Over the years, the Barbershop Harmony Society has extended honorary life memberships to some of its greatest friends and allies.

The Honorary Membership is presented to "those who have had a significant impact on Barbershop or a cappella singing -- as well as those individuals or groups who, through their celebrity, bring positive attention and awareness of the Barbershop Harmony Society."

This year's honoree is TV host and producer Mike Rowe, who will receive the award on Saturday, July 8, at the BHS International Convention in Las Vegas.

A barbershopper himself, Rowe "blames" his singing career on the influence of his high school choir director and barbershop world champion Fred King (Oriole Four), who passed away in 2008. It was under King's encouragement that Rowe became a barbershopper.

Mike Rowe Remembers Fred King

"At Fred's funeral, I sat quietly in the balcony and tried to imagine a world where he had never lived," Rowe wrote on the BHS's site. "I thought of friends never made and songs never sung. Like one of those townspeople in Bedford Falls, I saw myself stumbling around in some dismal, alternative universe, my 'wonderful life' hopelessly altered by the absence of one high school music teacher."

Mike Rowe With The Garden City Chorus

Rowe continued: "I sat there next to Fred listening to grown men sing about mothers and sweethearts and old friends that would never forsake you. These men--some veterans of the Second World War--sang with unapologetic joy and sentimentality. They sang about patriotism and good old-fashioned girls and home sweet home. They sang songs I'd never heard but somehow recognized."

Vocality Quartet Takes A Stab At The "Somebody's Gotta Sing It" Theme

"Somehow, I had formed the impression that The Oriole Four was the only source of barbershop harmony in existence. But now I was learning that there was an entire society, with thousands of members, and hundreds of chapters and thousands of registered quartets. Some of them were right in front of me."

Rowe Singing An Aria On Stage

In 1984, Rowe sang at the Baltimore Opera.

Mike Rowe Singing Opera On CNN

Rowe's Thoughts On Performing The National Anthem

Subscribe to the FloVoice Newsletter and never miss a beat!