Tennessee Ernie Ford
February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991
Tennessee Ernie Ford was a multi-faceted entertainer who found success as a country and gospel singer as well as a radio and television personality during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Over the course of his career, Ford released numerous country, gospel and pop hits, many defining their genres. One in particular, a cover of Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons,” became his signature song after it spent nearly a dozen weeks at the top of the country charts and over two months atop the pop charts. No honest country collection of the era is complete without it. Ford soon became a household name and a familiar face in people’s living rooms thanks to television. He was cast as the semi-regular guest, Cousin Ernie on I Love Lucy and hosted his own Tennesse Ernie Ford Show. Tennessee Ernie Ford was 72 years old when he died of liver failure. It was the 36th anniversary of the release of “Sixteen Tons.”
One-time popular KHJ radio personality, Lloyd Thaxton became the host of his own pop music television show during the 1960s. The Lloyd Thaxton Show began as a local Los Angeles show only in 1961, but once it went into national syndication in 1964, it became the highest rated musical variety program on television for nearly a decade. Over the course of its run, the show featured such guests as Bobby Vee, the Byrds, Sonny & Cher, the Kinks, and the Bobby Fuller Four. Lloyd Thaxton died of multiple myeloma at the age of 81.
Clyde “Red” Foley
June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968
Red Foley was one of country music’s most popular performers during the ’40s and ’50s. He sold upwards of 25 million records during his career, and his “Peace In The Valley” was the first gospel record to be certified a million-seller. Known as Mr. Country Music, Foley became part of the Grand Ole Opry’s radio program in 1946, and a decade later, he successfully transitioned to television. After performing during two Grand Ole Opry shows in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Red Foley died of heart failure in his sleep later that night. He was 58 years old.
Charlie Walker
November 26, 1926 – September 12, 2008
Charlie Walker was not only a hit-making country singer, he was also one of the genre’s most respected disc jockeys. He began his career at a San Antonio radio station in 1951, and by the mid ’50s, he was recording for Decca Records, and later, Columbia Records. His 1958 recording of Harlan Howard’s “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down” is a staple of country music. Walker became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967. He passed away while sufferering from colon cancer at the age of 81.
Johnny Duncan was a prolific country singer and guitarist who could count 14 studio albums to his name. Born into a talented family that included cousins Eddie Seals, Dan Seals and Jimmy Seals, Duncan knew early on that he wanted to be a professional singer. He got his chance while working as a disc jockey outside of Nashville when he was signed to Columbia Records. Over the years he charted over 30 singles, included several popular duets with Janie Fricke. As a writer, he had songs covered by Charley Pride, Chet Atkins, Conway Twitty and Marty Robbins. Johnny Duncan suffered a fatal heart attack on August 14, 2006. He was 67.
Barton Lee Hazlewood
July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007
Lee Hazlewood was a country singer, songwriter, musician and producer whose work with Nancy Sinatra during the ’60s are essential records of the era. Hazlewood settled in Arizona as a disc jockey after being leaving the military in the early ’50s. He soon partnered with Duane Eddy as a songwriter and producer on such hits as “Peter Gunn.” During the mid ’60s, he began working with Nancy Sinatra, writing and producing “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” and many more. Hazelwood all but retired from music during the ’70s, but his songs lived on having been covered by such unlikely artists as Megadeth, Beck, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch and the Tubes. He died of renal cancer at the age of 78.
Paul “Moon” Mullins
September 24, 1936 – August 3, 2008
Paul “Moon” Mullins was a fiddle player and disc jockey who entertained bluegrass fans through his radio programs in Kentucky and Ohio. Mullins learned to play the fiddle while in the army from 1955 to 1958. When he returned home, he joined Ralph Stanley’sClinch Mountain Boys, playing fiddle. Several years later, he became the announcer for Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Festival. In 2007, Mullins was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He passed away in a nursing facility on August 3, 2008 at the age of 71.
George Taylor Morris was a popular FM disc jockey who most recently could be heard on XM Satellite’s classic rock channel, Deep Tracks. Morris began his radio career while still in high school in Kansas City, and after graduating, he moved to a station in Lake Tahoe to work as programmer and disc jockey. Over the years, Morris worked at popular stations from Santa Barbara, California to New York City. He is perhaps best remembered for sparking a minor phenomenon while on the air at Boston’s WZLX in 1997. He had been tipped off about several remarkable similarities between The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’sDark Side Of The Moon. After syncing the opening of the movie up with the album at home one evening, Morris went on the air the next day and discussed the amazing synchronicity of the two, especially when you’re stoned. The word spread around the world almost immediately, despite the fact that the internet was basically in it’s infancy at the time. Morris went to work at XM in 2001 where he spun classic rock records and hosted the popular “XM Artist Confidential” interview series where he sat down with many of music’s biggest names. George Taylor Morris died of throat cancer at the age of 62.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums and Gary Case for the info
As a producer, Sam Phillips was one of the key architects of early rock ‘n roll. What he helped create in his Sun Studios would become the foundation on which current popular music was built. Phillips opened his Memphis recording studio in 1950 to make records for his own label, Sun Records. One of his early recordings was Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” that many consider the first rock ‘n roll record ever. Other future legends he worked with were B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Rufus Thomas and Howlin’ Wolf, whom he considers his greatest discovery. Of course most consider his OTHER “discovery” to be his greatest – Elvis Presley. Phillips recorded some of the biggest early records by some of the greatest names in rock history. They included hits by Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis,Carl Perkins, Ike Turner, and Roy Orbison. Sam Phillips died of respiratory failure at the age of 80.
Ernie K-Doe (Born Ernest Kador)
February 22, 1936 – July 5, 2009
New Orleans born, Ernie K-Doe was best known for his huge #1 hit, “Mother-In-Law,” released in 1961. A colorful performer, K-Doe was a popular draw in and around Louisiana for many years. During the ’80s, K-Doe hosted a popular New Orleans radio program. Ernie K-Doe passed away in 1989 at the age of 65.
Jackie Washington
November 12, 1919 – June 27, 2009
Jackie Washington was one of those artists that was referred to as both a jazz and blues singer. Born in Ontario, Canada, Washington taught himself how to play the guitar at thirteen. This helped the family during the depression as he and his brothers began performing to earn extra money for their large family. During the late ’40s, Washington became Canada’s first African American disc jockey, hosting a jazz show on a Hamilton radio station. Washington’s career as a musician kicked into high gear during the folk revival of the ’60s, becoming a regular along Canada’s folk and blues festival circuits. Besides making several albums of his own, including four excellent titles for Vanguard Records, Washington appeared on recordings by such greats as Lionel Hampton, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Duke Ellington. He was also an inspiration to many, including a young Bob Dylan, who liberally “borrowed” from Washington’s version of “Nottumun Town” for his own “Masters Of War.” There was even talk of Washington suing Dylan, but that never came to be. Jackie Washington died of complications from an earlier heart attack. He was 89.
Elmer Alley’s career spanned radio, television, cable television and the record industry, but he is probably best known as one of the creators of Nashville’s Fan Fair and Opryland. As a recording engineer, Alley worked on records by, among others, Hank Williams and Burl Ives. He passed away on June 9, 2008 at the age of 87.
Steve Gideon (Born Stephen Hayes)
November 13, 1956 – May 1, 2009
Steve Gideon was a musical theater actor who has appeared in such plays as Marry Me and Naked Boys Singing. Gideon began performing in local theather while still in high school in North Carolina and could also be heard DJing at a local radio station. After high school, Gideon attended Harvard where he continued to perform on the stage. He eventually moved to Los Angeles where he became very active in the local theater scene. In 1995, Gideon released a CD, Feels Like Home. He passed away at his home while battling colon cancer.
Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue
May 21, 1928 – April 28, 1975
Tom Donahue was a ground breaking disc jockey who took a San Francisco foreign language station and transformed it into America’s first “free form” station which would become the model for FM album oriented stations across the country. Donahue started his radio career in South Carolina in 1949, but moved to the Bay Area after the payola scandal where he started a record label for the Beau Brummels who he discovered and managed. e also produced concerts and opened a psychedelic club. In 1972, he became the GM of KSAN and encouraged the on-air talent to dig deep into the albums, play songs from different genres and eras, and inject political commentary. The station became an instant hit with the counter-culture, so Donuhue and his wife, Raechel successfully brought his idea to Los Angeles stations, KPPC and future legend, KMET. Similar stations spread across the country through the rest of the ‘70s. Donahue suffered a fatal heart attack on April 28, 1975.
Big Ron O’Brien was a popular disc jockey who in recent years could be heard in the afternoons on Philadelphia rock station, WOGL 98.1. O’Brien’s love for radio began in high school where he worked at the school’s station, and soon thereafter, he was spinning records at Kansas City’s KUDL. Over the rest of his career, O’Brien worked at such stations as KISS in Los Angeles, WRKO in Boston, WCAR in Detroit, and WNBC in New York where he worked alongside Howard Stern. He died of complications from pneumonia on April 27, 2008. He was
Ted Jarrett, the legendary songwriter, producer and record-label owner who helped make Nashville a soul-music hub to rival Memphis, Chicago and Detroit in the 1950s and ’60s, died Saturday night while in hospice care. He was 83. With him passes an entire alternate history of Nashville music–a saga in which, among other chapters, a Fisk graduate’s music crosses the ocean, influences a generation of British kids, and changes rock ‘n’ roll history. For more than half a century, Jarrett was a constant in Nashville soul and gospel music. In 1951, he became a dee-jay for Nashville’s WSOK, one of the country’s first full-time African American radio stations, and throughout the early 1950s he worked in A&R for the pioneering local label Tennessee Records. But it was as a songwriter, producer and label owner that Jarrett made his lasting mark. He created an instant standard in 1955 with “It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day),” a single for Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers with a dynamic vocal by Nashville R&B powerhouse Earl Gaines, then only 19 years old. Not only did their version hit No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, covers by Hank Ballard & the Midnighters and Ruth Brown the same year also stormed the Top 10. His epitaph, though, may be “You Can Make It If You Try,” a stunning single by Nashville soul vocalist Gene Allison that Jarrett wrote and produced in 1957. It’s a majestic and unsettling song–indefatigably optimistic in its soaring chorus, yet bitterly truthful in a way that no doubt connected with its audience in the Jim Crow-era South. “Sometimes you’ll have to cry,” Allison sang over a funereal organ and the stately backing of trumpeter Joe Morris’ band. “Sometimes you’ll have to lie.” The song became a smash, crossing over to the Billboard pop chart alongside a stay in the R&B Top Five. Among its fans were members of a fledgling British rock band who revered the R&B records they ordered from Nashville retailers such as Ernie’s Record Mart. And so Jarrett ended up with a cut on England’s Newest Hitmakers, the first U.S. release by the Rolling Stones. Unlike so many of Nashville’s R&B greats–including, tragically, Gene Allison–Jarrett lived to see his music embraced by a wide new audience. Starting in the mid-1990s, several sterling soul compilations (some British, some domestic) collected the singles Jarrett released on labels such as Excello, Champion, Calvert, Cherokee, Poncello, Ref-O-Ree and Valdot, bringing new attention to artists like Gaines and vocalist Roscoe Shelton. The capstone of Jarrett’s career proved to be the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Grammy-winning 2004 Night Train to Nashville CD compilation and the year-long exhibit that accompanied it–an overdue celebration of Nashville soul that focused the city’s attention on its overlooked R&B history. Represented by six tracks on the first volume alone, Jarrett emerged from the Night Train project as a key figure in Nashville music: a direct link between country (he penned Webb Pierce’s 1955 honky-tonk hit “Love, Love, Love,” one of the few No. 1 singles in country history written by an African American) and soul. He basked in its glow at a 2005 gala where “Sunny” singer Bobby Hebb, Gene Allison’s brother Leevert, country-soul great Tracy Nelson and others gathered at the Hall of Fame to sing his songs. The occasion was the release of Jarrett’s autobiography; its title, fittingly enough, was You Can Make It If You Try. Ted Jarrett could, and he did. – Jim Ridley (Nashville Scene)
“Murray The K” Kaufman
February 14, 1922 – February 21, 1982
Murray “the K” Kaufman was born on February 14, 1922. He worked his way into radio in 1953, producing a late night interview show before receiving his own nightly program on WMCA/New York. In 1958, Kaufman joined WINS/New York as the host of the Swingin’ Soiree, a mixture of rock and roll and Kaufman’s inventive patter. When he took over Alan Freed’s timeslot a year later, Kaufman quickly became the most popular disc jockey in New York. Kaufman’s love for rock and roll and its audience led the Beatles to seek him out when they first came to America in 1964. Kaufman’s friendship with the group earned him the nickname “The Fifth Beatle.” When WINS switched to an all-news format in 1965, Kaufman moved to WOR-FM/New York, where he pioneered the progressive rock format before the station switched formats a year later. Bothered by the constrictions of Top 40 Radio, Kaufman joined NBC’s Monitor from 1969 to 1971. Eventually he left New York for California to host the syndicated Soundtrack of the ’60s, but a battle with cancer forced him to step aside after a year. Murray “the K” Kaufman” died on February 21, 1982. Murray “the K” Kaufman was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997. – From the Radio Hall of Fame
If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the ’70s, it was Waylon Jennings. Though he had been a professional musician since the late ’50s, it wasn’t until the ’70s that Waylon, with his imposing baritone and stripped-down, updated honky tonk, became a superstar. Jennings rejected the conventions of Nashville, refusing to record with the industry’s legions of studio musicians and insisting that his music never resemble the string-laden, pop-inflected sounds that were coming out of Nashville in the ’60s and ’70s. Many artists, including Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, followed Waylon’s anti-Nashville stance and eventually the whole “outlaw” movement — so-named because of the artists’ ragged, maverick image and their independence from Nashville — became one of the most significant country forces of the ’70s, helping the genre adhere to its hardcore honky tonk roots. Jennings didn’t write many songs, but his music — which combined the grittiest aspects of honky tonk with a rock & roll rhythm and attitude, making the music spare, direct, and edgy — defined hardcore country, and it influenced countless musicians, including members of the new traditionalist and alternative country subgenres of the ’80s. Jennings was born and raised in Littlefield, TX, where he learned how to play guitar by the time he was eight. When he was 12 years old, he was a DJ for a local radio station and, shortly afterward, formed his first band. Two years later he left school and spent the next few years picking cotton, eventually moving to Lubbock, TX, in 1954. Once he was in Lubbock, he got a job at the radio station KLLL, where he befriended Buddy Holly during one of the station’s shows. Holly became Waylon’s mentor, teaching him guitar licks, collaborating on songs, and producing Jennings’ first single, “Jole Blon,” which was released on Brunswick in 1958. Later that year, Waylon became the temporary bass player for Holly’s band the Crickets, playing with the rock & roller on his final tour. Jennings was also scheduled to fly on the plane ride that ended in Holly’s tragic death in early 1959, but he gave up his seat at the last minute to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from a cold. Following Holly’s death, Jennings returned to Lubbock, where he spent two years mourning the loss of his friend and working as a DJ. In late 1960, he moved to Phoenix, AZ, where he founded a rockabilly band called the Waylors. Jennings and the Waylors began to earn a local following through their performances at the local club JD’s, eventually signing to the independent label Trend in 1961. None of the group’s singles made any impact, and Jennings began working for Audio Recorders as a record producer. In 1963, Waylon moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a contract with Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. By this point, Waylon’s music was pure country, and Alpert wanted to move him toward the pop market; Jennings didn’t cave in to the demands and his sole single, “Sing the Girl a Song, Bill,” and album for A&M flopped. Following the A&M debacle, Jennings landed a contract with RCA with help from Chet Atkins and Bobby Bare, and he moved to Nashville in 1965. After arriving in Nashville, he moved in with Johnny Cash, and the two musicians began a long-lasting friendship, which eventually resulted in a collaboration in the form of the Highwaymen in the ’80s. Waylon released his first single for RCA, “That’s the Chance I’ll Have to Take,” late in the summer of 1965, and it became a minor hit. With his second single, “Stop the World (And Let Me Off),” he had his first Top 40 country hit, and it began a string of moderate hits that eventually developed into several Top Ten singles — “Walk On out of My Mind,” “I Got You,” “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” “Yours Love” — in 1968. At this point, he was working with Nashville session men and developing a sound that was halfway between honky tonk and folk. As the next decade began, he started to move his music toward hardcore country. In 1970, Jennings recorded several songs by a struggling but promising songwriter called Kris Kristofferson, which led to a pair of ambitious albums — Singer of Sad Songs and Ladies Love Outlaws — the following year. On these two records, he developed the roots of outlaw country, creating a harder, tougher muscular sound with a selection of songs by writers like Alex Harvey and Hoyt Axton. During the following year, Waylon began collaborating with Willie Nelson, recording and writing several songs with the songwriter. Just as importantly, he also renegotiated his contract with RCA in 1972, demanding that he assume the production and artistic control of his records. Honky Tonk Heroes, released in 1973, was the first album released under this new contract. Comprised almost entirely of songs by the then-unknown songwriter Billy Joe Shaver and recorded with Jennings’ road band, the album was an edgy, bass-driven, and surly variation on stripped-down honky tonk. Jennings and his new sound slowly began to gain more fans, and in 1974 he had his first number one, “This Time,” followed by yet another number one single, “I’m a Ramblin’ Man,” and the number two “Rainy Day Woman.” Waylon’s success continued throughout 1975, as Dreaming My Dreams — featuring one of his signature songs, the number one “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” — reached number 49 on the pop charts; he was also voted the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year. Jennings truly crossed over into the mainstream in 1976, when Wanted! The Outlaws — a various-artists compilation of previously released material that concentrated on Waylon but also featured songs from his wife Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson, and Tompall Glaser — peaked at number one on the pop charts. Following the success of Wanted!, Waylon became a superstar, as well known to the mainstream pop audience as he was to the country audience. For the next six years, Jennings’ albums consistently charted in the pop Top 50 and went gold. During this time, he recorded a number of duets with Nelson, including the multi-platinum Waylon & Willie (1978), which featured the number one single “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Over the course of the late ’70s and early ’80s, Jennings scored ten number one hits, including “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” (which hit number 25 on the pop charts and spent six weeks at the top of the country charts), “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get Over You),” “I’ve Always Been Crazy,” “Amanda,” “Theme from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (Good Ol’ Boys),” and three duets with Nelson. By the mid-’80s, the momentum of Waylon’s career began to slow somewhat, due to his drug abuse and the decline of the entire outlaw country movement. Jennings kicked his substance habits cold turkey in the mid-’80s and formed the supergroup the Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash in 1985; over the next decade, the band released three albums, yet none of them were more successful than their debut, which spawned the number one single, “Highwayman.” Also in 1985, Jennings parted ways with RCA, signing with MCA Records the following year. At first, he had several hit singles for the label, including the number one “Rose in Paradise,” but by the end of the ’80s, he was no longer able to crack the Top 40. In 1990, Waylon switched labels again, signing with Epic. “Wrong,” his first single for the label, reached the Top Ten in 1990, and “The Eagle” reached the Top 40 the following year, but after that minor hit, none of his singles were charting. Despite his decreased sales — which were largely due to the shifting tastes in country music — Waylon remained a superstar throughout the ’90s and was able to draw large crowds whenever he performed a concert, while many of his records continued to receive positive reviews. In 1996, he signed to Justice Records, where he released the acclaimed Right for the Time. Closing In on the Fire followed in 1998. His work was slowed by his health in the years following that album, as complications from diabetes made it difficult for him to walk. His foot was amputated in December 2001 because of his illness, and he died on February 13, 2002, at his home in Arizona. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic)
Jorge “Papito” Serguera
1933(?) – February 3, 2009
The man who banned the Beatles from the communist-run island’s radio and television stations has died, state television said on Tuesday. Jorge “Papito” Serguera, who at the time was president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, pulled Beatles music from the airwaves in the 1970s even though he later admitted he enjoyed listening to it in private. Serguera, who was 76 when he died, said in a 2001 interview he was following orders from high government officials who viewed the British band’s music as a threat to the revolution. But he was viewed as an architect of a general cultural crackdown that dampened dissent and marginalized many for their beliefs or sexuality. “There were national leaders who were against, not them (the Beatles), but the so-called modern music … there was incredible pressure,” he told Ernesto Juan Castellanos, author of “John Lennon in Havana with a little help from my friend.” Today, Beatles music is played on the Cuban airwaves and one of Havana’s minor landmarks is a statue of Lennon sitting on a park bench. Serguera fought in the 1959 revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista, then worked alongside Ernesto “Che” Guevara as a prosecutor in controversial trials that condemned to death hundreds of Batista collaborators. His appearance on television in 2006 provoked protests from intellectuals still angry about his 1970s actions. – Esteban Israel (Reuters)
JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson
October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959
Legendary as one of the three rock greats to die in the tragic 1959 Clear Lake, IA, plane crash that also claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (born Jiles Perry Richardson) had just established himself as a rock hitmaker with the rollicking “Chantilly Lace.” Born in the heart of Texas, Richardson grew up in Beaumont and changed his first name to Jape. He broke into show biz as a DJ over KTRM radio, where he coined the nickname the Big Bopper. He began recording for Mercury in 1957, his animated baritone scaling pop play lists the next year with “Chantilly Lace” — easily his top seller — and the equally raucous novelty “Big Bopper’s Wedding.” Richardson wrote “White Lightning,” a huge country hit for George Jones, and Johnny Preston’s number-one smash “Running Bear.” – Bill Dahl (allmusic)
Tennessee Ernie Ford was a multi-faceted entertainer who found success as a country and gospel singer as well as a radio and television personality during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Over the course of his career, Ford released numerous country, gospel and pop hits, many defining their genres. One in particular, a cover of Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons,” became his signature song after it spent nearly a dozen weeks at the top of the country charts and over two months atop the pop charts. No honest country collection of the era is complete without it. Ford soon became a household name and a familiar face in people’s living rooms thanks to television. He was cast as the semi-regular guest, Cousin Ernie on I Love Lucy and hosted his own Tennesse Ernie Ford Show. Tennessee Ernie Ford was 72 years old when he died of liver failure. It was the 36th anniversary of the release of “Sixteen Tons.”
One-time popular KHJ radio personality, Lloyd Thaxton became the host of his own pop music television show during the 1960s. The Lloyd Thaxton Show began as a local Los Angeles show only in 1961, but once it went into national syndication in 1964, it became the highest rated musical variety program on television for nearly a decade. Over the course of its run, the show featured such guests as Bobby Vee, the Byrds, 
Johnny Duncan was a prolific country singer and guitarist who could count 14 studio albums to his name. Born into a talented family that included cousins Eddie Seals, 
George Taylor Morris was a popular FM disc jockey who most recently could be heard on XM Satellite’s classic rock channel, Deep Tracks. Morris began his radio career while still in high school in Kansas City, and after graduating, he moved to a station in Lake Tahoe to work as programmer and disc jockey. Over the years, Morris worked at popular stations from Santa Barbara, California to New York City. He is perhaps best remembered for sparking a minor phenomenon while on the air at Boston’s WZLX in 1997. He had been tipped off about several remarkable similarities between The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. After syncing the opening of the movie up with the album at home one evening, Morris went on the air the next day and discussed the amazing synchronicity of the two, especially when you’re stoned. The word spread around the world almost immediately, despite the fact that the internet was basically in it’s infancy at the time. Morris went to work at XM in 2001 where he spun classic rock records and hosted the popular “XM Artist Confidential” interview series where he sat down with many of music’s biggest names. George Taylor Morris died of throat cancer at the age of 62.
As a producer, Sam Phillips was one of the key architects of early rock ‘n roll. What he helped create in his Sun Studios would become the foundation on which current popular music was built. Phillips opened his Memphis recording studio in 1950 to make records for his own label, Sun Records. One of his early recordings was 
