Executive Producer and TV Host Mike Rowe Named Honorary Life Member of Barbershop Harmony Society

Executive producer and TV host Mike Rowe has been named an Honorary Life Member of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Rowe will receive the award on Saturday, July 8, at the Society's international convention in Las Vegas.

A barbershop singer and fan, Mike credits his show business career in part to the influence of his high school choir director, Fred King, who also happened to be a world champion barbershop quartet singer (listen to him tell the story). Under Fred's encouragement, Mike became a Barbershopper, later sang in the Baltimore Opera, and eventually earned his title as "the dirtiest man on television" (Dirty Jobs, Somebody's Gotta Do It), narrator (The Deadliest Catch) and podcaster (The Way I Heard It).

As CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, Rowe speaks regularly about the country's dysfunctional relationship with work and challenges the persistent belief that a four-year degree is the best path for the most people. His foundation works hard to debunk myths about the skilled trades and help close the skills gap.

Honorary Life Members of the Barbershop Harmony Society are performers and leaders who make an impact on the world through their passion and influence on close harmony and singing for everyone. Recent honorees have included:

GRAMMY Award-winning gospel quartet The Fairfield Four

Deke Sharon, a cappella godfather

Lynn Abbott, researcher into African-American foundations of Barbershop

The Nylons, pioneer a cappella pop artist

The Oak Ridge Boys country legends

Bill Gaither, gospel music legend

Gordon Lightfoot, folk/pop artist

Dick Van Dyke, GRAMMY/Emmy/Tony Award-winning actor and singer

Full list here.

More than 5,000 singers and guests from around the world will gather in Las Vegas July 4-9 for the 79th annual convention of the Barbershop Harmony Society. See full details and schedule at barbershop.org/vegas.

About Barbershop Harmony Society:

The Barbershop Harmony Society is the world's largest all-male singing Society, with more than 22,000 members across North America; affiliated men's and women's organizations in more than a dozen countries bring the total number of active singers to more than 80,000 worldwide. Through active programs in music education, publishing, performance and outreach, the Society preserves and extends the reach of a uniquely American close harmony musical art form whose roots lie in African-American improvisation and European harmony traditions. Founded in 1938, the Society now expends nearly $1 million annually in support of community and school programs that bring the fellowship, fulfillment and excitement of vocal music to a new generation of singers.  The Society has called Nashville its home since 2007, and is proud to have been honored by the Nashville Business Journal as one of the Best Places Work in 2016 and 2017, and The Tennessean's best Workplaces in 2017.