TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- Not many musicians can say they played with the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Garth Brooks.
But one man from Union County can make that claim and has written a book to tell all about it.
His name is Bobby Wood.
He's 72 years old.
The self-proclaimed cotton picker rose from the cotton fields of Union County to become one of the most listened-to piano players of the modern rock-and-roll era.
In fact, he's written a book that chronicles his time in Memphis playing for just about everybody that was anybody.
"Some of the people that we recorded were Neil Diamond, Garth [Brooks], Elvis [Presley] in Memphis, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson," said Wood, while visiting his brother-in-law in Tupelo.
Wood started his musical career singing with his family around Union County and north Mississippi in a gospel group known as the Wood Family.
After writing a song in the early sixties that actually made the charts, he and his band were on tour one night headed to a concert.
But something happened that would change his life.
"We were on our fifth day and we were trying to get to Ohio to a concert, and we decided to drive that night," Wood said. "The driver of our car went to sleep and we hit a semi truck head on."
Wood said he wasn't expected to live, but he did, and took his musical talents to Memphis.
"I didn't have any more major records, just regional hits," Wood said. "And so the opportunity came up. I was already staff piano player over at Sun Records in Memphis with Sam Phillips. They opened a studio in North Memphis over there. I started there in late '67 with a Dusty Springfield album, Son of a Preacher Man. Then I was there for the next four and a half years, I guess. We cut 122 chart records with R&B, pop, country and jazz. I don't know how we ended on that. We're not jazz players."
In 1969, he helped resurrect the career of a singer who had not had a hit in seven years. His name was Elvis Presely.
He played on mega-hits like "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto."
To this day he continues to write and has played on some of rocks greatest chart toppers.
The book is called "Walking Among Giants, From Elvis To Garth."
Brooks even wrote the forward to Wood's book.
