Sonny Morris
a.k.a. sonbone
Born: Feb. 27, 1960
Memphis, Texas, USA

The Beginning:

In the beginning there was Buck Owens. The first music I really remember listening to extensively was Buck. When I was 6 years old, Tiger By The Tail was absolutely the coolest thing I had ever heard. The Buckaroos were the coolest band I'd ever heard. Tom Brumley was the only steel player whose name I actually knew.

By the time I was 7 or 8, I had gained a knowledge and appreciation for other country and pop stars. I listened to our local radio station (KBGH) every afternoon after school and heard the likes of Roy Clark, Roger Miller, Ray Price and others. Buck was still my favorite, but now he had competitors.

I must admit, I was a guitar guy in my early teenage years. I loved the Ventures, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Duane Eddy and especially George Tomsco and the Fireballs. My uncle, David, taught me to play songs such as "Torquay", "Walk Don't Run", "Panic Button" and "Bulldog". I dreamed of growing up and becoming a famous guitar instrumentalist with a smokin' little four piece combo. Little did I know, I would soon take a different course.

Steel Guitar:

Then one night in 1977, I connected my FM radio to our cable TV line and heard some of the greatest music ever. Radio KBUY from Amarillo played a format they called "Texas Music". They featured Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Fromholtz, The Lost Gonzo Band, Alvin Crow and Willie and Waylon. All of these artists featured steel guitar on their songs, and I was totally hooked! I especially liked Joe Ely's steel player. The solo on "Because of the Wind" was and still is one of the greatest I've ever heard. The steel player's name is Lloyd Maines and he later would be one of my college teachers!

My senior year in high school, I bought a Fender 400 cable pull steel for $150. I tinkered around with it, but never could really play it. One of my problems was lack of instruction for 8 string steel. After high school and an initial year at college, I enrolled at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. South Plains College is a junior college which offers an Associate of Arts degree in country music. At South Plains, I met and took steel guitar lessons from Wally Moyers. Wally is a great player who really took me under his wing. He got me my first gigs playing steel in a band with his brother Rick and helped me find my first "real" steel (a Sho-Bud). Wally was an excellent teacher who emphasized taste and attitude over merely learning licks.

Dallas/Fort Worth:

One day, in the summer of 1989, I got a phone call from Lloyd Maines. He told me a singer in Fort Worth named Steve Stewart was looking for a steel player. So, on the strength of Lloyd's recommendation I was off to D/FW and I've been here ever since. I played with Steve for almost 4 years in some of the biggest Texas honky tonks and dance halls. Another phone call out of the blue, and I soon found myself in Disney World onstage with Janie Fricke. So far, my most notorious gig has been a TV appearance on the Grand 'Ol Opry on TNN. Of course, my cable went bad and I could only sit there and play along to "I Need Someone to Hold Me" in complete silence. The following segment was on radio only and my spare cord worked perfectly. My standard line for that is: "People can either see me or hear me, I don't get paid enough for them to get both." I am currently playing with various bands based here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Of course, I still have plenty of time to surf the information super-highway, and that's a long way from surfing the radio in Memphis, Texas!

Sonbone:

When I played with Steve Stewart, we used to do quite a few blues songs at the end of the night to finish up the last set. Our drummer, Steve "Hollywood" McPherson, would come out front and sing, Steve Stewart would play drums, and I would play guitar. For this little juke-joint mini-set, we all took on our blues alter-egos. "Hollywood" gave me the name "Sonbone". It is derived from a character that Richard Pryor did called Mudbone. Our bass player was know as "Percy" and our keyboard player was "Skillet" (from the TV commercial this is your brain on drugs where they drop an egg into a skillet). After a while, the names just stuck. So, I've been "Sonbone" for the last ten years or so.