Fred Rose
Musician · 1898–1954
Fred Rose was a charter member of the Country Music Hall of Fame — one of its first three inductees alongside Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams — the co-founder of Acuff-Rose Music (Nashville’s first music publisher), Hank Williams’s producer and frequent co-writer, and the executive most responsible for turning Nashville into a songwriting town.
Assisted by AI.
Spot something off? Help us fix it.
- Born August 24, 1898, in Evansville, Indiana; grew up in St. Louis after his parents’ separation, supplementing the family income by playing piano in saloons as a teenager.
- Moved to Chicago by 1917; broke through as a songwriter in the 1920s with Tin Pan Alley and jazz hits including “Red Hot Mama,” “Deed I Do,” and “Honest and Truly.”
- Returned to Nashville in 1942 and partnered with Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff to launch Acuff-Rose Music — the first Nashville-based music publishing company and the engine of country songwriting business for decades.
- Signed an unknown Alabama songwriter named Hank Williams in 1946; produced every one of Williams’s recordings from 1947 until Williams’s death in 1953, and was credited as co-writer on “Kaw-Liga” among others.
- Mentored a generation of Nashville writers — including Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Pee Wee King, and Hank Snow — and helped move the city’s industry from a regional curiosity to a national force.
- Died December 1, 1954, of a heart attack in Nashville; buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery there.
- Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 1961 (with Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers) and into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
