Multi-Talented Songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler Dies At 91
Billy Edd Wheeler. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Known for such hits as “Jackson,” “The Reverend Mr. Black” and “Coward of the County,” Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Billy Edd Wheeler died in North Carolina on Monday (Sept. 16) at age 91.
In addition to being an award-winning songwriter, Wheeler was a playwright, an author, a painter and a poet. He was also a former Music Row publishing executive.
Billy Edd Wheeler was born in 1932 in the coal-mining country of West Virginia. He began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. He left home at age 16 to work his way through high school in North Carolina. In 1955, he earned his university degree at Berea, Kentucky, then served in the U.S. Navy. Following his discharge, Wheeler worked in administration at Berea College.
In 1958, teen idol Pat Boone recorded his song “Rockin’ Boll Weevil,” his firs taste of songwriting success. Wheeler also launched his recording career while at Berea. He made two folk-music albums for the small Monitor label. The second, 1962’s Billy Earl and Bluegrass Too, featured legendary Coon Creek Girls members Lily May Pennington and Rosie Foley in trio performances with him billed as The Berea Three.
He enrolled in the Yale School of Drama’s playwright program, then moved from New Haven to Manhattan to pursue his music career. In 1963, the superstar folk group The Kingston Trio made Wheeler’s song “The Reverend Mr. Black” a top 10 pop hit. Later that year, the act scored again with the songwriter’s “Desert Pete” and introduced his miner’s classic “Coal Tattoo.” The latter song has been recorded by a dozen others, including Judy Collins, Jim Croce and Kathy Mattea.
Similarly, folk singer Judy Henske’s introduction of Wheeler’s “High Flying Bird” in 1963 led to the song’s embrace by Richie Havens, The New Christy Minstrels, We Five, Jefferson Airplane, Neil Young and more. Also in 1963, Hank Snow recorded “Blue Roses,” introducing Billy Edd Wheeler’s songwriting to the country music community.
Kapp Records signed him in 1964, and the following year, he delivered “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back” as a top 10 country smash. This became his biggest success as a performer. He had an even bigger hit as a songwriter when Johnny Cash & June Carter released his “Jackson” as a duet in 1967. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood recorded it for the pop market and also scored with it. “Jackson” was recorded by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon for the Oscar-winning 2005 movie Walk the Line.
Billy Edd Wheeler moved to Nashville in 1968 to become the manager of United Artists Music. But he returned to North Carolina two years later to make a home and raise a family in Swannanoa.
He published poetry books in 1969 and 1977. Billy Edd Wheeler also continued to work in theater. As a playwright, he was behind more than a dozen musical and dramatic productions. In 1970, The Hatfields and McCoys premiered as an outdoor drama written by him. It has been running continuously in West Virginia ever since. Wheeler’s Young Abe Lincoln outdoor drama premiered in Indiana in 1987, and his Johnny Appleseed premiered in Ohio in 2004. Both are also still running. The National Geographic Society commissioned his folk opera Song of the Cumberland Gap.
Country stars Johnny Darrell (“I Ain’t Buyin’”) and Hank Williams Jr. (“A Baby Again”) succeeded with his tunes in 1968-69. Then Cash returned to his catalog to score a big top 10 hit with 1969’s “Blistered.” Anita Carter & Johnny Darrell memorably dueted on his “The Coming of the Roads” in 1969, and the mountain song has also been sung by Kathy Mattea, Mary Hopkin, Judy Collins and Peter, Paul & Mary, among others
Songwriting success continued in the 1970s. Wheeler’s “Baby’s Smile, Woman’s Kiss” (1972), “It’s Midnight” (1975) and “Gimme Back My Blues” (1978) were winners for Johnny Duncan, Elvis Presley and Jerry Reed, respectively. In 1979, “Coward of the County” became a chart-topping smash for Kenny Rogers on both country and pop hit parades. It inspired a successful TV movie starring Rogers in 1981.
Meanwhile, Kapp, United Artists, RCA and other labels continued to release charting singles by Wheeler throughout the 1970s. He issued 15 albums between 1961 and 2006.
“Coward of the County” was co-written with Roger Bowling, who became a steady songwriting collaborator. Beginning in 1980, Bowling issued a string of charting singles containing their co-written songs. Also in 1980, Roy Clark had a hit with the team’s “Chain Gang of Love.”
Another regular songwriting collaborator was Country Music Hall of Fame member Chet Atkins. Wheeler commemorated their friendship with his 1995 album Songs I Wrote with Chet. Over the years, Wheeler’s songs have been recognized with 13 ASCAP awards in Music City.
Beginning with Laughter in Appalachia in 1986, Billy Edd Wheeler published six books of country humor. Star of Appalachia was published as his debut novel in 2004. He issued his memoir Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout in 2018, which contained an appreciation written by his longtime friend Janis Ian. Wheeler also published three songbooks. In addition, Billy Edd Wheeler became an accomplished painter, sculptor and wood worker.
More than 150 artists have recorded his songs. Country’s Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Mel Tillis, John Denver, George Strait, Carl Perkins, Hazel Dickens, Glen Campbell, Merle Haggard, Faron Young, George Hamilton IV, Del Reeves, Rex Allen, Jean Shepard, Flatt & Scruggs, Ed Bruce, Bill Anderson, Wanda Jackson, Narvel Felts, Vernon Oxford, Charlie McCoy, Stella Parton and Jerry Lee Lewis are among the many stars who have sung the works of Billy Edd Wheeler. In the pop world, he had cuts by Bobby Darin, The Association, Florence & The Machine, Jose Feliciano, The Chipmunks, Jay & The Americans, Gram Parsons, R.E.M., Lone Justice, Stephen Stills, B.W. Stevenson, The Human League, Lonnie Donegan, Carly Simon, O.C. Smith and more. His songs have sold an estimated 57 million records.
Wheeler was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
“The world has lost a treasure, a character, and a wonderful example of a life lived with beautiful authenticity,” eulogized Kathy Mattea yesterday. “I feel lucky to have known him.”
Billy Edd Wheeler passed away peacefully at his home. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Mary Bannerman Wheeler, by daughter Lucy Wheeler, son Travis Wheeler and brother Robert Stewart.
