Country singer Buddy Jewell's meteoric rise caused him to be tagged an "overnight sensation," but looking back at his ten years in Nashville obscurity, Jewell considers himself a modern-day Rip Van Winkle. A native of Arkansas, Jewell's earliest musical memories are staring into his parents' radio looking for the "little people" that he thought were living inside. Years later he bought a guitar for ten dollars from a schoolmate and purchased some instructional books with the money he earned bagging groceries. By age 21 he decided he wanted to be a singer and headed to Camden, AR, to join the band White Oak. Four years of touring with the unsigned band was enough and Jewell moved to Dallas, TX, to star in a gunfight show at the Six Flags theme park.