If you listen to "The Bob & Tom Radio Show," you probably have heard comedian Tim Wilson.
He has contributed his wit and humor to the show for 31 years. The 52-year-old Wilson died Wednesday night in Nashville of a heart attack.
Born in Columbus, Georgia the son of school teachers, Wilson first tried a career in music.
When that soured, he turned to comedy.
"Tim was a southern gentleman who talked like Foghorn Leghorn," Tom Griswold said at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis Thursday afternoon.
Griswold has co-hosted "The Bob & Tom Show" in Indianapolis for 31 years now. He says the most frequent guests over those years would be Heywood Banks and Tim Wilson. I asked if he had a favorite song of Wilson's.
"'First Baptist Bar and Grill' I always really liked. Tim got that idea from an actual headline where a church had burned down and they needed a place for a service and some bar said, 'Do it here.' He wrote that great song about that," Griswold remembered with a smile.
Wilson had a combination of voice, wit and musical talent that was genuinely endearing. He co-wrote the Jeff Foxworthy hit "Redneck 12 Days of Christmas." Foxworthy described him as sarcasm with a grin.
"He was a comedian's comedian at the same time. We would go on tour and all the other comedians would gather at the side of the stage and just watch Tim," Griswold remarked.
He was a part of the comedy family at "The Bob & Tom Show," which made him part of the family all around America.
He studied music and journalism, first, before diving into comedy, when his demo tape failed to launch a country music career. Wilson's first big break was a stand-up competition with Cinemax, followed by a spot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Decades later, he continued to tour clubs across the South, and in 2011, shared a spot on stage on "Ron White's Comedy Salute to the Troops" on CMT.
Wilson released several comedy albums including "Tough Crowd", "Waking Up the Neighborhood", "Low-Class Love Affair", and "Tuned Up". Wilson scored a hit single with his "Garth Brooks Ruined My Life."
Wilson is survived by a wife and two children. There is no word yet on funeral plans.
