His father Bruce was also a musician, playing upright bass at local dances on the weekends in the San Joaquin Valley.

But my mother brought him under.” At a Maddox show in Mesa, Arizona, a teenaged couple sat in the front row: Buck and Bonnie Campbell Owens, who found themselves fascinated with Nichols' playing.

While in Las Vegas, although warned by Lula Maddox not to do so, Nichols began sneaking away to gamble, an activity that soon led to the guitarist being fired from the group.

Returning to the valley, Nichols joined Smiley Maxidon on radio station KNGS in Hanford, California, where he performed for a regular one-hour live broadcast.

About a year later, the Texas-born, Bakersfield country music icon Lefty Frizzell hired the young guitarist, where future employer Merle Haggard first saw Nichols play 1953 at the Rainbow Gardens.

For five days a week, this 45-minute live country music show was aired on station KERO in Bakersfield, California.

Roy was so good with his left hand that he bent the strings in tune as he played depending on where he was on the neck.” When asked what it was like recording those sessions, he replied, "It was really a lot of fun!” On June 15, 1965, Nichols was hired straight out of Stewart's band by Haggard, and flew to Phoenix, Arizona, to join the singer on his first tour with his band The Strangers.

[3] Nichols gave three conditions for being hired by Haggard: "I don't drive, I carry my own amplifier, and I know where my bed is every night".

Nichols continued to tour with Haggard in the United States and overseas with notable performances at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Gardens, and the White House two times.

[5] Nichols was being treated for a nonlife-threatening infection at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, California, when he had a heart attack and died on July 3, 2001.