Editing Bob Wills (section)

===Later years===
Having lived a lavish lifestyle in California, Wills moved back to Oklahoma City in 1949, then went back on the road to maintain his payroll and Wills Point. He opened a second club, the Bob Wills Ranch House, in Dallas, Texas. Turning the club over to managers, later revealed to be dishonest, left Wills in desperate financial straits with heavy debts to the [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] for back taxes. This caused him to sell many assets, including the rights to "New San Antonio Rose".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Townsend |first1=Charles |title=San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills |date=1986 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0252013621 |page=263}}</ref>

In 1950, Wills had two top-10 hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "[[Faded Love (Bob Wills song)|Faded Love]]". After 1950, radio stations began to increasingly specialize in one form or another of commercially popular music. Although usually labelled "country and western", Wills did not fit into the style played on popular country and western stations, which typically played music in the [[Nashville sound]]. Neither did he fit into the conventional sound of pop stations, although he played a good deal of pop music.<ref>''San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills''. Charles R. Townsend. 1976. University of Illinois. p. 281. {{ISBN|0-252-00470-1}}.</ref>

Wills continued to appear at the Bostonia Ballroom in San Diego throughout the 1950s.<ref>{{cite web|date=1999-12-31|title=San Diego Concert Archive|url=http://www.sandiegoconcertarchive.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190206170403/http://www.sandiegoconcertarchive.com/|archive-date=February 6, 2019|access-date=2015-10-07|publisher=San Diego Concert Archive}}</ref> He continued to tour and record through the 1950s into the early 1960s despite the fact that Western swing's popularity, even in the Southwest, had greatly diminished. Charles R. Townsend described his drop in popularity: Bob could draw "a thousand people on Monday night between 1950 and 1952, but he could not do that by 1956. Entertainment habits had changed."<ref>''San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills''. Charles R. Townsend. 1976. University of Illinois. p. 267. {{ISBN|0-252-00470-1}}.</ref>

On Wills' return to Tulsa late in 1957, Jim Downing of the ''Tulsa Tribune'' wrote an article headlined "Wills Brothers Together Again: Bob Back with Heavy Beat". The article quotes Wills as saying "Rock and roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!&nbsp;... We didn't call it rock and roll back when we introduced it as our style back in 1928, and we don't call it rock and roll the way we play it now. But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important."<ref>''San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills''. Charles R. Townsend. 1976. University of Illinois. pp. 268–69. {{ISBN|0-252-00470-1}}.</ref>  The use of amplified guitars accentuates Wills's claim; some Bob Wills recordings from the 1930s and 1940s sound similar to rock and roll records of the 1950s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/junior.htm |title=Junior Barnard |publisher=Texasplayboys.net |access-date=2015-10-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416010046/http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/junior.htm |archive-date=April 16, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Even a 1958 return to KVOO, where his younger brother [[Johnnie Lee Wills]] had maintained the family's presence, did not produce the success he hoped. He appeared twice on ABC-TV's ''[[Jubilee USA (TV series)|Jubilee USA]]'' and kept the band on the road into the 1960s. After two heart attacks, in 1965, he dissolved the Texas Playboys (who briefly continued as an independent unit) to perform solo with house bands. While he did well in Las Vegas and other areas, and made records for the [[Kapp Records]] label, he was largely a forgotten figure—even though inducted into the [[Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum|Country Music Hall of Fame]] in 1968. A 1969 stroke left his right side paralyzed, ending his active career. He did, however, recover sufficiently to appear in a wheelchair at various Wills tributes held in the early 1970s. A revival of interest in his music, spurred by [[Merle Haggard]]'s 1970 album ''[[A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World]]'', led to a 1973 reunion album, teaming Wills, who spoke with difficulty, with key members of the early band, as well as Haggard.

Wills died in Fort Worth of [[pneumonia]] on May 13, 1975.<ref>"Milestones". ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. May 26, 1975.</ref>