Johnny "Dumplin" Cox is the steel guitar player for the Time Jumpers, a Nashville-based Western swing band. He also is Nashville Nightlife Theater's bandleader, and he sometimes plays for Connie Smith. The West Virginia native took up the guitar when he was seven years old. His piano playing dad, Bobby Cox, relocated the family to Nashville three years later to pursue his own career as a musician. The steel guitar began to catch Cox's interest and he received a non-pedal instrument in 1968 as a Christmas gift. Within several months, Cox's mother went out and purchased a Sho-Bud with a pedal and a double neck. His father's group let him sit in when he was 12 years old, and three years later he hit the road with Lonzo & Oscar. Soon he was playing with Del Reeves. Among the artists Cox has recorded or played with are Mel Tillis, Charlie Louvin, Jimmy C. Newman, Ernest Tubb, Bonnie Raitt, Jim Ed Brown, Cal Smith, Mandy Barnett, Billy Walker, Roy Drusky, and Justin Tubb. ~ Linda Seida, Rovi