# Jimmy Riddle > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jimmy_Riddle > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jimmy_Riddle.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Riddle > Source revision: 1351936206 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American musician (1918–1982)}} {{infobox person |birth_date={{birth date|1918|9|3}} |birth_place=Dyersburg, Tennessee, U.S. |birth_name=James Lawrence Riddle |death_date={{death date and age|1982|12|10|1918|9|3}} |death_place=Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |image= |occupation= musician, television performer }} {{refimprove|date=May 2025}} '''James Lawrence Riddle''' (September 3, 1918 – December 10, 1982) was an American [country musician](/source/country_music) and multi-instrumentalist best known for his appearances on the country music and comedy television show ''[Hee Haw](/source/Hee_Haw)''. He was primarily known for the vocal art of [eefing](/source/eefing). ==Biography== Riddle was born in [Dyersburg, Tennessee](/source/Dyersburg%2C_Tennessee) and got into show business in [Memphis, Tennessee](/source/Memphis%2C_Tennessee) at age 16 by passing the hat in a local beer joint. He moved to Texas in 1939 where he later met [Roy Acuff](/source/Roy_Acuff). He joined Acuff's Smokey Mountain Boys group in 1943 and left to serve in WWII in 1944 and came back and became a regular member of the band. playing harmonica, piano, and accordion, until his death. Riddle was a featured performer on ''[Hee Haw](/source/Hee_Haw)'' in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One day in 1970 he and guitarist Jackie Phelps were fooling around backstage, Phelps doing the rhythmic knee-slapping known as [hambone](/source/hambone_(dance)) while Riddle [{{not a typo|eefed}}](/source/eefing). Co-star [Junior Samples](/source/Junior_Samples) was so impressed he encouraged the two to perform the routine for the producers. "The Hambone Brothers" became a semi-regular feature of the show. In the early 1980s Riddle joined [Boxcar Willie](/source/Boxcar_Willie)'s touring band, playing the harmonica solos, but remained in Acuff's band on the Opry.{{cn|date=August 2018}} Riddle is commemorated in [Cockney rhyming slang](/source/Rhyming_slang): to go for a Jimmy Riddle is to urinate or piddle.{{Citation |last=Willey |first=Russ |title=Jimmy (Riddle) |date=2009 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199916214.001.0001/acref-9780199916214-e-1171 |work=Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase & Fable |access-date=2023-09-02 |publisher=Chambers Harrap Publishers |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199916214.001.0001|url-access=subscription }} Riddle died of cancer in [Nashville](/source/Nashville%2C_Tennessee) in 1982, aged 64. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[https://archive.today/20070928035820/http://www.heehaw.com/Cast-JimmyRiddle-JackiePhelps.htm Biography] at [Hee Haw](/source/Hee_Haw) *{{cite web |first=Jennifer |last=Sharpe |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5259589 |title=Jimmie Riddle and the Lost Art of Eephing |publisher=National Public Radio |date=March 13, 2006 |accessdate=March 20, 2006 }} *{{IMDb name|0725754}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Riddle, Jimmie}} Category:1918 births Category:People from Dyersburg, Tennessee Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:Deaths from cancer in Tennessee Category:1982 deaths Category:American accordionists Category:American harmonica players Category:American pianists Category:20th-century American accordionists Category:American country harmonica players Category:American country pianists {{US-tv-actor-1910s-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jimmy Riddle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Riddle) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Riddle?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.