A Lifetime of BBQ with Sterling "Big Poppa" Ball

Music Industry Legend • 2x BBQ Hall of Famer • World Champion Pitmaster Sterling "Big Poppa" Ball has spent a lifetime proving that greatness is not a single destination it is a way of moving through the world. As a founding force behind Ernie Ball, the most iconic independent guitar string and instrument company on earth, Ball helped shape the soundtrack of modern music. Ernie Ball's legendary Slinky strings have been the choice of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, and Slash, while the company's Music Man guitars have become instruments of choice for a generation of world-class artists. What his father Ernie founded grew into a global powerhouse fiercely independent, passionately creative, and entirely on its own terms. Away from the music world, Ball channeled that same fire into championship barbecue. As head cook of the Big Poppa Smokers Competition BBQ Team, he has amassed over 150 first-place trophies and 90 Grand and Reserve Grand Championships across 12 states. He became the first team west of Oklahoma to win the American Royal Invitational and the first Western team to claim a World Championship — earning induction into the BBQ Hall of Fame not once, but twice. His Big Poppa Smokers rubs and seasonings have since been used to win every major BBQ competition in America. For Ball, achievement has always carried a responsibility to give back — and nowhere is that more evident than in his deep history of charitable work on behalf of children. Within the BBQ community, he created the Big Poppa's BBQ Family ambassador program, uniting competition teams across the country to raise funds for local children's charities through the sport they love. That generosity has never been confined to the competition circuit; Ball has consistently supported children's causes across the broader community with the same championship-level commitment he brings to everything he does. It is, by his own account, the work he is most proud of. Whether developing menus for national restaurant groups, producing premier competition events, building a content library of 300-plus recipes, or appearing on TLC's BBQ Pitmasters, Ball brings the same conviction to every room he enters: that passion pursued without compromise is its own competitive advantage. His is a story of mastery without limits, generosity without agenda, and the rare courage to be fully, unapologetically extraordinary at more than one thing. "When I realized that cooking could become a creative outlet for me… that's when I was hooked. " — Sterling "Big Poppa" Ball