Bobby Bones

Bones was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and raised in the small community of Mountain Pine, Arkansas.[1] He has said his mother became pregnant with him at age 15, when his father was 17.[4] He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother. His biological father was with him until the age of five, but then left the family.[5] Bones began dreaming of a radio career around the age of 5. His mother died at age 46 after battling addiction problems.[6] He grew up poor, and often viewed radio as a way of escaping poverty.[5] Bones began his radio career at age 17 at the campus station of Henderson State University, KSWH-FM "The Pulse." He graduated with a B.A. in Radio/Television from Henderson in 2002.

Bones appeared in the 2009 feature film, Bandslam, with Vanessa Hudgens. He has also appeared on the ABC drama Nashville and has been a guest host with Kelly Ripa on Live! with Regis and Kelly.[16]

In 2012 Bones was part of the Fox Sports Radio lineup, hosting the weekend sports talk program Roddick and Bones with tennis star Andy Roddick, airing Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on nearly 300 radio stations.[17]

Bones is also the host of the podcast “The Bobbycast” where he interviews singers/songwriters of all genres which The Washington Post dubbed as a "treasure trove of unusually candid anecdotes."[18] He has also launched his own podcast network, the Nashville Podcast Network.

On May 17, 2016, he released his first book entitled Bare Bones, I'm Not Lonely If You're Reading This Book.[19] The book became a #1 New York Times Best Seller.

On June 19, 2018, he released his second New York Times Best Seller entitled Fail Until You Don’t: Fight. Grind. Repeat. which also became a New York Times #1 Best Seller.

In 2018, Bones was a guest mentor for season sixteen of American Idol (the first to air on ABC) during the top 24 round. On November 6, 2018, it was announced Bones would become a full-time mentor for the series beginning in season seventeen.[20] During an episode which aired April 8, 2019, Bones served as guest host, as host Ryan Seacrest was sick and missed the taping.[21] Bones has returned to ABC's season three of American Idol (season eighteen overall) as the full-time contestant mentor.

In June 2019, Bones filmed an episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls in Norway. The episode aired on January 14, 2020.[22] He was a judge of Topgolf's original series Who Will Rock You.

According to the Washington Post, Bones is different from typical radio DJs, as he doesn't have the "classic, booming radio DJ voice".[24]

On September 28, 2013, Bones and his crew were part of a team that set the Guinness World Record "Most hunger relief meals packaged in one hour (team)".[25]

In October 2014, Bones accidentally triggered the Emergency Alert System, by playing EAS tones, during an on-air rant about an erroneous EAS test interrupting coverage locally of the 2014 World Series on Fox affiliate WZTV. The EAS tones, would have only triggered the EAS issuance in Nashville but the show was in syndication and so the signal cascaded through the show's nationwide affiliates, which caused AT&T U-verse boxes nationwide to lock up with the erroneous test.[26] In May 2015, Bones's employer iHeartMedia paid a $1 million FCC fine due to the incident and removed all EAS sound effects from their nationwide sound library to prevent a recurrence.[27]

On January 3, 2017, Bones announced he was considering a run for governor of Arkansas in the 2018 election.[28] On March 14, 2017, Bones announced he was not running.[29] He frequently speaks about an aspiration to run for political office in the future on his show, further fueling such speculation.

For four years running, from 2004 to 2008, Bones was named Best Radio Personality by the Austin Music Awards, presented by The Austin Chronicle and SXSW. The Bobby Bones Show also won Best Radio Program 2007–2008.[30] On April 6, 2014, Bones, Amy and Lunchbox won their first Academy of Country Music Award for National On-Air Personality of the Year, just nine months into Bones's first year in country music.[31] Bones became the youngest ever inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame during a ceremony on November 2, 2017, at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago[32]