Ron White

Rarely seen without a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other, Ron White has had a career that has taken him from the cassette racks of truck stops to the world of stadiums and feature films -- but all the while they've called him "Tater Salad." The myth around the Fritch, TX, native's famous nickname has to do with a flippant remark made to an arresting police officer. He told the officer that he had once before broken the law under the sinister alias of "Tater Salad," the officer believed him, and it was forever on his arrest record. He later admitted that it was just something he picked up in the Navy, but he allows the myth to flourish since being a smart-ass has been central to his act since the mid-'90s, when he released a string of albums on Laughing Hyena, a label that catered to truck stops with their "Trucker Humor!"-labeled releases. Ron has always been a storyteller, from the time he was a boy growing up in a small town in the middle of Texas oil country to selling windows for a living in Arlington to performing in sold-out theaters and arenas as a headlining comedian all across the country. For two decades he lived the life of a struggling comedian bouncing around to comedy clubs and driving to gigs in his beat-up Nissan pickup. In short, he paid his dues. Ron made his solo comedy debut album releasing "Drunk In Public" in November 2003. "Drunk in Public", showcased the insightful and hilarious White, who manages to be both razor-sharp and blunt. The comedy CD has been in the Top 10 of the Billboard Comedy Charts since February 2004 and has sold over 450,000 copies. Ron’s "Drunk In Public" tour was ranked in the top 50 in Pollstar Magazine 2004 and #63 in 2005. Also that year, his first one-hour comedy special, "They Call Me Tater Salad" earned Comedy Central the highest rated Sunday in its history and the DVD companion has sold more than 1.3 million copies to date and has been certified multi-platinum. If that’s not enough, "The Ron White Show", a comedy special for the WB network, was filmed in Las Vegas and aired in April 2005 with 4 million viewers. The show helped propel the network to one of its best Thursday nights of the season. Ron’s second and current one-hour special, "You Can’t Fix Stupid" was filmed in January 2006 at the Majestic Theater in Dallas , TX . The special aired on Comedy Central to 4.5 million viewers to make it the 3rd largest audience in Comedy Central’s history and the #1 show in prime time on basic cable. The comedy CD of the same name was released on February 7, 2006 by Image Entertainment and premiered at #14 on Billboard’s Top 200 and has ranked #1 on the Billboard Comedy Charts for the last 9 weeks. In June 2006, Penguin Books released Ron's First book, Ron ‘Tater Salad’ White: I Had The Right To Remain Silent... But I Didn’t Have the Ability. This book perfectly sums up Ron’s life and his comedy and is filled with over 80 illustrations by acclaimed artist Matthew Shultz. Also in June, Ron reunited with the Blue Collar boys for "Blue Collar Comedy Tour, One for the Road" which was filmed in Washington DC at the Warner Theater and had it's world premiere on Comedy Central. Both "Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie" and "Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Rides Again", are now available on home video and to date have sold more than 5 million units combined. Ron has appeared on such late-night talk shows as "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno". Ron currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.