Ain't Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

Lyle E. Style is an author, actor, and alternative country
singer-songwriter who spent four years investigating the music and life
of Roger Miller, best known for his hit songs “King of the Road” and
“Dang Me.” Miller’s music blurred the boundaries between the
country and pop genres and established him as one of the first crossover
artists. Until 1983 he held the record for the most Grammy awards won by
a single artist.

Miller’s story unfolds through interviews conducted with some of the
entertainment industry’s biggest stars: Waylon Jennings, Merle
Haggard, Buck Owens, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Dwight
Yoakam, to name just a few. In talking about Miller, they reveal untold
stories about their own careers.

Roger Miller was truly an American original. In addition to being an
innovative songwriter, he hosted TV shows and wrote a Broadway musical.
Johnny Cash called him a “sparkplug that ignited the creativity in
others.” But all was not sweetness and light. Many of the interviewees
talk about Miller’s dark side. There were occasions in the 1960s and
’70s when he walked off stage in the middle of a show. He could be
aggressive and he suffered from insomnia, sometimes going days without
sleep. He had a serious addiction to drugs, which cost him two
marriages, a network television show, and possibly the superstardom that
his talent merited.

Style’s revealing warts-and-all biography is a superior example of
its genre.