George Cummings

George H. Cummings Jr. (July 28, 1938 – December 14, 2024) was an American guitarist and songwriter based in Bayonne, New Jersey, and in later years, Nashville, Tennessee. He was best known for being the lead guitarist/steel guitarist for Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show from 1968 to 1975.

Cummings was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on July 28, 1938. He had a sister called Barbara, who predeceased him. His fathers amateur guitar playing was an inspiration for George. As a young man, Cummings built speaker cabinets and learned more about electronics after meeting Hartley Peavey, who later founded Peavey Electronics, later saying of this experience "I just helped him glue and screw things together".

He attended Meridian High School, before graduating from Livingston State College with a football scholarship in 1964. He also went to Livingston State with a bachelors. Cummings also served in the United States Marine Corps.

Darryl Vincent and the Flares was formed in Meridian, Mississippi in 1956, and Cummings joined the group in 1959. Cummings played in bars from Mississippi to Alabama.

In the 1960s, Cummings was a member of the Chocolate Papers, along with Ray Sawyer, Bill Francis, Bobby Dominguez, Popeye Phillips, and Jimmy "Wolf Cub" Allen. The Chocolate Papers toured clubs in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, before settling in Biloxi as the house band at the popular 800-seat Gus Stevens Restaurant, the first Gulf Coast supper club to offer upscale entertainment with such headliners as Elvis Presley, Andy Griffith, Mel Tormé, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren. The Chocolate Papers moved to Chicago, but Cummings soon decided to form his own band in the New York area.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.