Billy Wilson

Greg Gibbs was born on June 19, 1963. He was introduced to music at the age of 10 when he started piano lessons. He continued them for 5 years. When he was about 13 years old, while attending a family reunion at Lake Belton, he remembers hearing an 8-track being played on his uncle's boat. He had never heard music like that before!
For some reason, seven years later in 1983, he remembered that 8-track and its music. Greg asked his uncle, Dwight Scoggin, if he remembered the reunion and the music he was playing in his boat. His uncle replied "Bob Wills, For the Last Time." That same day he went and bought the album and made a cassette tape of it, so he could listen to it in his truck. He was hooked! A friend invited Greg to the Bob Wills Celebration in Turkey, TX that year, where he heard Hoyle Nix and became an instant fan. That sealed the deal for Greg. For Christmas that year, he told his mother “all I want is a fiddle” and she obliged.
Every day after work he would come home, go straight to his room, and learn songs off the "For the Last Time" album. In about a year, he got a job with a local band called “Old Country.” For the next 4 years or so he jobbed around town until around 1989 when he went to work with a local band named “Sage.” They eventually incorporated twin fiddles and became a big hit around Wichita Falls and several counties to the west. “We stayed quite busy playing rodeo dances. I worked with this band into the early 90's. During this time, I attended many Jody Nix dances and learned how dance music should be played. It was also during this time that I played a benefit with Red Stegall, Buck Reams, Larry McWhorter, Pete Martinez and Rich O'Brien, among others. In 1991, I began working at the Red Door Senior Citizens dances on Tuesday night and have been there ever since.”
Somewhere in the middle 1990's, Greg met Randall Palmore, a steel player who is now one of his closest friends. He and Greg have played together off and on ever since. Greg also began working off and on with Brady Bowen, who is also a close friend.
Around 2000, Greg began working with Eddie McAlvain and Grady Smith. Grady is still one of Greg’s favorite fiddle players with whom to work. With Eddie and Grady, Greg played numerous Western Swing shows. Greg began working with Tommy Hooker around 2008 and still sometimes works with him, when the jobs are north of Fort Worth.
In October 2010, Greg was honored to work with Leon Rausch and the Texas Playboys at a show in Lubbock, TX. In 2010 and 2011, he worked at the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium in Ruidoso with Brady Bowen. More recently, Greg has worked in the Fort Worth area with musicians such as Billy Keeble and Gary Carpenter. Greg was honored to be named the 2016 Academy of Western Artists’ Male Vocalist of the Year.
Greg currently fronts his own band, “Greg Gibbs and Texas Standard Time,” which includes band members Randall Palmore (steel), Buster Redwine (guitar) and John Jones (upright bass). Sadly, the band’s drummer and Greg’s longtime friend, Joe Paul Clark, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in February 2019, at the age of 46. The band will go on, but Joe Paul will always be remembered for the fine musician and gentleman that he was!
Greg and his wife Carol, currently reside in Iowa Park, TX, just a few miles west of Wichita Falls.
Nominated by: Edd Burnett