BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) - Country guitar player
Roy Nichols, who played in Merle Haggard's band for
22 years and helped create the Bakersfield Sound,
died Tuesday after being hospitalized with kidney
inflammation and a bacterial infection.
He was 68.

Nichols began recording with Haggard's band
The Strangers in 1963 and played with some of
country music's biggest names from the time
he was 16 years old.

"A lot of people may or may not know that he
played for Johnny Cash on 'Tennessee Flat Top
Box,' the original version, and also on
'The Ballad of Ira Hayes,'" Haggard told the
Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Haggard credits Nichols with jump-starting his own
career and playing a key role in developing
The Stranger's distinctive sound.