Miller was born in Iota, Louisiana, on May 5, 1922, and spent many childhood years in El Campo, Texas. He lived most of his life in Crowley, where in the late 1930s he played guitar with several Cajun bands, including the Four Aces, the Rice City Ramblers, and the Daylight Creepers. In 1946, he began to record Cajun musicians, using a studio belonging to the record producer Cosimo Matassa, in New Orleans. In 1946, his new label, Fais Do Do Records, recorded most notably the string band Happy, Doc, and the Boys. After a few records, in 1947, he changed the name of the label to Feature Records, which recorded Cajun musicians such as Amidie Breaux, Aldus Roger, Austin Pete and various other country musicians. Later, Miller would create and record for smaller labels for different genres of music: Rocko Records, Zynn Records, Showtime Records, Rebel Records, Kajun Records, Cajun Classics, Blues Unlimited, Swade, Excello, Spot, Action, Kay, Ringo, Tribute, and French "Hits". In the 1950s he began to record swamp pop artists, including King Karl, Guitar Gable, Warren Storm, Rod Bernard, and Johnnie Allan, among others. In 1952, Miller wrote the lyrics to "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". The song, as recorded by Kitty Wells, became gold and stayed number 1 for several weeks. Around this time he also began to record swamp bluesartists, such as Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, Lonesome Sundown and Slim Harpo. Miller produced Harpo's "I'm a King Bee" and "Rainin' in My Heart", significant swamp blues recordings later covered, respectively, by the Rolling Stones and by Neil Young. From 1962 to 1965, Miller also recorded sides by Silas Hogan, until Miller argued with the new owners of Excello Records and his input to that label dried up. Miller's recording studio attracted a handful of mainstream recording artists, including Paul Simon, who used the studio to record "That Was Your Mother", a track from his acclaimed album Graceland, and John Fogerty, who traveled to Crowley to record a cover of "My Toot Toot", by the zydeco musician Rockin' Sidney. Miller's songwriting credits include "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." Although he claimed to be a segregationist, Miller nonetheless used interracial studio bands during the Jim Crow era, when black and white musicians in the South were not permitted to mingle onstage or elsewhere in public. He professed to enjoy African-American blues music more than any other musical genre, and he wrote blues songs under the pseudonym "Jay West". Yet in the 1960s he also produced and released several racist recordings on his own Reb Rebel label, most notably those of Johnny Rebel. Miller died in Crowley, on March 23, 1996, after complications following quadruple bypass surgery. The Jay D. Miller Award, granted by the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame, is named for him.
