Gary Stewart, the country singer, committed suicide

Country singer Gary Stewart dies
By staff and wire report
December 16, 2003

FORT PIERCE — Country music singer and songwriter Gary Stewart was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck in his home Tuesday morning, police said.

Stewart's daughter's boyfriend found Stewart, 59, lying in his bed shortly before noon. No foul play is suspected, according to a police department press release. He was last seen by relatives on Sunday.

A native of Lechter County, Kentucky, Stewart has been called a compelling songwriter and performer of guitar-driven honky tonk country. His last album was released this year, entitled "Live at Billy Bob’s Texas."

Some of his honky tonk hits include: "Drinkin’ Thing," "Out of Hand" and "She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)," which hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1975.

 

What a shame... terrible news.

 

I have pulled out "The Essential Gary Stewart" and listening to his great music right now.

 

You never know.....a shock. Hadn't heard much of him in recent years, got some of his stuff on vinyl.....a shame, and a loss.


ED

 

He did record for Hightone in the late 1980s trying for a comeback but the comeback didn't lead to as much commercial success as he had when he was on RCA.

 

dang....

 

that's just depressing, he'll be missed

 

Man that's some depressing news. That "Out of Hand" album is amazing.
I love it.
Very sad.....

Thanks Bradley
Best-
Norm

 

It's never cool to hear about something like this. And during the holiday season, too...

 

Bummer. Gary was a great singer. Rest in peace.

 

Chet Flippo is right that Gary is the closest thing to Hank Williams as far as 70s mainstream country singers are concerned. He was a great singer, songwriter, poet, and you can tell in his voice that he did live the life he sang about but unfortunately, he only had 3 top 10 hits on the country charts. All of us Hoffman forum regulars should pick up at least "The Essential Gary Stewart" to start with.

 

Could this be related to his drug addictions?

 

Gary Stewart was, for me, up there with the greats of real honkytonk music. I never got to see him live, but lived with his music often at 4am.
For those wanting to learn more, his 1st 5 rca records (1975-79) are the best (Out Of Hand, Steppin Out, Your Place Or Mine, Little Junior, & Gary)- the compilations aren't bad but miss a lot.
Like he said on the 1st line of the 1st song from his 1st album : "Everyday I tell myself it's temporary..."

John.

 

Yes it could be related to his drug addictions back in his heyday but in the late 80s, he sobered up and recorded for Hightone.

 

Another Good Obit (If there can be such a thing)

Whiskey Trip
Gary Stewart, the demi-legend of country music.
By Jim Lewis
Posted Monday, Dec. 22, 2003, at 3:41 PM PT

Back in the '80s, when country music was going through one of its periodic episodes of self-conscious and self-satisfied hokum, there was a billboard on a highway outside of Dallas, advertising one of those urban honky-tonk radio stations. The sign consisted of the station's call letters and a single song title: "She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinking Doubles," and if you didn't know any better, you might think it was a kind of joke. "You know this is schlock," it seemed to say, "and we know this is schlock, but it'll give you something funny to talk about at the office tomorrow morning."

But the song wasn't schlock—it had once been a true hit record—and since the man who wrote and sang it shot himself to death last week, now is a good time to stand back and take a look at the song, the man's career, and the terrible fate of country demi-legends. Ladies and gentleman, raise a glass to Gary Stewart.

Stewart was born in 1945 in Letcher County, Ken., the son of—yes—a coal miner, who moved his family down to the he Florida coast when Gary was 12. There he learned to play guitar; at the age of 17, he met and married a woman named Mary Lou Taylor, to whom he stayed married for the rest of his life. He began writing songs for minor country stars, and he was 30 before he got a chance to record his own music: The album, called Out of Hand, had "She's Actin' Single" on it, along with a few other hits—"Drinking Thing" was one, and over the following years there were more along the same lines: "Whiskey Trip," "An Empty Glass," and so on. Just about all Stewart's songs were about getting drunk to get over someone, and they were pretty easy to treat as novelty songs, especially if you weren't, yourself, getting drunk to get over someone.

But Stewart didn't sing them as if they were novelty songs; he sang them as if he had reached down his own throat, grabbed hold of his misery, and yanked it out of his chest. He had a high, quavering voice that was part George Jones, part Roy Orbison, and part who knows what—Dion, maybe, or something out of New Orleans. He wasn't kidding, and for a time there, Gary Stewart was as great a singer and songwriter as America had to offer. "I've got this drinking thing," he sang in his shivering, redneck tenor, "to keep from thinking things." Jukebox music doesn't get much better than that.

Well, the time wasn't long: a few years, maybe, in the late '70s, a handful of albums and short string of hits. Stewart didn't really fit in anywhere: He wasn't Southern rock, and he wasn't Nashville country, and honky-tonk is, almost by definition, not the sort of stuff that plays well outside a small club. What's more he was, not surprisingly, a heavy drinker, he could be a difficult man, and in time he disappeared. From there, the story goes downhill. In 1980, Stewart was in a car crash that wrecked his back; in 1988 his son Gary Joseph killed himself with a gun; and last month his wife Mary Lou died after a bout of pneumonia. "Gary couldn't put his pants on without Mary Lou around," a friend of mine who knew him told me. So he shot himself in the neck and died.

Down here in Texas, his suicide didn't make the paper, and the New York Times didn't run an obituary for almost a week—and when it did, the obit was a terse, unsigned thing. But you ought to know about him, you ought to listen to him—he still sounds great—and if if you have the time, you might pause to reflect on the ignominies of fame. Gary Stewart, 59: a brief moment of loud and public heartache, a long slow slide into oblivion, bad decisions, bad luck, and a terrible, lonely death. Happy holidays, y'all.


Jim Lewis is the author of three novels, most recently, The King Is Dead.

 

Over a dozen years later, we are still missing this great singer-songwriter but his great music lives on. He does need to be remembered for years to come as this IS honky tonk music at its best.

 

There is a guy in Nashville putting together a boxed set (he's been working on it for years) and if it ever comes out it will blow your mind. There is a mountain of stuff no one has ever heard.

 

I hope this boxed set comes out still as his legacy needs to be remembered. This is too important a legacy to be overlooked the way it has.

 

I

Indeed. I'm spinning the best of the hightone years now.

 

http://www.furious.com/perfect/garystewart.html

Just in case anybody new to Gary's music stumbles across this thread. The man was the real deal. Great artist but a tortured soul.

 

Woke up this morning and just wanted to hear some of that great music my Dad would play when I was young.I downloaded a bunch of Hank Williams and Ernest Tubbs and his Texas Troubadours.
Brad,what album would you suggest to someone new to Gary's music?Thanks.

 

Out of Hand and Your Place or Mine are the studio albums to start with or go for The Essential Gary Stewart for a comp. All of his RCA albums are great, especially the first few. Gary's music is perfect for those people who love Hank and Ernest who want to hear how Honky Tonk had evolved 10+ years later.