Ernie Ball (born Roland Sherwood Ball; August 30, 1930 – September 9, 2004) was an American entrepreneur and musician who developed guitar-related products. Ball began as a club and local television musician and entrepreneur, building an international business in guitars and accessories that would eventually gross US$40 million a year. "Ernie Ball" is also the eponymous corporation Ball started to market guitar accessories. Early years Ball was born Roland Sherwood Ball in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in a musical family, the son of Frances (née Shankland) and Roland Adelbert Ball. His paternal grandfather, Ernest Ball, wrote the standard "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" and his father was a car salesman who taught Hawaiian steel guitar on the side. Although Ball began to play steel guitar at age nine to please his father, he lost interest for several years. In his early teens he took a renewed interest in the instrument, practicing as many as three hours a day. Within a year he was a member of the Musicians Union. Musician While still in his early teens, Ball began playing professionally in South Central Los Angeles beer bars. By age 19 he joined the Tommy Duncan Band playing pedal steel guitar. Duncan, the former lead singer with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, took the band on tour through the Southwestern United States. During the Korean War, he did a tour of duty in the United States Air Force Band, playing guitar and bass drum. After the military he returned to Los Angeles and continued playing in barrooms and lounges, until landing a job on the 1950s "Western Varieties" program at KTLA television. The position soon gained him wider recognition in the Los Angeles music scene and led to studio work and teaching jobs. Entrepreneur Sometime in 1957 or 1958, Ball opened what was arguably the first music store in the United States to sell guitars exclusively, in Tarzana, California. When music sales representatives criticized him for refusing to sell drumsticks and other musical equipment, Ball replied, "I just want to sell guitars." He was repeatedly told that a guitar store would never be a success, but the words rang hollow as people began to come from miles around to visit the shop. Within the next couple years he opened 2 other shops, one in Canoga Park, CA, the other in Thousand Oaks, CA Eventually, the products spawned from