The Wild Man from Texas, rockabilly cat Sonny Fisher recorded a series of little-heard but incendiary singles for the Starday label during the mid-'50s, finally winning acclaim from European audiences close to a quarter century later. Born Therman Fisher on a farm outside Chandler, TX, on November 13, 1931, he grew up in Tacoma, WA, but eventually returned to the Houston area. First drawn to music by his father, an amateur singer and guitarist, the adolescent Fisher also favored Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and Ernest Tubb. Fisher formed his own country band in 1951, assembling fiddler Paul Vaughan, steel guitarist Red Leonie, bassist Leonard Curry, and drummer Darrell Newsome. With the addition of electric guitarist Joey Long, the group began incorporating R&B covers into its repertoire, and after Fisher witnessed Elvis Presley's late 1954 appearance at Houston's Texas Korral, he steered his music fully in the direction of rockabilly, sacking Vaughan and Leonie while dubbing the remaining trio the Rocking Boys.