Roy D. Mercer was a fictional character created by American

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

s Brent Douglas and Phil Stone on radio station

KMOD-FM KMOD-FM (97.5 MHz) is a mainstream rock radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station plays a wide variety of rock music from the 1960s through today. Its studios are located at the Tulsa Event Center in Southeast T ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. Douglas, who performed Mercer's voice, used the character as a vehicle for comedy sketches in which he performed

prank call A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances. Recordings of prank ph ...

s. The two released twelve albums of prank call recordings under the Roy D. Mercer name via

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

and

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. The character was retired in 2012 upon Stone's death.

History

Brent Douglas and Phil Stone,

s at rock music radio station

, created the Roy D. Mercer character in 1993. Initially, they used the character on comedy sketches for the radio station. Originally, the prank call sketches were a part of KMOD's morning show. By 1997,

Nashville began issuing the sketches on compact disc. The first was titled ''How Big a Boy Are Ya?, Volume 1'', in reference to one of Mercer's

catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...

s. Twelve Roy D. Mercer compilation albums have been released on the Capitol and

labels. A Virgin Records Nashville executive noted that Mercer's early albums managed to sell between 250,000 and 300,000 copies, primarily due to word of mouth, without any promotion to consumers or radio airplay of the album tracks. In most of the sketches, Mercer will demand that the recipient of a call pay him money for some incident, and if the recipient refuses, he will threaten them with violence. Mercer has been described as speaking with "a mush-mouthed Southern drawl" and his style of comedy has been described as "not exactly obscene ... utborder ngon offensive". Many of the recipients of the calls are suggested by their friends who supply Mercer with information about the potential recipients. Several notable people that Douglas and Stone had called were

Bill Goldberg William Scott Goldberg (born December 27, 1966), often known mononymously as Goldberg, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and former professional football player. He is best known for his tenures in WCW and WWE. One of the mos ...

(”Roy Vs. Goldberg”), Chris Bray, production manager for Steppenwolf (“Tragic Carpet Ride”), and cinematographer Barry Markowitz, as suggested by

Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller '' One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, ...

(“Yankee in a Strange Land”). On October 12, 2012, the Phil and Brent Show ended its 27-year run with KMOD-FM radio. Forty days later, on November 21, Phil Stone died from causes related to heart disease at the age of 57.

John Bean's "Leroy Mercer" character of the 1980s

Many claim that Roy D. Mercer was inspired by "Leroy Mercer," a character created in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

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resident John R. Bean, who made prank calls circulated by hand-to-hand tape exchange in the early 1980s. Leroy Mercer, voiced by John Bean, also called individuals and businesses threatening an "ass-whuppin". There are many parallels and similarities to the calls, with Roy D. Mercer using many of the former Leroy Mercer's lines. John Bean died from cancer in his early 30s in 1984; Stone and Douglas said that they originally invented their Roy D. Mercer character in 1990 before his official creation in 1993, and that part of the name and lines used in Roy D. Mercer's recordings was copied from John Bean.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Music videos

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, Roy D. Capitol Records artists Fictional characters from Tulsa, Oklahoma Comedy radio characters Prank calling Virgin Records artists Radio characters introduced in 1993