Member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame and five-time winner of the Best String Player in Austin award, Hood came to Austin in 1973 as a member of the acoustic trio, Uncle Walt's Band. Uncle Walt's Band included Hood, Walter Hyatt and David Ball. Hood played guitar, fiddle and mandolin. He also had a good singing voice.

He played as a sideman with just about everyone. If a budding musician wanted to gain status for a debut CD, adding Champ Hood to the roster of musicians helping on the album was a sure way to get it.

His "regular" gigs, though, included nine years with Toni Price's band, where he was part of her Tuesday nights at the Continental Club and as a key player on her albums and in other appearances. He played regularly as a member of Threadgill's Troubadours with his son Warren Hood, David Carroll, Ron Erwin, Marvin Dykhuis and Mandy Mercier. He toured with Lyle Lovett and worked in the '80s with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Writing in The Austin Chronicle after Hood's death, Jimmie Dale Gilmore said, "Champ Hood was, I truly believe, one of the pre-eminent sources of creativity and inspiration at the heart of what caused our town to become known, eventually, as the Live Music Capital of the World."