Early Life
Joe Tex was born Joseph Arrington, Jr. in Rogers, Texas to Cherie Sue (née Jackson) and Joseph Arrington. After Tex's parents divorced, his mother moved him and his sister Mary to Baytown, Texas. In high school, Tex played baritone saxophone in his high school band and also sang for a local Pentecostal church choir. Tex entered a number of talent shows and after an important win in Houston, the 18-year-old won $300 and a trip to New York City. While in New York, Tex took part in the amateur portion of the Apollo Theater, winning first place four times, leading to his discovery by A&R man Henry Glover, who offered to give him a contract with King Records. Due to his mother's strong convictions that he should finish high school first, Glover waited a year before Tex signed with the label at the age of 19.
Read more about this topic: Joe Tex
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“What’s terrible is that there’s nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)