Tony Martell, founder of the T.J. Martell Foundation for leukemia, cancer and AIDs research, died on Sunday, Nov. 27. He was 90.

Martell launched the T.J. Martell Foundation in 1975, in honor of his son T.J., who died at age 19 after battling leukemia.

Tony Martell was a music industry senior executive from the 1960s through the 1990s. He earned Executive Producer credits on more than 50 albums from artists including The Isley Brothers, The O’Jays, Stevie Ray Vaughan and more. He was instrumental in bringing Stevie Ray Vaughn and Ozzy Osbourne to Epic Records. In the 1980s, Martell was head of the imprint label CBS Associated Records, where he continued working with Osbourne and signed artists including Joan Jett to the label.

The T.J. Martell Foundation has raised more than $270 million to date for scientific research.

His wife of 65 years, Vicky, died in February. Martell is survived by daughter Debbie Martell.

Memorial plans have not yet been announced.

Jerry Wayne Flowers

Jerry Wayne Flowers, who spent 30 years as a Music Row executive, has died at age 68.

Flowers is best known for his stints at RCA Records and the Opryland Music Group. In later years, he became known as a local, right-wing political gadfly.

He majored in journalism at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. In the late 1970s, he became one of the pioneering Nashville record-label publicists when he was hired by Jerry Bradley at RCA Records. As the company’s publicity director, he facilitated Dolly Parton’s landmark cover story in Playboy magazine.

By 1981, he was RCA’s manager of country artist development. At the time, Flowers urged the company to sign The Judds.
Joe Galante took over the label in 1982. Flowers and the rest of Bradley’s team soon departed the label to be replaced by a Galante-chosen staff.

Next, Flowers was put in charge of the new Nashville office of the Oklahoma-based booking agency The Halsey Company. He was a Halsey vice president in 1984-85.

After Gaylord bought Acuff-Rose Publishing in 1985, Jerry Bradley was put in charge of the newly formed Opryland Music Group. He again hired Flowers, who joined OMG as a vice president in 1987.

While at the publishing company, Jerry Flowers successfully pitched its songwriter, Aaron Tippin, to RCA as a recording artist. He left OMG suddenly in 1997 with neither side commenting on his exodus. Sony-ATV bought the OMG/Acuff-Rose catalog in 2002.

Flowers became a self-employed consultant in intellectual property and marketing by forming The Flowers Group. Around 2002-2003, he became a conservative activist. He founded a Christian group called Nashvillians for a Brighter Future. Flowers particularly focused on being an anti-homosexual rights campaigner.

Despite being a longtime resident of Williamson County, he regularly chastised Nashville’s Metro Human Relations Commission. Flowers was also a frequent opinion-letter contributor to The Tennessean. His most recent targets have included Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Affordable Care Act.

Jerry Wayne Flowers passed away on Nov. 7. He is survived by his wife, Sharon Huff Flowers, son Tyler, daughter Megan Tull, father Pernell Flowers and sisters Donna Barnett and Teresa Burnette.

A celebration of life is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12, at Williamson Memorial Funeral Home. Visitation will take place two hours prior to the service.

Kacey Jones

[Update]: A celebration of life has been set for singer-songwriter Kacey Jones, who died Sept. 1 at 66 years old.

The celebration will be held Wednesday, Oct. 5 at Douglas Corner in Nashville. Doors will open at 6 p.m., with the service running from 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

[Original post, Sept. 1, 4:31 p.m. CT]:

Nashville singer-songwriter Kacey Jones passed away on Thursday (Sept. 1). She was 66 years old.

She is best-known for her comedic songs as a member of Ethel & The Shameless Hussies, as well as on a series of humorous solo CDs. Born Gayle Zeller, Kacey Jones was raised in Gilroy, California. Early in her career, she recorded for an independent label in San Francisco.

She co-wrote the 1985 Mickey Gilley top-10 hit “I’m the One Mama Warned You About.” During that same year, David Allan Coe recorded her song “Cold Turkey.”

She moved to Nashville in 1986. Jones initially hoped to be recorded as a serious singer-songwriter. But then she formed Ethel & The Shameless Hussies with Becki Fogle (“Bunny O’Hare”) and Valerie Hunt (“Blanche Hickey”). Her character in the group was called “Ethel Beaverton.”

The act took its name from the Ray Stevens lyric in “The Streak.” Ethel & The Shameless Hussies signed with MCA Records and issued its debut album, Born to Burn, in 1988. They made the charts with the singles “One Nite Stan” (1988) and “It’s Just the Whiskey Talkin’” (1989). “Ethel’s” turns in the spotlight with the group included “Last Night I Really Laid Down the Law,” “Smokin’ in Bed” and “Up Against Your Love.”

The group was nominated as Comedy Act of the Year at the Music City News Awards. The trio remained together for four years.

Later in the 1990s, Jones embarked on a solo career. Her initial solo CD was 1997’s Men Are Some of My Favorite People on Curb Records. It yielded two music videos, “1-900-Bubba” and “(I Hate Your Lousy, Rotten, Stinkin’ Guts) But I’m Not Bitter.”

She eventually appeared several times on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion and in the pages of People and USA Today. Her songs have also been heard on film soundtracks, such as the Beau Bridges cult favorite Sordid Lives. Among the artists who have recorded her songs are Cledus T. Judd, Richard Fagan, Ray Stevens and Marshall Chapman.

Jones was also a record producer. She saluted Texas singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman by producing the multi-artist CD Pearls in the Snow. Featuring Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and others, this album hit No. 1 on the Americana charts in 1999.

As an entrepreneur, she formed her own IGO Records label and the publishing companies Zamalama Music (BMI) and Mamalama Music (ASCAP). She signed country traditionalist Leland Martin to IGO, and he charted with “If I Had Long Legs (Like Alan Jackson)” (2002) and “Hey Love, No Fair” (2003).

Her own record making career continued with Every Man I Love Is Either Married, Gay or Dead (2000), Never Wear Panties to a Party (2001) and The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Box of Music (2003). Her 2000 duet with Delbert McClinton, “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly,” was a big hit in Europe. In 2001, Jones became a regular on the nationally-syndicated ABC morning radio show, “Charlie & Darcy.”

She was dubbed “The Royal Minstrel to the Sweet Potato Queens’ Court.” This was a network of fans of Mississippi author Jill Connor Browne’s series of Sothern-belle “Sweet Potato Queen” books. Their anthem was Jones’s “Be Particular.”

Kacey Jones is remembered for such clever lyrics as “Christmas In Rehab,” “Whatever Happened to Kenny Rogers’ Face,” “Show Up Naked—Bring Beer,” “I Wanna Be Up Front Like Dolly,” “Dressin’ Up for the Pizza Man,” “I Can Always Get Skinny But You’ll Never Be Tall,” “Put the Seat Back Down” and “I Miss My Man (But My Aim’s Gettin’ Better).”

She flipped back to her serious side with 2006’s Kacey Jones Sings Mickey Newbury. The album garnered widespread critical praise.

Nipples to the Wind (2007), Kaceyoke (2008) and Donald Trump’s Hair (2009) returned her to light-hearted fare. Her most recent album was 2014’s Amen for Old Friends, which combined both comedic and serious tunes.

In recent years, she had doing a series of “in the round” shows with fellow tunesmiths Becky Hobbs and Benita Hill. They were billed as “A Cowgirl, a Diva and a Shameless Hussy.” The three also wrote together. Her other songwriting/performing trio was Phillybilly, alongside Richard Fagan and Joe Collins.

In 2014, Kacey Jones was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. Instead of chemo, radiation and surgery, she opted for alternative, holistic therapies. She launched a GoFundMe account to pay for these. Despite chronic pain, she was well enough in 2015 to compete on TV’s America’s Got Talent.

In February, the songwriting community staged a benefit show for her at Douglas Corner Café. Among those booked were Rafe Van Hoy, Alan Rhody, Kent Blazy, Roger Cook, Wood Newton and Jonmark Stone. In light of the current presidential campaign, she reissued “Donald Trump’s Hair” last spring. Kacey Jones entered hospice care in August.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member John D. Loudermilk has died at age 82 following a struggle with bone cancer. He died on Wednesday (Sept. 21), according to a Facebook post by songwriter Bobby Braddock.

Loudermilk’s classics include “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” “Break My Mind,” “Tobacco Road,” “Abilene,” “Talk Back Trembling Lips” and “Waterloo.” He is unusual as a Nashville songwriter of his generation who had as many pop successes as country hits.

The native North Carolinian worked in a variety of occupations before becoming a songwriting professional. As a youngster, he was a shoeshine boy, janitor, door-to-door Bible salesman, sign painter, grocery bagger, bulldozer operator, radio entertainer and telegram delivery boy.

He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His first cousins were Ira and Charlie Loudermilk, who found country fame as The Louvin Brothers.

Loudermilk was working for a local TV station, painting sets and doing commercial artwork when he began to write poems and songs. In 1956, he wrote “A Rose and a Baby Ruth.” Fellow North Carolinian George Hamilton IV turned it into a teen pop smash.

Recording as “Johnny Dee,” Loudermilk, himself, scored a modest teen pop hit in 1957 with “Sittin’ in the Balcony.” Rockabilly sensation Eddie Cochran also scored with the tune that year.

Loudermilk moved to Nashville in 1958 and continued to pursue dual careers as a songwriter for others as well as a recording artist.

RCA executive Chet Atkins took a shine to him. He hired Loudermilk to screen songs for the label’s Nashville artists and signed him to make records. Atkins used him as a session musician and backup vocalist, as well. Loudermilk’s career was also bolstered when he signed as a staff writer for Cedarwood Publishing, then Acuff-Rose Music.

His Nashville career took off in 1959. “Grin and Bear It” was a hit for Jimmy C. Newman and “Half Breed” did the same for Marvin Rainwater. But it was “Waterloo,” sung by Stonewall Jackson, that made Loudermilk a songwriting star. Co-written with Marijohn Wilkin, the song became a No. 1 country smash and a No. 4 pop-crossover hit.

In early 1960, Loudermilk scored again, this time as the cowriter of the Kitty Wells country hit “Amigo’s Guitar.” Meanwhile, on the pop charts, Johnny Ferguson hit with 1960’s “Angela Jones” and Connie Francis had 1961 successes with Loudermilk’s “(He’s My) Dreamboat” and “Hollywood.” Mark Dinning had a minor pop hit with “Top Forty News, Weather and Sports.”

Also in 1961, Loudermilk began writing a string of pop hits for Sue Thompson. These included “Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)” (1961), “Norman” (1962), “James (Hold the Ladder Steady)” (1962) and “Paper Tiger” (1965). The Everly Brothers had a big 1961 pop hit with Loudermilk’s classic death ballad “Ebony Eyes.”

The songwriter returned to the pop charts as an artist in 1961-62 with self-penned RCA singles including “Language of Love,” “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Callin’ Doctor Casey” and “Road Hog.”

Chet Atkins recorded the songwriter’s “Windy and Warm” in 1961, and the instrumental has since been recorded by many other guitarists. Bobby Vee had a 1961 pop hit with the teen-themed “Stayin’ In.”

The following year, Loudermilk’s pop activity included “Torture,” sung by Kris Jensen. The song later achieved camp status via its inclusion in Kenneth Anger’s 1963 underground cult film Scorpio Rising.

Loudermilk’s “Talk Back Trembling Lips” was a country and pop audio icon of 1963, thanks to recordings by Ernie Ashworth and Johnny Tillotson, respectively. George Hamilton IV solidified his transition from pop to country stardom thanks to Loudermilk’s “Abilene” in 1963. Stonewall Jackson also returned to the songwriter’s catalog for “Can’t Hang Up the Phone” that year.

Hamilton had two more country hits with Loudermilk’s “Linda With the Lonely Eyes” and “Fort Worth, Dallas or Houston” in 1964. In addition, Johnny Cash scored on the country hit parade with “Bad News.” Bobby Lord’s version of “Life Can Have Meaning” and Bob Luman’s recording of “The File” were also significant country chart entries of 1964.

But the songwriter’s biggest triumph that year was in pop. The “British Invasion” band The Nashville Teens scored a rocking hit with his “Tobacco Road,” and the song went on to be recorded by dozens of bands. The group followed it with his “Google Eye,” which became a big hit in England.

Also in the pop world, “Thou Shalt Not Steal” (Dick and DeeDee), “Everything’s Alright” (The Newbeats) and “This Little Bird” (Marianne Faithful) were successful John D. Loudermilk songs of 1964-65.

Meanwhile, the songwriter continued to work as a recording artist. Following his LPs The Language of Love (1961), 12 Sides of John D. Loudermilk (1962) and Presenting John D. Loudermilk (1963), he resumed making RCA albums with John D. Loudermilk Sings a Bizarre Collection of the Most Unusual Songs (1966), Suburban Attitudes in Country Verse (1967), Country Love Songs (1968) and The Open Mind of John D. Loudermilk (1969). His liner notes for Suburban Attitudes won him a Grammy Award.

As a songwriter, he continued to have simultaneous success in both the country and the pop worlds. Sandy Posey posted a pop hit with “What A Woman in Love Won’t Do” in 1967. In the country genre, Hamilton returned with “Break My Mind,” “Little World Girl” and “It’s My Time” in 1967-68. The last-named was also recorded by Jody Miller, Dolly Parton and Lynn Anderson, among others. “Break My Mind” also became much-recorded, entering the repertoires of Linda Ronstadt (1969), Vern Gosdin (1978) and many more.

But the biggest news for Loudermilk during 1967 was “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” a major pop hit for The Casinos that year. The ballad has gone on to become a huge success on various charts for such performers as Eddy Arnold (1968), Glen Campbell (1976), Toby Beau (1979) and Neal McCoy (1996). It has been recorded by more than 200 artists.

Campbell scored a No. 1 country hit with Loudermilk’s “I Wanna Live” in 1968. The songwriter’s final pop No. 1 hit occurred in 1971 with “Indian Reservation” by The Raiders. This song returned him to the spotlight when it was used in Tim McGraw’s 1994 country smash “Indian Outlaw.” The McCoy hit with “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” two years later also kept the songwriter’s name on the charts in the 1990s.

Among the hundreds who have recorded his songs are such rockers as The Allman Brothers, Edgar Winter, David Lee Roth, War, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals, Johnny Winter, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rare Earth. Pop stars Petula Clark, Perry Como, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, Tracey Ullman, Sammy Davis Jr., The Box Tops, Rick Nelson and many more have dipped into his catalog. So have soul music makers such as James Brown, Solomon Burke, Nina Simone, Norah Jones, Bettye Swann, Jay Z, Kanye West and Barbara Lynn.

Virtually everybody in country music has sung a John D. Loudermilk song, including Skeeter Davis, The Browns, Connie Smith, Webb Pierce, Barbara Mandrell, George Jones, Bobbie Gentry, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Doc Watson, Sonny James, Anne Murray, Conway Twitty and Willie Nelson.

Loudermilk’s last significant country chart success, to date, was in 1973. This was George Hamilton IV’s Top 30 treatment of his “Blue Train,” which has since become a bluegrass favorite.

John D. Loudermilk’s later-career solo albums included 1971’s Volume 1 – Eloree, 1975’s Rockin’ Styles and 1977’s Just Passing Through. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976.

In 1981, he helped to establish the Nashville office of The Songwriters Guild. The organization fights for better contracts for composers.

Loudermilk was long regarded as an eccentric, “unforgettable character” in Nashville. During the 1990s, he devoted himself to travelling, studying ethnomusicology, chasing hurricanes and doing research on Native American burial mounds.

He was honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 in its “Poets and Prophets” speaker series. Also in 2007, Loudermilk donated approximately 2,000 items of career papers, photos, recordings and memorabilia to the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011.

Following his cancer diagnosis, an all-star group gathered to honor him at The Franklin Theater in March 2016. He said he didn’t want a memorial service after his death, so the Nashville music community gave him one while he was alive.

Performing his catalog of hits were such talents as Rodney Crowell, Bobby Braddock, Lee Roy Parnell, Jimmy Hall, Doyle Lawson, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites, Billy Burnette, Emmylou Harris, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Marty Stuart and Deborah Allen.