The Original Texas Playboys

Organized after Bob Wills' death in 1975, active until 1986. The band was made up of a core of The Texas Playboys from the glory days in Tulsa - Leon McAuliffe, Smokey Dacus, Al Stricklin, Joe Ferguson (3), and included Playboys from later eras - Keith Coleman, Leon Rausch, Johnny Gimble, Gene Gasaway. A few years later, Eldon Shamblin would rejoin the group. The agreement was that when one of the originals died, the band would fulfill their remaining engagements and then disband, which they did after the death of Pianist Al Stricklin, performing a final concert on November 16, 1986, at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.