Hank Garland

Hank Garland was born on November 11, 1930 in Cowpens, South Carolina, USA as Walter Louis Garland. He was married to Evelyn E. Garland.

In the late 1940s he recorded the song "I Got a Hole In My Pocket" with Little Jimmy Dickens.

Was part of the legendary group of top Nashville recording artists known as the A-Team during the 1950s.

Appeared and performed with The Gordonaires on television on the The Eddy Arnold Show (1952).

Played guitar on Webb Pierce's famous hit song, "In the Jailhouse Now" which was number 1 on the charts for 21 weeks in a row in 1955. He also played guitar on Elvis Presley's song "Hound Dog" which was the number 1 on the country, pop, and R&B charts in 1956.

He played, toured and recorded with Elvis Presley from 1957 to 1961.

Thought lost forever, a 1958 Rock and Roll album by Fern Jones, "Glory Road", backed by four members of Nashville's prestigious A-team fresh off June 1958 sessions with Elvis Presley (Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland, Floyd Cramer, Joe Zinkan, Buddy Harman) was rediscovered and released in 2005.

Was driving a 1959 Chevrolet Impala station wagon at the time of a suspicious career ending accident.

Elvis Presley gave Hank the ukulele that he used in the film "Blue Hawaii" (1960) and etched his initials "EP" into the ukulele. Hank toured and played with Elvis during this period and Elvis recorded as saying Hank, "is one of the finest guitar players in all of the country."

In 1974 the Garland family embarked in a joint movie contract with a production company in an effort to expose the truth around Hank Garland's accident and tell his life story as chronicled by his brother and long time confidant, Billy Garland. The production never came to fruition. The film was to have begun shooting in the fall of 1979, was titled "Sugarfoot Rag" and was to star Jerry Reed as Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland.

Played guitar on the Jimmy Lloyd (aka Jimmy Logsdon) song, "I Got a Rocket in My Pocket", which was used in the film The Right Stuff (1983).

Musician George Benson dedicated a 1992 show at the Florida Theatre to Hank.

Was a huge influence on country guitar singer/guitar player Junior Brown and they were also close friends. Junior Brown covered Garland's song "Sugarfoot Rag" on his album, "Guit With It" (1993).

Inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk of fame on September 26, 1997 with the official ceremony being August 16, 1997. The rock walk is located in front of the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Hank's hand-prints, as well as many other famous musicians are permanently pressed in cement on the Rock Walk.

In the That '70s Show (1998) episode, "Backstage Pass," Ted Nugent is playing a Gibson Byrdland designed by Garland and Billy Byrd.

Was portrayed by actor Gary Desroche in the 2005 CBS Elvis mini-series, but the scenes were deleted.