Country music, perhaps more than any other genre out there, is synonymous with heartache. But
it's not just in its songs where loss prevails. The country world has often found itself at the
center of a real-life tragedy. Here are some of country music's biggest stars we lost too soon.
With a mustache and mullet combo to rival that of Joe Exotic, a honky-tonk attitude,
and tales of good old-fashioned country living, Joe Diffie was one of the quintessential
Nashville stars of the 1990s. The Tulsa native reached Billboard's Hot Country Songs Top 10
on more than 20 occasions, was awarded a Grammy for his collaborative effort
"Same Old Train," and enjoyed a quarter of a century in the Grand Ole Opry.
Unlike many of the country world's party starters, Diffie spent much of his career
with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek — his fifth number-one single was called "Bigger
Than the Beatles," after all. However, the likes of 1999's A Night to Remember
and Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album proved he could play it straight, too.
Diffie enjoyed something of a revival in 2012, after being namechecked in Jason Aldean's "1994."
Sadly, just eight years later, Diffie became one of several country music stars to succumb
to COVID-19. The 61-year-old was survived by his wife, Tara, and five children.
Troy Gentry made his name alongside his longtime musical partner, Eddie Montgomery,
in the early 2000s with Southern rock-tinged anthems such as "She Couldn't Change Me"
and "My Town," picking up best newcomer awards at both the CMA and ACM ceremonies. The pair had
just completed their ninth studio effort, Here's to You, when tragedy struck in September 2017.
According to NJ.com, both Gentry and pilot James Evan Robinson lost their lives when the small
aircraft they were traveling in crashed near the Flying W Airport & Resort's runway in Medford,
New Jersey. Eddie Montgomery was waiting at the airport for his arrival at the time
of the incident. Ultimately, it was found that the crash was caused when the pilot,
who was having engine trouble, cut the engine too soon as he attempted an emergency landing.
Proving that you sometimes can mix business with pleasure, Joey Feek was
one half of chart-topping husband and wife duo Joey + Rory. The pair married in 2002,
and six years later found fame on CMT's answer to American Idol,
Can You Duet? But their heartwarming story took a tragic turn in 2014, just a few months
after they became parents for the first time, when Joey was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
The singer looked to have beaten the disease when she was given the all-clear, but just a year
later, surgeons discovered that the cancer had not only returned, it had metastasized to her colon,
too. Sadly, despite intensive surgery and chemotherapy treatment, Joey's condition was
diagnosed as terminal in late 2015. Despite her diagnosis, Joey remained optimistic.
“She just believed God has a bigger plan."
Bravely, Joey was keen to document her final months on social media,
and she also somehow found the strength to record what would become her last album with Rory.
The 40-year-old passed away just a month after Hymns That Are Important To Us
gave the duo their first number one on the Billboard chart.
"I don't know if I expected it to be as heavy as it is,
because we had so much time to prepare for it." You might not expect the pioneering Nashville
crooner Jim Reeves and '90s hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur to have anything in common.
But they both achieved more success on the singles charts in death than they ever did while alive.
Yes, six of Gentleman Jim's 11 number one hits – including the suggestively-titled "I
Won't Come In While He's There" – arrived in the three years after his untimely passing in 1964.
And even more remarkably, he remained a fixture on the charts for another two decades after that.
Reeves passed away just a few weeks before his 41st birthday, when the private plane he was
piloting fatally crashed during a violent thunderstorm. His manager Dean Manuel also
lost his life in the accident, which occurred in a wooded area just outside Nashville.
Although 37-year-old Mindy McCready had scored several big hits early on in her career,
including number one "Guys Do It All the Time," she'd become far more renowned for
her troubled private life than her contemporary country sound.
According to The Daily Mail, the Florida native had struggled with addiction and had
been a victim of domestic abuse. She also faced criminal charges related to a fake prescription,
identity theft, a probation violation, and assaulting her mother, and she was
involved in the controversial TV series, Celebrity Rehab.
In 2013, just a month after her boyfriend, David Wilson, died by suicide, McCready fatally shot
herself at the home they shared in Arkansas. Country music has a long-running, and some
would say troubling, connection with alcohol. There's the copious amount of barroom anthems
glamorizing the art of getting wasted, while it appears as though almost every CMT staple
has launched their own brand of tequila or opened up their own drinking establishment.
Sadly, the demon drink has also claimed the lives of several country stars. One of the
most noteworthy is Keith Whitley, who passed away from alcohol poisoning in 1989 at the age
of 33. The Kentucky native was fast becoming one of Nashville's most popular singer-songwriters,
having just reached the Top 10 with his sophomore album, Don't Close Your Eyes.
In fact, he was due to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry just under a month after he
was found dead in his home. Posthumously released later that year, Whitley's third LP, I Wonder Do
You Think Of Me, peaked at Number 2, and further highlighted how much more he still had to give.
Patsy Cline only recorded three albums during her career, but she undoubtedly
still helped to revolutionize the country music world with her distinctive croon.
Alongside the likes of Brenda Lee, Skeeter Davis, and Kitty Wells, the Virginia native
proved that anything that Nashville's men could do, its women could do even better.
"If anybody could get through with God's help and a lot of guts, it was Patsy."
From "Blue" and "Crazy" to "I Fall to Pieces" and "She's Got You," Cline
recorded some of the most enduring country songs of the early 1960s and would no doubt
have continued to build on her legacy had she not passed away at the age of just 30 in 1963.
Cline and all four others on board were killed instantly
when their four-seater plane crashed during a storm in a Tennessee forest.
Kansas-born singer-songwriter Cady Groves initially pursued a career as a chef,
attending Arizona's Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. But the lure of the recording
studio proved to be too strong, and in 2009 she released her first EP, A Month of Sundays.
Groves went on to tour with outfits such as Good Charlotte and All Time Low,
and performed as a guest on tracks by Andrew de Torres and Secondhand Serenade,
but her own sound tended much more towards contemporary country than punk-pop. Sadly,
she never got the chance to see the album she'd spent three years working on hit the shelves.
In 2020 the 30-year-old passed away unexpectedly in her Tennessee hometown.
The Davidson County Medical Examiner's Office reported that she died of complications from
chronic ethanol abuse. She was the third of her siblings to die at a young age.
Kylie Rae Harris first entered the spotlight in 2011 when she appeared on Troubadour Tx,
a nationally syndicated behind-the-scenes documentary showcasing several emerging
Texan musical talents. Harris had already released her first album by this point,
All the Right Reasons, and later followed it up with the EP, Taking It Back.
However, her career was cut short in 2019 when she died in a car wreck in New Mexico.
The singer-songwriter was discovered to have been three times over the blood alcohol limit,
and she was speeding at 95 mph at the time of the incident.
Maria Elena Cruz, the 16-year-old high school student driving the other car, was also killed.
Hank Williams had scored numerous chart-toppers,
inspired a generation of singer-songwriters, and earned the title of King of Country Music — all
by the age of 29. But he was robbed of the chance to further extend his legacy
when he died of apparent heart failure on the way to a New Year's Day gig in 1953.
It's fair to say that Williams was very much on a self-destructive streak at the time.
He'd developed an alcohol addiction as he rose to superstardom,
often turning up for shows entirely inebriated. And after a fall on his
Tennessee farm, he'd also started to abuse morphine and other painkillers. In fact,
he'd reportedly been injected with the former just before he set off for Ohio on that fateful day.
Williams never got to meet his second child, Jett, who was born five days after his death.
Formerly a member of The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Byrds, Gram Parsons became a critical
favorite, for a melting pot of sounds he innovated known as Cosmic American Music.
But he was very much a cult concern at the time, as his debut album GP was a flop.
However, the mysterious events surrounding his death at the age of 26 has become the stuff of
musical folklore. According to Rolling Stone, shortly after completing his sophomore album,
Grievous Angel, Parsons died of what was thought to be an overdose.
Parsons had previously requested to be cremated in California’s Joshua Tree National Park.
But with his family insisting on a New Orleans burial, the singer-songwriter's road manager,
Philip Kaufman, and an accomplice decided to steal his body and drive it all the way
from Los Angeles International Airport to Joshua Tree. The opportunistic duo
managed to cremate Parsons' body with gasoline just before they were apprehended by police.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.