Country music/gospel singer and songwriter James Louis Turner studied industrial management and music at UT and earned the bachelor’s degree in industrial management in 1969. During college he played with the group The Gentlemen in the summers at the Riverside Motor Lodge (the hotel converted a large room into a club called The Cabaret).
Following graduation he moved to Nashville and launched a career in Nashville’s music clubs. While on a trip to New York performing with a variety show, he auditioned for Jesus Christ Superstar and was awarded both the roles of Pilate (tenor) and Caiaphas (contrabass). He went with the show to Los Angeles, and remained there, entertaining on the Los Angeles club circuit—the Palimino, the Pasadena Ice House, the Troubadour—and elsewhere. In 1979 he was hired by Lawrence Welk and became the show’s featured country/pop singer for its final three years. He performed duets with Ava Barber and sang with the Aldridge Sisters and with Gail Farrell, in addition to his solo numbers.
He performed in the 1982 John Cullum production of Drumright and had his own shows at Knott’s Berry Farm and Opryland USA. He claims a doctor of divinity degree for his body of Christian music ministry and to have earned a PhD in classical music from Canterbury University (an unaccredited, private, degree-granting institution in Great Britain).