Faron Young , (born Feb. 25, 1932, Shreveport, Louisiana,—died Dec. 10, 1996 , Nashville, Tenn.), . American singer, one of the most popular country music performers of the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. He was known as the “Young Sheriff, which he later changed to the “Singing Sheriff; his band was the Country Deputies. He was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

Young was the youngest of six children of an impoverished Shreveport dairyman. Shut out by his father after the death of a favorite son, Young craved attention throughout his life. He was a born entertainer and gifted singer, but he battled with alcoholism, abusive behavior, and depression. Combining his mother’s gregariousness with his father’s emotional distance, he developed into a man who cursed excessively and gave public affection freely but let few people get close to him emotionally.

His KWKH radio performances on the Louisiana Hayride country music show in 1951 provided exposure that garnered him a Capitol Records contract at age 19. He moved to Nashville in 1952 and joined the Grand Ole Opry.

Then his draft notice arrived, and he cried like a rat eatin’ a red onion. His self-penned Goin’ Steady approached number two on the Billboard country music charts as he graduated from basic training. Assigned to Special Services of the Third U.S. Army for his two-year enlistment, Young fronted a band called the Circle A Wranglers. They entertained troops throughout the Southeast and assisted the U.S. Army recruiting effort.

Immediately following his 1954 discharge, Young formed the Country Deputies band, which backed him for the next forty years. Band members who went on to fame included Johnny Paycheck, the Wilburn Brothers, Roger Miller, Lloyd Green, and Darrell McCall.

Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young (1955) was Young’s first chart topper. Alone With You stayed at the top for 13 weeks in 1958, and his recording of Willie Nelson’s Hello Walls spent nine weeks there in 1961. Following a series of hits in the

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