Nathan Kirby Penick was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 6, 1940. He and his family moved to Fayetteville when he was in the second grade.
Penick was an English major at University of Arkansas and later attended the University of Arkansas School of Law. He joined the Marine Corps in 1960.
Penick began playing with bands and worked for clubs in high school. He worked with Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helms while attending college in Fayetteville. After college, Penick and Helm went to New Orleans and worked on oil rigs, pipeline barges, and played various music gigs. He was road manager at Big Pink for The Band.
Still frame from Pryor Center interview with Kirby Penick; Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2018
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
