Music Row Musician & Mogul David Briggs Passes

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David Briggs. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Keyboardist David Briggs, who performed with a who’s-who of rock and country greats, has died at age 82.

A 60-year veteran of Music Row, Briggs was also a song publisher, studio owner, songwriter and arranger. He was a member of the Musicians Hall of Fame as well as the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

His career began in Florence, Alabama in the 1950s as a teenager who performed on local television and won boogie-woogie talent contests. Across the river was Muscle Shoals, which began to emerge as a music capital in the early 1960s. Songwriter Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery invited Briggs to recording sessions at FAME Studio, and the piano player soon became a key member of the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He and Muscle Shoals bass player Norbert Putnam became lifelong friends and collaborators.

Briggs played on all of the early Muscle Shoals hits, including those of Arthur Alexander, Joe Tex, Jimmy Hughes and Al Green. He began to write songs during this era. Brenda Lee, Percy Sledge and Dan Penn were among those who recorded his early songwriting efforts.

Recording sessions in Alabama weren’t constant. He and many of the other Muscle Shoals players relocated to Nashville, where session musicians worked around the clock. David Briggs arrived in Music City in 1965. During his first year in Nashville, he played on 140 recording sessions. This soon accelerated into 400+ sessions a year.

His versatility was one reason for his success. Those sessions were for such diverse artists as Johnny Cash, Bob Seger, Kenny Rogers, Connie Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Loretta Lynn, The Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Milsap, B.B. King, Waylon Jennings, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Hank Williams Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, B.J. Thomas, Tony Joe White, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, The Monkees, Reba McEntire, John Prine, Dobie Gray, K.T. Oslin, Don McLean, Donovan, Billy Bob Thornton, Kenny Chesney, Nancy Sinatra, Charley Pride, The Everly Brothers, Eddie Rabbitt, Carl Perkins, Barbara Mandrell, Alice Cooper, George Harrison, Peter, Paul & Mary and many other music legends. He had more than 10,000 music credits on his resume.

During his journey to prominence as an “A Team” session musician, David Briggs also recorded solo albums and performed live, including as a member of the Nashville session supergroup Area Code 615 in 1969-71. In 1974, he was a member of The James Gang. The musician first backed Elvis Presley in 1966. Many recording sessions later, he performed in Presley’s TCB Band throughout 1976.

Briggs was also the music director for network and cable television specials. In addition to playing on records, he was a noted string arranger.

He branched out into other areas of the music business. In the late 1960s, Briggs partnered with Norbert Putnam to open Quadrafonic Sound. It became the premier studio in Nashville for visiting pop and rock musicians, including Neil Young, Dan Fogelberg and Jimmy Buffett. Briggs went on to create his own House of David recording studio nearby.

Also with Putnam, Briggs founded the publishing company Danor Music. The firm signed such Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members as Troy Seals and Will Jennings.

In 1999, David Briggs was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. 10 years later, he and his fellow Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members entered the Musicians Hall of Fame, which is located in downtown Nashville.

Younger brother John Briggs became an executive at ASCAP and U.S. Bank.

David Briggs died on Tuesday (April 22). He is survived by two sons, Darren and Gabriel. Funeral arrangements have not been posted.

Robert K Oermann
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