John Hartford was born in 1937 as John Harford in New York City, grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and was working on Mississippi riverboats by age 16 while teaching himself banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin after hearing Earl Scruggs on Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. He finished a commercial arts degree at Washington University in 1960, moved to Nashville in 1965, signed with RCA Victor, and on his second album released Gentle on My Mind. Glen Campbell's cover turned it into a phenomenon, and at the 1968 Grammys the song won four awards, two of them going to Hartford as writer.

This episode explains how those publishing royalties bought Hartford lifelong creative freedom. He appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, played on the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, then turned down a starring role in a netw ...