Winnipeg songwriter releases unprecedented book on Roger Miller

Winnipeg, MB � If asked what prompted him to write Ain�t Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller, Winnipeg alt-country singer-songwriter Lyle E Style might mention toy trains.

Late one evening in 1998, while flipping channels, Style landed by chance on a program featuring Dean Miller. Miller was chatting about his father�s song, �Old Toy Trains,� and Style immediately recognized it as one his parents used to play for him. The next morning he went to a record store and bought a CD, followed by a boxed set.

�With just a few songs,� says Style, �Roger Miller became my favourite singer and songwriter of all time.�

International recording star Roger Miller was best known for his hit songs �King of the Road� and �Dang Me�. To his friends and associates he was a genius. However, with genius came a dark side. In the 1960s and 1970s he was known to walk off stage halfway through a show, get into fights and go days without sleep. He struggled with depression, and had a serious addiction to drugs. Miller died at the age of 56 in 1992.

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Lyle E Style spent more than four years documenting the life of the man who had become his hero. He travelled across North America and even into Switzerland to research, and record more than 100 interviews. As a result, Ain�t Got No Cigarettes is Roger Miller�s extraordinary life as told by those that knew him best: well-known musicians and entertainers including Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. The foreword is written by country superstar Toby Keith.

Style is amazed but proud of the fact that his is the first and only book written about Roger Miller. He adds, �I feel like this book has uncovered the entertainment industry's best kept secret. I take pride knowing that these stories are now available for the public and wouldn't be if it weren't for this book.�

Ain�t Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller is available online and in fine bookstores everywhere.

Founded in 1992, Great Plains Publications is an independent, Winnipeg-based book publisher specializing in Prairie history, biography, and fiction.


Books available online at www.doitwithstyle.com