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Post by the Scribe on Nov 19, 2017 15:48:21 GMT -5
Longtime country singer, songwriter Mel Tillis diesBy The Associated Press
·NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nov 19, 2017, 12:48 PM ET
 PHOTO: Mel Tillis performs at the Oklahoma Twister Relief Concert at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., July 6, 2013.Alonzo Adams/Invision/AP, FILE
Mel Tillis performs at the Oklahoma Twister Relief Concert at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., July 6, 2013. Tillis, the longtime country star who wrote hits for Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs and many others, and overcame a stutter to sing on dozens of his own singles died on Nov. 19, 2017. He was 85.more +
Mel Tillis, the affable longtime country star who wrote hits for Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs and many others, and overcame a stutter to sing on dozens of his own singles, has died.
A spokesman for Tillis, Don Murry Grubbs, said Tillis died early Sunday at Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida. He was 85.
Grubbs said Tillis battled intestinal issues since 2016 and never fully recovered. The suspected cause of death is respiratory failure.
Tillis, the father of country singer Pam Tillis, recorded more than 60 albums and had more than 30 top 10 country singles, including "Good Woman Blues," ''Coca Cola Cowboy" and "Southern Rain." Among the hits he wrote for others were "Detroit City" for Bobby Bare; "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," by Rogers and the First Edition; and "Thoughts of a Fool" for George Strait.
Country music stars Charlie Daniels, Crystal Gayle and Blake Shelton offered their condolences on Twitter.
"He once spent an entire day at his place in Tennessee showing me all the memorabilia he'd gathered over the years where he gave me a pair of his stage boots," Shelton's account said. "He even took time to talk me through some hard times in my life on a couple phone calls."
Although his early efforts to get a record deal were rebuffed because of his stutter, he was a promising songwriter in Nashville in the 1950s and 1960s, writing tunes for Webb Pierce and Ray Price.
In all, the Country Music Hall of Fame member wrote more than 1,000 songs and in 2012 received a National Medal of Arts for bringing "his unique blend of warmth and humor to the great tradition of country music."
He also dabbled in acting, appearing in such feature films as Clint Eastwood's "Every Which Way But Loose," and the Burt Reynolds movies "Cannonball Run I and II" and "Smokey and the Bandit II." He starred in several television movies and briefly had a network TV show, "Mel and Susan Together," with Susan Anton.
In 2007, Tillis became a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry country music show.
"You know what? Another part of the dream has been fulfilled," he said at the time. "It's been a long, hard road."
Tillis was raised in Pahokee, Florida, and developed his stutter as a child while being treated for malaria. He dropped out of the University of Florida and instead served in the Air Force and worked on the railroad before relocating to Nashville in 1957.
Musical from an early age, he started performing in the early 1950s with a group called The Westerners, while stationed in Okinawa and serving as a baker in the Air Force.
He held a variety of odd jobs before breaking out, including being a truck driver, a strawberry picker, a firefighter on the railroad and milkman, which inspired his breakthrough song. Feeling down one day he began singing to himself, "Oh Lord, I'm tired. Tired of living this ol' way." He turned his lament into "I'm Tired," which became a hit for Webb Pierce.
Price, Skaggs, Brenda Lee and hundreds of others would cover his songs.
Tillis, meanwhile, became a major success on his own in the late 1960s and toured for decades, often using his stutter as a source of humor — though his stutter disappeared when he sang.
"One of the reasons I worked it into my show is that it's my trademark," he once told The Associated Press.
He said that when he was in the Air Force as a flight leader, he marched airmen right into a wall.
"I couldn't get out the word 'halt,'" he said.
Grubbs says the Tillis family will release information about funeral services in Florida and Nashville.
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Post by philly on Nov 20, 2017 0:32:23 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 20, 2017 1:24:08 GMT -5
RIP Charles Manson, you are now free. Dead at 83 |
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 20, 2017 15:37:11 GMT -5
Della Reese Dead at 86 -- Touched by an Angel Star and Legendary Singer Della Reese Died -- RIP
Della Reese, 'Touched by an Angel' star and singer, dies at 86Lisa France-Profile-Image
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
Updated 1927 GMT (0327 HKT) November 20, 2017
(CNN) — Della Reese, who rose to fame as a jazz singer and later found television stardom on the drama "Touched by an Angel," has died.
She was 86.
"On behalf of her husband, Franklin Lett, and all her friends and family, I share with you the news that our beloved Della Reese has passed away peacefully at her California home surrounded by love. She was an incredible Wife, Mother, Grandmother, friend, and Pastor, as well as an award-winning actress and singer," actress Roma Downey, Reese's co-star on "Touched By an Angel," said in a statement on Facebook.
"Through her life and work she touched and inspired the lives of millions of people," Downey's statement continued. "She was a mother to me and I had the privilege of working with her side by side for so many years."
For nine seasons on CBS, Reese played Tess on "Touched by an Angel," tasked with sending angels to Earth to help people redeem themselves.
"We were privileged to have Della as part of the CBS family when she delivered encouragement and optimism to millions of viewers as Tess on "Touched by an Angel," CBS said in a statement to CNN. "We will forever cherish her warm embraces and generosity of spirit. She will be greatly missed. Another angel has gotten her wings."
Like many during her era, Reese got her start in the black church where she began singing at the age of six.
When she was 13, Reese snagged a gig with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson after another lyric soprano became pregnant and was unable to tour with Jackson.
"Mahalia was magnificent," Reese told the Archive of American Television in 2008. "I didn't particularly like her because she didn't let me do what I wanted to do. I thought when I got away from my mother on the road, I'd be able to get down and break it loose and do all the stuff she wouldn't let me do. Mahalia was stricter than my mother."
She went on to sign a record deal with indie New York label, Jubilee Records and in 1957 landed at No. 12 on the pop chart with the ballad "And That Reminds Me."
Her initial success caught the attention of RCA, where her hits "Don't You Know" and "Not One Minute More" helped secure her place in the music industry as an R & B/pop vocalist.
Reese would later become known for her live, jazz performances.
But it was acting that broke her into the big time.
Her stint as the landlady on the 1970s comedy "Chico and the Man" led to other roles that showed off Reese's sass, including as Vera, the tough as nails madam in a brothel in Eddie Murphy's 1989 film "Harlem Nights," which also starred her good friend, comedian Redd Foxx. |
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Post by Dianna on Nov 20, 2017 18:26:25 GMT -5
Do you think Manson is a ghost now or will he need to come back (God Forbid) to make things right?
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Post by erik on Nov 20, 2017 19:36:38 GMT -5
Quote by Dianna:
Probably neither. What he and his followers did was so barbaric that he took a one-way trip to Purgatory (IMHO).
Re. Della Reese (great actress and all-around great human being too): It might interest people that the melody of "Don't You Know?" is based off of the aria "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's opera "La Boheme".
Re. Mel Tillis: That "old crazy Asian war" in "Ruby (Don't Take Your Love To Town)" was said to be the Korean War. But given the time when Kenny Rogers and the First Edition made it a big hit (ironically, not on the C&W singles chart, where it only got to #39, but #6 on the Hot 100), nobody could read it as being about any other war but the one in Vietnam.
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Post by sliderocker on Nov 20, 2017 22:28:12 GMT -5
Do you think Manson is a ghost now or will he need to come back (God Forbid) to make things right? If Manson is reincarnated, he will come back as a roach for a billion years before he can be considered for another shot at being a human again. I wrote a joke around that idea about how Manson didn't mind, what's a billion years or so? Just one thing they forgot to tell him: that he would be stepped on and crushed by a human every day of that billion years. I could just picture Manson as a roach running across someone's floor trying to get away being stepped on and crushed: "Oh, sh*t! Oh, sh*t! Let me get under the wall, please! Don't let them step on me, please! Oh, sh*t! Oh------no, not again! I gotta do this for a billion years? Kill me, permanently, plea---." Charlie Manson, roach, has been crushed again and reborn again and again and stepped on and crushed. And he's got a sentence of a billion years of payback for his crimes. Charles Manson, who discovered upon passing hell is a little more creative than just fire and brimstone. I had another joke which I thought of while at work but it was just a little too dark, so I won't repeat it here. But, I also had a serious thought: what if Charles Manson converted to Christianity during the last few years of his life? If he accepted Jesus as his savior, does that wipe away the murders he committed or orchestrated or the lives he destroyed, both the survivors of his victims and his family members whom he indoctrinated into his family through fear, intimidation, violence and drugs? Does he get a pass for all the evil he committed? Most Christians would say no but I'd have to ask what's the difference between Christians who think their words and actions won't matter because they believe in Jesus but if Manson believed, why wouldn't he be saved? And how would anyone else react, Christian or otherwise if he was? Course, I doubt Manson ever gave his afterlife much thought, so that's something Christians don't need to worry about. |
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 21, 2017 2:56:07 GMT -5
Do you think Manson is a ghost now or will he need to come back (God Forbid) to make things right?
His spirit could become earthbound but his soul would move on to higher realms. My belief is that every soul is a spark of god or a universal consciousness and enters a physical body to play a part that may have been partially written. It is like a good person who is an actor playing the part of an evil person. The actor is still a good person before, during and after the play is over and may then go on to prepare for and eventually play his/her next part.
Your question reminded me of one of my favorite In Living Color skits. Where is Hitler? ans. He moved on to play his next part. Some say that when a soul takes a part like Hitler's they are actually heroic because ultimately he had to go through dark night of soul and a life review which is supposedly excruciatingly painful compared to one who lived a more mellow, kind life. His part in life was necessary to give some of life's most difficult experiences to millions that needed it for their own souls growth and the growth of all they in turn have touched. The thing is most people aren't aware they/their soul is playing/living a part and they get caught up in the moment. In reality this is not reality at all. Living life as a disabled person is also supposed to be a high Karmic burner.
Sam Kinison in Arizona during the Summer lol |
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Post by philly on Nov 21, 2017 13:59:33 GMT -5
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Post by philly on Nov 21, 2017 21:41:41 GMT -5
New reports are confirming Teen Idol David Cassidy was surrounded by friends and family when he passed away. Cassidy suffered organ failure and was transferred to an ICU where he passed on Tuesday.
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Post by erik on Nov 21, 2017 21:58:29 GMT -5
Yes, Cassidy's demise was only a matter of time. Sad all the same.
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Post by erik on Nov 21, 2017 22:00:17 GMT -5
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Post by Dianna on Nov 22, 2017 14:15:43 GMT -5
His spirit could become earthbound but his soul would move on to higher realms. My belief is that every soul is a spark of god or a universal consciousness and enters a physical body to play a part that may have been partially written. It is like a good person who is an actor playing the part of an evil person. The actor is still a good person before, during and after the play is over and may then go on to prepare for and eventually play his/her next part. It's difficult for us earthlings because we really don't know for sure. The only proof we have are the NDE testimonies, and unless it happens to us, one is still skeptical ..and when you lose a family member or a close friend, which I am sure, at this point in life, most of us have.. it's very hard to understand, where do they go? |
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Post by philly on Nov 23, 2017 2:09:18 GMT -5
David Cassidy Remembered by The Monkees' Micky Dolenz & Former 'Tiger Beat' Editor
11/22/2017 by Steve Marinucci
"He was very dedicated and passionate about his music," Dolenz recalls of a 2013 tour with his fellow teen idol.
Many people remember David Cassidy as an idol. Those who knew him personally found him a sweet guy and dedicated musician but someone who was also frustrated by the business that made him famous.
Micky Dolenz of The Monkees toured with Cassidy -- who died Tuesday at age 67 -- and Peter Noone as The World's Greatest Teen Idols in 2013. "[It was a] great show and I had great fun," Dolenz told Billboard. "David was a really consummate performer. He was really a good entertainer and a great guitar player, which I didn't even know. I didn't know he could play a rock 'n' roll, bluesy guitar. He was very dedicated and passionate about his music and his rock 'n' roll and his blues."
Dolenz says he and Cassidy became friends early on. "We just sort of immediately hit it off in the same way that Davy Jones and I hit it off early, and I think for the same reason. I'd been a child star. I remember Davy Jones from the very early days of the auditions before we were even cast. David Cassidy [had] been born and raised in the business, as had I. So yeah, there was a camaraderie. That happens a lot in any business, but in our business especially. You meet people that have run the gauntlet [and] been through the fire. So you do tend to identify and commiserate with people that have been through the same thing that you have."
He said however that a later career dilemma became a huge problem to Cassidy. "Like many others, I know he got frustrated in that he wanted to move on. He wanted to play rock n roll. He wanted to play blues. And let's face it: The hardcore fans and the people that came to see him, they obviously wanted to hear those hits. It's a common challenge that we all have. You want to move on, maybe. You want to play some new stuff. You want to be recognized for other accomplishments.
"I knew, of course, that David had his demons. Everybody has had their demons in their lives, especially as you start getting older," he said. "I kind of wish, and I tweeted this recently, I kind of wish I'd been more help. But I don't know what I could have done."
Dolenz -- who's headlining Winter's Eve, a holiday tree-lighting and entertainment event in Lincoln Square in New York on Monday -- has been kept busy by The Monkees, who had a top 20 album last year with Good Times and recently announced a deluxe reissue of their More of the Monkees album. An upcoming joint tour by Dolenz and fellow Monkee Mike Nesmith is being discussed, he said.
Ann Moses, former editor of Tiger Beat magazine who published a book this year called Meow! My Groovy Life With Tiger Beat's Teen Idols, available through her website, says Cassidy's frustrations began during his teen idol days. "He was just kind of overwhelmed because of all his responsibilities from the concerts. They had him out 24/7. When he wasn't filming, he was recording. When he wasn't recording, he was rehearsing for his tours. Then he was going out weekends after a full week of filming, they'd send him out on the weekend to do live performances. Then [during] every hiatus, he'd be on some worldwide tour. So I don't know how he didn't collapse at that point. He did it, but it really took its toll. He was in his early 20s, but you can only go so hard so long."
She says he was very enthusiastic initially. "At first, he was excited to be a part of it. The people were interviewing him. He was so excited doing the show. It was all new and he was wrapped up in the excitement of all that. But very soon he would come to realize that he didn't have a moment to himself. And while he wasn't resentful in the early days of the volume of the press and way we were out there constantly, after a couple of years, he literally would avoid me when I'd go out onto the set."
"'What am I supposed to do?'" she asked Tiger Beat publisher Chuck Laufer. "'David keeps ditching me.' And he said, 'Well, let me see what I can do.' And in the grand Hollywood tradition of 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours,' he called up Jack Cassidy and he explained the situation and he basically asked Jack Cassidy to have a heart-to-heart with him, talk about the realities of stardom and explain to him that this was something that he needed to do. In return for that favor, Chuck Laufer bought brand-new dirt bikes for Shawn and Patrick Cassidy, David's stepbrothers. So here his dad is, you could say, selling him out for bikes for his kids. So not even his own father was looking out for what was best for David. I certainly wasn't conscious of that at the time, but looking back you go, 'Whoa.' He was supposed to have his back."
But she remembers an anecdote that shows Cassidy also had a sweet side. "Within the first few months of The Partridge Family, I was doing an interview. And David said to me, 'My dog had puppies and we're so excited. But what the heck am I going to do with them? I'm on the set 14 hours a day.'" The dog's real name was Hashish but called Sheesh in teen magazines to prevent fans from learning he was into drugs, Moses said.
"So I said, 'What about if my mom takes care of them?' She agreed to watch them until we could have a contest in Tiger Beat, and it was 'Win One of David Cassidy's Puppies.' The way you won was you chose the best name for the puppies. It was about three months before the puppies were ready to go to their new home.
"And just a few weeks before they were ready to be shipped to their new owners, David drove down to my mom's house in Anaheim and visited them. And he was so sweet to my Mom. He thanked her for taking care of them. He was just so grateful.
"It was just the unfiltered David. He was there with his puppies and he was so happy. And I think he was really pleased that they were going to go to these homes. Once they got to their destination, we ran the pictures of who the winners were and why their names were chosen. And it showed them with the dogs in their homes. It was just a great way to handle what would have been a problem for him. It just worked out for everybody."
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 30, 2017 14:42:42 GMT -5
Jim Nabors, TV's Gomer Pyle, dead at 87
Joal Ryan 21 minutes ago .
Jim Nabors (Photo: AP)
Jim Nabors, who used a backwoods twang to play TV’s Gomer Pyle, and deployed a precise baritone to become a popular singer, died peacefully Thursday at his home in Hawaii. He was 87. The death was confirmed by Nabors’s husband Stan Cadwallader to the Associated Press.
“I’d sing like this, and talk like this,” Nabors once demonstrated for the Associated Press, making his voice go from booming depths to high-pitched Gomer highs. “It made no sense to anybody.”
Nabors was a primetime staple in the 1960s. He played North Carolina-born Gomer on two top-rated sitcoms: first, on The Andy Griffith Show from 1962 to 1964; and, then on his own spinoff, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., from 1964 to 1969.
Born June 12, 1930, in Alabama, Nabors worked as a typist at the United Nations and a film editor in Hollywood before getting early TV exposure as a singer via talk-host Steve Allen.
Nabors said he auditioned for The Beverly Hillbillies but was rejected because he was “not handsome enough.” The Andy Griffith Show marked Nabors’s first acting credit.
On Gomer Pyle, Nabors saw his character move from a North Carolina gas station to a Marine Corps base in California. Though the series was produced during the Vietnam War, the conflict was never mentioned, and Private Pyle never saw action. The character’s name was heard as a derisive nickname in the 1987 Stanley Kubrick war drama, Full Metal Jacket.
Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle (Photo: CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images)
Gomer Pyle was as big a Nielsen success as Andy Griffith. In 1969, when the comedy was the No. 2 show in all of TV, Nabors ended the series for a shot at primetime-variety stardom. The Jim Nabors Hour ran two seasons, from 1969 to 1971.
Nabors went on to star in the 1970s children’s series, The Lost Saucer, and appear in a trio of movies with longtime pal Burt Reynolds (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Stroker Ace, Cannonball Run II).
He earned his only Emmy nomination for his self-titled 1978 daytime variety show.
As a singer, Nabors was a nightclub draw and popular variety-show guest. He released dozens of albums — for a time, few households celebrated the holidays without the gold-selling Jim Nabors Christmas Album on the stereo.
To racing fans, Nabors was an institution. Nearly every Memorial Day weekend from 1972 through 2014, when he announced his retirement, saw Nabors croon “Back Home Again in Indiana” prior to the start of the Indianapolis 500.
Nabors' last song at IMS
This year marks the last time Jim Nabors will sing "Back Home Again in Indiana" before the Indianapolis 500. Fans had a special opportunity to talk with Nabors and say thanks.
Nabors underwent a liver transplant in 1994 after contracting hepatitis B, but would recover and return to the stage.
In the early 1970s, Nabors was the subject of a joke-turned-rumor that went as viral as things could go in the early 1970s: that he and Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson were married. Both actors were gay, but neither was out. They weren’t ever a couple, either.
Decades later, upon his 2013 marriage to longtime partner, Cadwallader, Nabors told Hawaii News Now that he was always out to his family and coworkers, but that he wasn’t built to be a crusader for gay rights.
“This is really no big deal. My friend and I, my partner, we went through all of this 38 years ago,” Nabors said of his wedding. “So I mean, we made our vows and that was it.”
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Post by philly on Nov 30, 2017 18:38:16 GMT -5
I remember Gomer Pyle as my first "favorite" show I had as a kid. I was disappointed he quit the show even though it was still highly rated to do a variety show, but I enjoyed that also. A couple years ago I saw an interview he did from his home in Hawaii about his recent marriage, he said he wasn't a crusader and would have been content to remain unwed but thought it was important to make a statement by doing so.
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Post by erik on Dec 22, 2017 10:47:04 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 22, 2017 23:36:15 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 29, 2017 3:41:53 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 29, 2017 3:47:15 GMT -5
HILLY ROSE MARIE...odd when you think about it.RIP HILLY ROSE
a1.allaccess.com/assets/img/editorial/100xH/hi/hillyrose2017.jpg
Hilly Rose, Veteran Radio Talk Host, Dies At 91
December 28, 2017 at 11:11 AM (PT)
hillyrose2017.jpg
Photo: Twitter @therogerrose
Condolences to family and friends of longtime talk radio host HILLY ROSE, who died yesterday of natural causes at 91, according to LARADIO.COM.
ROSE hosted talk shows at KCBS-A, KNEW-A, and KGO-A/SAN FRANCISCO, KFI-A, KABC-A, and KMPC-A/LOS ANGELES, and SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO, and was a frequent substitute host and guest on the syndicated COAST TO COAST AM, last appearing as a guest with GEORGE NOORY on the HALLOWEEN 2004 episode, and a guest host for LARRY KING on the latter's syndicated radio show. He was inducted into the BAY AREA RADIO HALL OF FAME in 2016.
ROSE is survived by wife MARY and children PATRICIA, actor ROGER ROSE, and CBS INTERACTIVE writer and former LOS ANGELES TIMES reporter ADAM ROSE. Son JUDD ROSE, the ABC NEWS reporter, predeceased him.
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Post by philly on Dec 30, 2017 10:36:01 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 30, 2017 11:54:36 GMT -5
We missed a few but got most of them. I didn't realize Jay Thomas had died. My mom was a fan of his. This was difficult to watch, at least for me. RIP all of them. And still over a day to go. Fingers crossed. |
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 12, 2018 2:41:43 GMT -5
for the record...
Musicians We Lost - 28 Who Died In 2017: Songs Remembered
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