A guitarist, he primarily played behind Ernest Tubb as part of the Texas Troubadours and later was a house band member for the television programs Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw.
Rhodes also played as a session musician for various country singers such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, George Strait, and John Denver, among others.
Rhodes also played at the Silver Spur Club and the Longhorn Ballroom for owner Jack Ruby, the man later known for killing Lee Harvey Oswald in the wake of the assassination of John F.
At the time, Jimmy "Spider" Wilson was the only other guitarist on the staff, and other contemporaries during his arrival included pianist Jerry Whitehurst, bassist Roy Huskey, and fiddler Ed Hyde.
[5] In 1981, Rhodes played bass for John Denver's album Some Days Are Diamonds, B. J. Thomas's Some Love Songs Never Die, and Don McLean's Believers.
In 1983, Rhodes worked with George Strait on Right or Wrong, a country chart-topper that received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.
[3] In 2003, Rhodes and several other longtime staff members were fired by Opry manager Pete Walker in an attempt to reinvigorate the show's popularity with an appeal to younger audiences.
[7] Rhodes has been considered one of the greatest country music guitarists of all time due to his stint backing Ernest Tubb with the Texas Troubadours and his decades-long career as a sideman and session musician in Nashville.
"[1] Rhodes was given the Super Picker Award by The Recording Academy in 1976 and was honored in a joint resolution in the Tennessee General Assembly authored by state representative Ben West Jr. in 2010.