Nichols Roy

American country music guitarist best known as the lead guitarist for Merle Haggard for more than two decades. He was known for his guitar technique, a mix of fingerpicking and pedal steel-like bends, usually played on a Telecaster. He retired in March 1987. He was later inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in Sacramento, California. Nichols suffered a stroke in February 1996. It left him partially paralyzed, in a way in which he could no longer play guitar. So he spent his last years only playing guitar in his head. Nichols was being treated for a non-life-threatening infection at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, California, when he had a heart attack and died on July 3, 2001. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less