Exploring Books Margaret Littman’s Moon Guide

the crowd free albums. “The Rolling Stones were rehearsing for their next tour, heard the whole radio segment, loved it, and decided to change their tour schedule to come to Memphis,” he says. “Tickets sold out in a few hours and I got to go backstage and meet Mick (Jagger). They gave me the gold record for ‘Miss You.’”

Olson also has gold records from other famous artists including Queen, Billy Joel, and Journey that he keeps in his music room, which now doubles as his art studio. He got into art several years ago through a friend, David Stough, who owns David’s Frames & Art in Memphis and inspired him to pick up a paintbrush. Olson paints on wood, regular canvas, and metal. At one point, he painted on more than 100 pieces of rusted metal shelving he found in an Arkansas field that the owner let him have. “I started participating in some art shows, although I was intimidated by the other artists,” he says. “I was particularly intimidated by an amazing painting of a moose at one show, threw my name tag in the trash, grabbed some free meatballs and left. I told myself I needed to step up my game.” But then he got his first big sale to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, which gave him the motivation to continue. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” Olson says. “I’m self-taught and wanted my art to be raw, funky, and hand-drawn.” While his first works featured sunrises and sunsets, “The guitar is the symbol of Memphis, which is the cradle of music,” he says. “So many people love to play the guitar and often people buy my paintings to encourage their spouses, their kids or friends to continue playing.” Olson often incorporates song lyrics into his artwork. “I’ve heard the song ‘Domino’ by Van Morrison a million times,” he says. “Then I heard it recently and the lyrics, ‘Well, Mr. Deejay, I just wanna hear some rhythm and blues music on the radio, on the radio, on the radio’ just jumped out at me. That inspired another work of art.” His wife Vicki, whom Olson fondly refers to as his partner in life and art, has a retail background and helps Ron with marketing. She is also the first person to see each piece and his test to see if they are any good. Music remains his first love, creating a passion that earned Olson an induction into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame in 2020. Today, he can still be heard alongside with his longtime co-host, Karen Perrin, weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m. on 104.5 The River. Although his music career keeps him busy, he devotes as much time as he can to his art. “It’s my new passion, and you don’t cuss as much as you do when you play golf,” he says. Olson’s artwork is available in selected shops and galleries in Memphis.

ronolsonmemphis.com

Jan Schroder is an Atlanta-based travel writer and book author who loves to travel the world but always happy to return to the South.