James Robert Wills (3/6/1905-5/13/1975 Kosse, Texas) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing, he was known as the "King of Western Swing" (although Spade Cooley, a Western swing musician, self-promoted the moniker "King of Western Swing" from 1942-1969).

With a genre of Western swing, his associated acts included The Strangers, Light Crust Doughboys and Texas Playboys. Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Elmer Duncan (1/11/1911-7/25/1967) on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass.

Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag" and "New San Antonio Rose" (Which culminated at #1). "New San Antonio Rose" became the band's theme song for the next forty years. The song, both music and lyrics, reflected the Mexican influence Bob Wills found growing up in the South west.

The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.

Wills suffered a debilitating stroke in 1973 that left him comatose. He passed in 1975.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org