Glen D. Hardin (sometimes spelled
Glenn D. Hardin) has enjoyed a long career in rock & roll and country music, playing behind some of the most prominent music stars of the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Ropesville, Tennessee in 1939, he was in his mid-teens as country music began its transformation into rock & roll, and he got to see performers such as
Elvis Presley and
Buddy Holly during their early, pre-stardom days. His own interest lay more with playing than singing -- he learned guitar at a professional level but became truly proficient on the piano.
Hardin's first major gig came in 1961, when he became a member of
the Crickets, the Texas-spawned band founded by
Buddy Holly and led by drummer
Jerry Allison in the wake of
Holly's death -- he played the piano on the singles "My Little Girl" and "(They Call Her) La Bamba," and on their album
California Sun; additionally, after
Joe B. Mauldin left the group,
Hardin furnished their bass sound with a Fender Rhodes piano bass. He also wrote songs with
Crickets guitarist/singer
Sonny Curtis, co-authoring the group's single "Teardrops Feel Like Rain," and the songs "Count Me In," "My Heart's Symphony," and "Where Will the Word Come From," recorded by their fellow Liberty Records artists
Gary Lewis & the Playboys. During the second half of the 1960s,
Hardin kept busy and highly visible as a member of the Shindogs, the house band on the weekly ABC rock & roll showcase series Shindig, which had been put together by
Leon Russell and included
James Burton as leader and lead guitarist. He also played on records by
Merle Haggard and
Hamilton Camp. It was through
Russell that
Hardin played on records for
Delaney Bramlett and, in tandem with
Burton that, in 1970, he started working with
Elvis Presley. Although he also played in the country-rock band
Swampwater, and did sessions with everyone from
Dean Martin to
Gram Parsons and
Linda Ronstadt during this period,
Hardin's most important and long-lasting 1970s gig was with
Elvis -- he and
Burton, along with bassist
Jerry Scheff and drummer
Ron Tutt, became what was known informally within
Presley's orbit as "the T.C.B. Band," and they were at the core of his live and studio performances from 1970 through 1976, a period in which
Hardin also wrote arrangements for the singer. He played on the live performances and studio tracks that comprised the bulk of
Presley's comeback legacy, and only quit in 1976, as
Presley's physical and mental condition began to deteriorate.
Hardin jumped right in to
Emmylou Harris' backing group, the Hot Band, remaining with her into the 1980s, in addition to playing on records by
Michael Nesmith,
Hoyt Axton,
John Denver, and
Chris Hillman, among others. In recent years, in addition to playing with
the Crickets on-stage, he has been playing as a backup musician to
Presley once again, as part of the live band in the holographic stage entertainment show "
Elvis Lives." ~ Bruce Eder