LAUREL CANYON\u2014On Tuesday, September 17, Singer-Songwriter Country \u2013 Rock legend, John David \u201cJD\u201d Souther passed away peacefully in his home in Sandia Park, New Mexico. He was 78. No cause of death has been released.
The following came directly from a Discography on the JD Souther webpage.
\u201cHe was born in Detroit [Michigan] when his father, John Souther, was crooning in front of the big bands of his day, under a stage name, Johnny Warren. His mother hated the fact that \u201cJohnny Warren,\u201d wasn\u2019t home and so, the singing father stepped halfway out of the road life going to work for MCA as an agent fascinating for a curious five-year-old, John David, who met The Three Sounds, The Mills Brothers, other jazz greats, and the legendary Victor Borge, who once acted as babysitter for the lucky son.
Eventually, the family relocated first to Wellington, Dallas, and then to Amarillo Texas.
John David would stay until he left Amarillo College and headed west to Los Angeles.\u201d
\u201cHanging out in the bar at the Troubadour with Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne and playing open mike Mondays, then opening for Poco and the Flying Burrito Brothers, it was the best study in songwriting I can imagine,\u201d Souther reminisced on his webpage.
\u201cSo many great songwriters came through; Laura Nyro, Kris Kristofferson, Randy Newman, Elton John, James Taylor, Tim Hardin, Carole King, Rick Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Waylon Jennings, Tim Buckley, Gordon Lightfoot, Tah Mahl and more. It seems impossible now to imagine that much music in a year and a half or so, but that was my life, and The Troubadour was our university. It\u2019s also where I met Linda Ronstadt and where Don Henly and Glenn Frey met to form this little country rock band called Eagles that would go on to make musical history.
We had an amazing band, but the label was small, the records didn\u2019t sell, and our managers felt we should try recording better-known songs of other people. No way: we were committed to songwriting.\u201d
And what a songwriter he was. Souther wrote songs for the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt that was dating Souther when they co-produced, \u201cDon\u2019t Cry\u201d. He also wrote for James Taylor.
In 1979, Souther released \u201cYou\u2019re Only Lonely,\u201d from the You\u2019re Only Lonely LP with Sony\/Columbia hitting number one on adult contemporary radio and number seven on the billboard-top 100.
In 2013, Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Simultaneously, Souther co-wrote the Eagles hit, \u201cHeartache Tonight,\u201d with Don Henley, Glen Frey, and Bob Seger.
Henley made a tribute to Souther. The full text was published in The Observer.
\u201cHe was like a brother to me; we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction. But the bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAUREL CANYON\u2014On Tuesday, September 17, Singer-Songwriter Country \u2013 Rock legend, John David \u201cJD\u201d Souther passed away peacefully in his home in Sandia Park, New Mexico. He was 78. No cause of death has been released. The following came directly from a Discography on the JD Souther webpage. \u201cHe was born in Detroit [Michigan] when his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":186702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10],"tags":[19371,39628,39629,5631,39626,35695,39627],"class_list":{"0":"post-186614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"category-laurel-canyon","9":"tag-don-henley","11":"tag-jackson-browne","12":"tag-james-taylor","13":"tag-jd-souther","14":"tag-linda-ronstadt","15":"tag-the-eagles"},"yoast_head":"\n