Jackie Keith Whitley was a country musician who rose to fame in the 1980s. However, his career
was cut short when he died at only 33 years old. Whitley was born in Kentucky, and he won a talent
contest at just 4 years old. He honed his craft, learned to play the guitar, and already had a band
at 13 years old. In the late 1960s, Whitley joined a bluegrass group, the Clinch Mountain Boys,
and recorded seven studio albums with them. However, he decided to leave the group in 1973,
and from there, he worked with various acts and bands before embarking on a solo career in 1982.
Whitley released his first solo album, titled "Hard Act to Follow," in 1984,
but he didn't have much success at first. That didn't stop the singer from releasing a second
album the next year. "L.A. to Miami" did much better on the music charts, and Whitley had
three top 10 hits. As his reputation and fame grew in the country music scene,
Whitley recorded a third album, "Don't Close Your Eyes," which was released in 1988. Three
singles from the album were Number 1 hits, and it seemed like his music career was right on track.
"It was the highest new debuting record last week in Billboard, came in at 53,
and my records used to stop there, so I'm really excited about it."
That all stopped, however, when he died suddenly on May 9, 1989. His death came as a shock to the
music world, especially when his cause of death was finally revealed to the public.
Behind his success in music, Jackie Keith Whitley was struggling with his alcoholism.
According to the "Associated Press," he even admitted his drinking problems in an interview,
claiming that he'd stopped drinking because it was, quote, "a matter of life and death."
Whitley said that he stopped drinking in 1987, after he got married to fellow country singer
Lorrie Morgan. However, it seemed that he wasn't able to remain sober,
and he eventually died from alcohol poisoning. According to reports, he was found dead after a
weekend of drinking. The morning of his death, he was scheduled to go and play golf with his
brother-in-law, and it was he who found him dead in bed, his system overwhelmed by alcohol abuse.
According to the autopsy performed after Whitley's death, he had an alcohol level
of 0.47 in his bloodstream, five times the legal limit for intoxication in Tennessee at the time.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy concluded that Whitley
had consumed far too much alcohol over a very short period of time. In addition to alcohol,
his urine test also came out positive for cocaine and benzodiazepines, which may have contributed
to his death. However, it was the alcohol consumption that was ultimately the main cause.
His official cause of death was listed as acute ethanolism, according to "Autopsy Files."
Just before he died, Jackie Keith Whitley finished work on his fourth solo album,
titled "I Wonder Do You Think of Me." The album was released after his death, and the title song
rose to become a Number 1 hit. The music world mourned the loss of Whitley, and his wife Lorrie
Morgan coped with the loss by gathering fellow country music stars to record "Keith Whitley:
A Tribute Album," released in 1994. She also kept his memory alive by releasing other music
that Whitley was able to record before his death. In 2019, Whitley's legacy in the country music
world was celebrated on the 30th anniversary of his death. Country music stars including
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, among others, performed Whitley's songs to a packed audience
at the CMA Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. There was also an exhibit that displayed instruments,
clothes, and other memorabilia that Whitley owned. Despite his short life, Whitley is
still remembered as a great country singer who became an influence to other country music stars.
Jesse Keith Whitley, Morgan and Jackie Keith Whitley's son,
followed in his parents' footsteps and is also a singer-songwriter. Though he works
in the Southern rock genre rather than country, he feels that his father would approve of his music,
telling "Taste of Country" that he feels his father would say he's on the, quote,
"right path." He pays tribute to his father by singing some of his songs during performances.
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