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Cledus T. Judd

Cledus T. Judd, country music’s answer to “Weird Al” Yankovic, was born Barry Poole and grew up in Cartersville, Georgia, north of Marietta. By trade, he was a hairstylist who, in 1993, sang two funny songs in an amateur night contest at Atlanta’s Buckboard nightclub and took home $50 first prize money. Six months later, the overweight, non-singing (then bleached blonde) young man moved to Nashville in search of a record deal.

New York-based Razor and Tie Records heard his demo in 1995, signed him, and released four albums over a four-year period. With that start he began building a career parodying popular country tunes with goofy titles like “How Do You Milk a Cow?” and “It’s A Great Day to Be a Guy.” His first video on CMT made him a star – “If Shania Was Mine,” a parody of Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” and won him CMT’s Independent Video of the Year honors, as did “Every Light in the House Is Blown” two years later.

Cledus has had plenty of good help from other country performers who have lent their time to his videos and albums, including Buck Owens, Vince Gill, Trace Adkins, Charlie Daniels, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, and even Kid Rock. Although they weren’t monsters, they did well enough to get him a contract with Sony’s revived Monument label in 2000, followed by the Koch label in 2004.

In 2005, Judd was hired to host WQYK’s morning show (“The Cledus T. Party”). Two years later, he turned in notice that he was leaving to join Atlanta’s WUBL-FM “The Bull.” To the surprise of many, he was hired back at WQYK in September 2010, replacing longtime staffer Randy Price as morning co-host with Dave McKay. This second stint with the station ended in late 2012 when he resigned a second time.

On November 19, 2012, Cledus began co-hosting "The Cletus T. Judd Party with Clint (McElroy) & Judy (Eaton)" morning show on WTCR-FM in Huntington, West Virginia. He stated that moving there from Florida allowed him to live closer to his daughter, Caitlyn Rose.

Judd’s earlier broadcasting experience includes a stint as a fill-in host for WSM-FM Nashville, plus on-camera work for CMT and the USA Network’s “Nashville Star” series.

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