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The Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society will host Sid Pierce as its March guest speaker tonight at 6:00 p.m. in the Knox Room at the Baxter County Library. Admission is free and the public is welcome.
Pierce, who grew up in Gainesville, Missouri, was working at Baxter Lab in Mountain Home when he spotted an advertisement for a full-time sound engineer position. He packed up, boarded an Amtrak train to Battle Creek, Michigan, and began a career in live sound that would span more than four decades.
After two years of touring, Pierce joined Mobil Sound, a sound company based in Lexington, Kentucky, before landing a job with John Gott’s Dyna-Might Sound. Larry Tucker, a former sound engineer for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, helped bring him on to work with Roy Clark — and within a year, Clark personally asked Pierce to work directly for him.
Over the following two decades, Pierce contributed to Hee Haw, Grand Ole Opry Live, and Roy Clark’s Friendship Tour to the Soviet Union, logging tours across 49 states. His career brought him into contact with seven Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members, including The Beach Boys, Carl Perkins, Gregg Allman, and Ray Charles, as well as 34 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, among them Glen Campbell, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, Minnie Pearl, Tammy Wynette, and Ray Price.
Pierce recounts the journey in his book, Roadie: From the Tour Bus to the School Bus.
The Knox Room is located inside the Baxter County Library at 424 W. 7th St. in Mountain Home.
