Born
on October 4, 1937 in Leaf, Mississippi, Lloyd began music lessons after his
family moved to Mobile, Alabama at the early age of 7. He completed his musical
training under the direction of Alma McCoy at age 14. However, Lloyd actually
began performing professionally at age 10!
After graduating from Mobile's Murphy High School in 1955, he went on to attend
the University of Southern Mississippi from 1955-1957.
Lloyd arrived in Nashville, Tennessee in January 1957 and began playing with
road bands backing artists such as Faron Young, Ferlin Husky, Hawkshaw Hawkins
and Tex Ritter as well as backing many artists at the famed Grand Ol' Opry.
After an 18 month stint with Faron Young, during which time he appeared on
George Jones' "Too Much Water Runs Under The Bridge" in 1957, Lloyd returned to
Mobile. After working clubs and saving for nine months he returned to Nashville.
He found little work due to the new musical rage, Rock & Roll. He worked for
Ferlin Huskey for about a month and decided to never tour again and got a job
selling shoes.
A stroke of luck hit shortly thereafter. Mrs. Fred Rose found out that Lloyd
wanted to get back into music, so she paid his union dues. He started playing
some Opry dates with Carl Butler & Pearl, Margie Bowes and Curley Fox.
He was hired as executive assistant to Roy Drusky at the newly opened SESAC
office in April 1964. This same month is when Lloyd started his professional
recording career.
He began session work for Slim Williamson's Chart label in 1965 and from then
till 1972 he was on nearly every Chart session. He was a session leader, an
instrumentalist, a star, and a producer. He recorded 3 LP's for Chart in 1968 &
1969. He quit SESAC after 3 years as he was the most in demand steel player in
the nation and was making well over $50,000 a year by that time. He still plays
although he officially retired in 1988.