There he began fronting a group called the Texas Sons and performed on the Louisiana Hayride in the middle of the 1950s.
Following this he played with the Light Crust Doughboys, but soon returned to Dallas, where he began performing in the nascent style of rockabilly.
[citation needed] In 1964, he met Ray Price, and this encounter led to a contract with Columbia Records.
For much of the 1970s, Dollar did production work, for the New Coon Creek Girls, Jimmy Dickens, and Teddy Nelson, among others.
[citation needed] Johnny Dollar married and divorced four times, and became an alcoholic; late in his career he acquired throat cancer, and the operations destroyed his ability to sing.