Porter Wagoner, Country Legend, Dead at 80

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Monday, October 29, 2007

Porter Wagoner has died after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 80 years old.

Porter Wagoner was known for a string of country hits in the ’60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits, and for launching the career of Dolly Parton.

Like many older performers, his star had faded in recent years. But his death from lung cancer Sunday, at 80, came only after a remarkable late-career revival that won him a new generation of fans.

The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957, “the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music,” he said in 1997. His showmanship, suits and pompadoured hair made him famous.

He had his own syndicated TV show, “The Porter Wagoner Show,” for 21 years, beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville and set a pattern for many others. “Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick,” he said in 1982.

Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were “Carroll County Accident,” “A Satisfied Mind,” “Company’s Comin’,” “Skid Row Joe,” “Misery Loves Company” and “Green Green Grass of Home.” The songs often told stories of tragedy or despair. In “Carroll County Accident,” a married man having an affair is killed in a car crash; “Skid Row Joe” deals with a once-famous singer who’s lost everything.

In 2002, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In May, after years without a recording contract, he signed with ANTI- records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case. Wagoner’s final album, “Wagonmaster,” was released in June and earned him some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he was the opening act for the influential rock duo White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me,” Porter said with tears in his eyes the day after the New York show. “If only they knew how that made me feel — like a new breath of fresh air.”

To many music fans, Wagoner was best known as the man who boosted Parton’s career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as “Dumb Blonde.” They were the Country Music Association’s duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets including “The Last Thing on My Mind.”

Parton’s solo country records, such as her autobiographical “Coat of Many Colors,” also began climbing the charts in the early 1970s. She wrote the pop standard “I Will Always Love You” in 1973 after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs. The two quit singing duets in 1974 and she went on to wide stardom with pop hits and movies such as “9 to 5,” whose theme song was also a hit for her.

I was a little kid when his show was on but remember watching it with my parents. The late 1960s and early 1980s was a heyday for country music on television, with “Hee Haw” a big hit and stars like Johnny Cash, Glenn Campbell, Porter Wagoner, and others having their own shows and the likes of John Denver having frequent specials.

Here’s ANTI’s description of his last album, WAGONMASTER:

Porter Wagoner, with his trademark rhinestone Nudie suits, high-swept silver pompadour, rail-thin frame and spectacularly weathered face, is an instantly recognizable figure. However, as the striking new release WAGONMASTER makes clear, he is, as always, far from predictable. A resolute tradition bearer and Grand Ole Opry star since 1957, Wagoner’s extraordinary far-reaching song catalog has also consistently pushed country music into new, often chilling directions, and WAGONMASTER boldly upholds his unusual approach. This set–recorded in three days flat–not only verifies the 79-year old Wagoner’s still impressive capacity, it cements him as a commanding, relevant force in American music.

Porter Wagoner, Country Legend, Dead at 80

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