Charlie Collins
Musician · Pioneer, Tennessee
Best known for
Guitar
Charlie Collins was a Tennessee-born guitarist whose 26-year tenure with Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys (1966–1992) and his Grand Ole Opry rhythm-guitar seat made him one of the longest-serving and most-recorded sidemen of late-twentieth-century country and Acuff-tradition bluegrass.
- Born Charlie Edward Collins on April 5, 1933 in Pioneer, Tennessee (near Caryville, Campbell County); died January 12, 2012 at age 78 from complications of a stroke suffered four days earlier.
- Multi-instrumentalist on flat-top rhythm guitar, fiddle, and mandolin; first known on the Knoxville scene as a fiddler nicknamed "Peanut the Fiddler."
- Served in the U.S. Army before joining Carl Butler's Pinnacle Mountain Boys in 1960 as a fiddler.
- Joined Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys in 1966 and remained Acuff's rhythm guitarist until Acuff's death in 1992 — the longest-tenured Smoky Mountain Boy of the band's later era.
- Grand Ole Opry regular for roughly 45 years; performed on the show just days before his fatal stroke in 2012.
- Recorded duet albums with Acuff bandmate Brother Oswald (Bashful Brother Oswald Kirby), including "Os and Charlie" and "That's Country" for Rounder Records.
- Worked sessions with Jim & Jesse, Norman Blake, and Sam Bush, among others.
- Subject of an extensive Country Music Hall of Fame oral history interview.
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Norman BlakePlayed on recordings with Norman Blake
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Jim and Jesse and the Virginia BoysPlayed on recordings with Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys
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Norman Blake and Red RectorPlayed on recordings with Norman Blake and Red Rector
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Mark O'ConnorPlayed on recordings with Mark O'Connor
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Brother OswaldPlayed on recording with Brother Oswald