Roy Ernest Nichols was born in Chandler, Arizona, to Bruce and Lucille Nichols, where he was the first born of seven children. The Nichols family moved to Fresno, California, when he was two where they owned a camp for migrant farm workers. Sometimes a traveling gypsy band would stay at the camp and the young Nichols would hide and watch them play. His father Bruce was also a musician, playing upright bass at local dances on the weekends in the San Joaquin Valley. Nichols was drawn to his father’s music. He learned some basic chords from his father and began playing in his father\'s band on the weekends when he was only 11. By age 14, Nichols began playing weekends with Curly Roberts and the Rangers where he earned $25 a week.\n', '

Shortly before his 16th birthday, Nichols met Fred Maddox, of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, a colorful hillbilly band, who heard Nichols playing guitar on Fresno DJ Barney Lee\'s Saturday-morning radio program. Nichols, still only 16 years old, was earning $90, a considerable amount at the time. \n', '“He could play anything,” remembers Rose Maddox. “He was good at all of it. Every guitar picker in the country wanted to play like him, but none of them ever compared. He was one of a kind. But the music aside, he was like any 16-year-old kid - feisty, causing us trouble. But my mother brought him under.” \n', "At a Maddox show in Mesa, Arizona, a teenage couple sat in the front row: Buck and Bonnie Campbell Owens, who found themselves fascinated with Nichols' playing. The Maddox Brothers toured out of state for extended periods, so Fred Maddox became Nichols' legal guardian while his brother, Henry Maddox, became the young musician's tutor. While in Las Vegas, although warned by Lula Maddox not to do so, Nichols began sneaking away to gamble, an activity that soon let to the guitarist being fired from the group. In his 18 months with the group, Nichols appeared on records for over 100 songs and played almost every evening.\n", '

Returning to the valley, Nichols joined Smiley Maxidon on radio station KNGS in Hanford, California, where he performed for a regular one-hour live broadcast. Nichols stayed up all night playing dances several nights a week while still returning to the station to play his 7 a.m. show.\n', '

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