Some musicians get confessional in their lyrics, but others wait until their final interview to
open up. From Charlie Daniels' sage advice about finding your passion to Keith Whitley's honest
discussion about his drinking, these country stars bared their souls before passing away.
Kenny Rogers died of natural causes on March 20, 2020 at age 81. While the country star
was getting up there in years, there was no reason to think he was giving
one of his last print interviews when he spoke to Closer. "The Gambler" singer,
who had been married five times, spoke about his current wife in the interview, telling the outlet:
"I think the years with Wanda have been the most rewarding. That's no offense
to any of the other people I was married to. I just think I wasn't ready before."
While it's unclear if the interview with Closer was the last time Rogers spoke to a print outlet,
his appearance in "Biography: Kenny Rogers" was his final on-camera interview. There,
he talked about where his love of music came from, saying,
"My father played fiddle, and all his brothers and sisters played instruments. They would all
get on the front porch and play, and all the family would sit out in the yard."
The documentary also covered his childhood living in poverty. But as Rogers told Closer,
even once he was well-off and successful, he still knew what really mattered:
"I've had a lot of things in my life. I've made loads of money and had the biggest and
best of everything, but now I'm back to looking at the small things that matter:
my boys. Wanda. It's not about me anymore. It's about them."
"There's a fine line between today and tomorrow. And I think the trick
is to enjoy today and prepare for tomorrow."
There are country stars, and then there's Johnny Cash. The Man in Black was one of
the biggest the genre ever saw. But Cash's life was far from charmed. His brother died young,
he had a complicated first marriage, and he underwent several arrests for misdemeanors,
among other tragedies. However, Cash's second marriage to June Carter,
who was a successful musician in her own right, was always held up as a beautiful love story.
After June Carter's death in May of 2003, Cash recorded a series of songs,
including an incredibly moving cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails. In 2003, Cash spoke to MTV's Kurt
Loder about the songs, in what would be his final interview. In the interview, Cash said that while
he normally disliked the process of making music videos, he enjoyed working on the one for "Hurt."
"I felt we were doing something worthwhile."
Those who watched the emotional video will remember Cash at home,
with the "ghost" of his late wife, as well as pictures and videos from their time together.
And when Loder asked the singer about his long and
sometimes controversial music career, Cash pointed to his heart and replied:
"You can't let people delegate to you what you should do when it's coming from way in here,
you know? I wouldn't let anybody influence me into thinking I was
doing the wrong thing by singing about death, hell, and drugs."
While Charlie Daniels had career highlights that included playing with Bob Dylan, his name will
forever be connected to just one song: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." The song is such a big hit
that even the biggest country music hater probably knows all the words. Additionally,
the song's success dwarfs everything else in Daniels' decades-long career.
In his later years, one of the things Daniels also became known for was his
unabashedly right-wing political opinions. That said, it's not surprising that his final
on-camera interview ended up being on Fox Nation's "The Pursuit! with John Rich." It
was also a fitting final sit-down since Rich is a country star himself. In the interview,
Daniels talked about his philosophy on life, growing older, and seizing the day. He told Rich:
"If you do something you don't like, if you're doing some kind of work you don't like,
stop doing it... find something you like to do or you're always
gonna [...] wonder why you didn't join the circus when it came through town."
"Freedom and pursuit of happiness go hand in hand together."
Daniels died on July 6, 2020. He was 83 years old.
Naomi Judd was the matriarch of a performing dynasty.
With her daughter Wynonna, The Judds' "Greatest Hits" album spent a whopping 97 weeks on the
Billboard 200 chart. Tragically, Judd died by suicide on April 30, 2022. She was 76.
Judd gave what would end up being her final interview to CBS News. However,
the singer also showed "Inside Edition" correspondent Megan Alexander around her home
in Tennessee. Since she died before the segment was broadcast, "Inside Edition" only showed a
couple of short snippets of Judd speaking. In the piece, Judd leaned in to say to the camera,
"You came to see me!"
In the same "Inside Edition" segment, Judd is shown walking across a field. She then
points out the locations of her daughter's homes:
"Ashley's right over this hill over there. Wynonna's over that hill right there."
Other than some undistinguishable comments run underneath a voiceover by Alexander,
that's all that was released of Judd's final interview. Instead, it was up to Alexander to
fill the world in on everything else they had talked about, from Judd's many awards to her
close relationship with her daughters. For such a major star, George Jones' final
interview was surprisingly intimate. In 2013, a reporter from Country Weekly came with Jones
to an event at his grandchild's school. It was there that Jones took questions from teenagers,
who were unknowingly the final people to interview the country legend. Jones covered
topics as wide-ranging as his sobriety, aging, and the car crash that almost killed him in 1999.
The most relevant information for the students was probably when Jones spoke about his history
with music. He explained how he'd found a love for it as a child, telling the students,
"I'd take my guitar and hide it in the woods, [...] and before I'd make it to the schoolhouse,
I'd go back and get my guitar and sit by one of the trees and pick."
The sort of music he loved then was still his favorite,
even if the style had moved on. Jones added:
"These kids nowadays, they're liking this halfway pop-rock stuff. I don't blame them.
Everything changes every few years. But I'll always love the traditional country music."
Jones also spoke about plans for a major concert that year with a huge lineup of
guest stars. However, six months before the planned event, he was hospitalized.
Jones died in April 2013 at the age of 81.
As one of the few successful Black country music stars in the 1960s,
Charley Pride racked up numerous hit singles, scored huge record sales, and earned multiple
Grammy awards. In 2020, Pride received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Awards.
Backstage, he took questions from reporters in what would be his final interview. Pride spoke
about how the musician Chet Atkins saw his potential early on, saying,
"I learned so much from him. I had only been in the studio about three times in my whole life
[when I met Atkins]. He said, 'Charley, these songs we're recording right now, you're gonna
be able to play them in 50 years and they'll love them just as much as [now.]' I said, '50 years?!'"
And when asked about which of his many songs was his favorite, Pride replied,
"I'll tell you, and this is the truth: The one I'm singing in the moment."
Tragically, exactly one month and one day after
receiving that great honor from the CMAs, Pride became one of the victims
of the COVID-19 pandemic. He died on December 12, 2020 at the age of 86.
The New Country movement in the 1980s had a rising star in Keith Whitley. While he was
very successful for almost two decades before his death in 1989, the 34-year-old never got
the chance to be as big as he could have. His cause of death was alcohol poisoning,
which made the topics he covered in his final interview even more heartbreaking.
Whitley told Country Music International about the dangers of finding success as a teenager, saying:
"I was just 15 years old and I was being treated like a star."
The demands of touring contributed to his addiction issues. Whitley added,
"The road work was real tough. We had to stay in cheap motels, four or five to a room,
and often we'd travel [for] five or six hundred miles between dates. I guess that was when I
started to drink. We all did, but when I hit that bottle, I didn't stop until it was all gone."
The musician said his drinking kept his career from moving to the next
stage more than once. He admitted to the outlet:
"Every time I'd get close to something happening, I'd get drunk. It took me a long time to realize
that my drinking had become a problem." Ray Price was very aware his time was coming to a
close when he gave his final interview to Rolling Stone in December 2013. He'd been fighting cancer
for years but had decided to enter hospice care. In a farewell message to his fans, Price said he
was at peace with dying. However, that didn't mean the process was easy. He told the outlet:
"It's been pretty tough. I haven't been able to work all year. Just laying in
bed that long makes everybody weak, no matter how old or young you are."
Price looked back on his career, where he learned from the likes of Hank Williams. He also had
several men in his own band who went on to become big stars, like Willie Nelson. Price reflected:
"I've been lucky in a way — all of my boys were great players. You can't be a great
player if you don't have a great heart. If you ain't doing it for the people,
you're doing it for something else."
Talking about his long relationship with Nelson, Price said,
"We're sort of like brothers in a way, we always help each other out when we can."
But while others heaped praise on him, Price was humble about his success, telling Rolling Stone:
"I don't really think of it that way. I just like what I've done
and how it's worked out. It's been great... I haven't lost my voice, thank God for that."
Ray Price died on December 16, 2013. He was 87.
While many people who are familiar with Leslie Jordan probably know him
as a scene-stealing character actor from shows like "Will & Grace" and
"American Horror Story," he also found success later in life as a country star.
"This will be the first time that I have sung in front of people since I was 10 years old."
Jordan gave what would be his final TV interview to CBS Mornings. In the interview,
he explained how this shocking turn of events came about:
social media combined with people in lockdown during the pandemic. Jordan said:
"I had a Sunday Instagram hymn singing where we would just sing these old hymns that I grew
up with, and people started tuning in. And so, somehow from that, we decided to make an album."
When asked if he ever saw something like this happening, Jordan said no. He then added:
"So unexpected, just to happen, you know, in my 60s."
But he was clearly enjoying himself. Jordan also appreciated how he wasn't being pigeonholed into
a certain role in music, which had long been his experience in Hollywood. He told CBS Mornings:
"I'm a country music singer now. I love Nashville and the way that Nashville
embraced me and to be taken kind of serious. And to have made an album with Dolly Parton,
Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile. You know, that's something."
Tragically, Jordan died in a car accident on October 24, 2022. He was 67.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).