grenade, and would spend the rest of the war in a hospital, where he would meet Tony Mottola, who motivated him to begin playing the guitar.
[2] He then moved to Los Angeles county where he worked in Western films and played music in bars around L.A.'s Skid Row, where he met pioneering pedal steel guitarist Speedy West.
In addition, Bryant and West played on the Tennessee Ernie Ford-Kay Starr hit "I'll Never Be Free", leading to both men being signed to Capitol as instrumentalists.
By 1955 he left Hometown Jamboree (retaining his friendship with West) and after various clashes with his Capitol producer Ken Nelson, the label dropped him in 1956.
In 1978, in declining health, Bryant learned that he had lung cancer; He played his final performance in August, 1979 at a club in North Hollywood[2] before he returned to his Georgia hometown.