Ron “Rooster” Morehouse inducted into the 2022 W.Va. Country Music Hall of Fame

MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) - Ron “Rooster” Morehouse is one of seven members inducted into the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame.

Morehouse says it’s a lifelong fulfillment after a long career after getting his start decades ago.

“I won a talent contest in the 70′s. And I got to perform with Ernie Tubbs here in Marietta at the Colony Theater back then,” says Morehouse. “And that hooked me.”

The news of the induction came when he was at a hall of fame committee meeting at the Sagebrush Round-Up, a place he worked as a staff member for many years.

And where even his guitar that features many country legends and their signatures.

“And I go visit my guitar and I pick it up and I tune it up and I play it,” says Morehouse. “I take it out, put it on stage and play it. I get done with it, I untune it, take it back, place it on a track.”

Rooster Ron says that in his later years he is becoming more of a mentor to a lot of the younger country artists in the area.

“But I’m having a lot of fun with our youth. And bringing them up and watching them grow,” says Morehouse.

Even before the hall of fame induction, Rooster Ron says that he gained a lot of respect from his peers for how he engaged the crowd at shows.

And it’s something that he says it doesn’t matter how large the audience is, as long as he knows that the people attending enjoy what he does.

“If I see one baby smile, tapping its toes; or one senior citizen tapping their toes, I’m doing my job,” says Morehouse.

West Virginia native Kathy Mattea was among the others inducted at the ceremony in Fairmont.

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