JJ Cale: Grammy Winner Dies From Heart Attack Jul 27th 2013, 19:30
US singer-songwriter JJ Cale, whose music was made famous by Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnny Cash among others, has died at 74.
Cale, who was one of the most versatile musicians of his era, suffered a heart attack and passed away at hospital in La Jolla, California.
In the 1970s, Clapton recorded his songs After Midnight and Cocaine, while Lynyrd Skynyrd covered Call Me the Breeze.
Cash also later covered Call Me the Breeze. Other artists that have recorded Cale's work include Carlos Santana, Tom Petty and Randy Crawford.
Cale and Clapton recorded an album together, The Road to Escondido, which earned Cale a Grammy in 2008.
In 2006, Cale said in an interview: "I'd probably be selling shoes today if it wasn't for Eric."
More recently, Cale wrote one of the songs, Angel, on Clapton's newest album, which was released earlier this year.
Cale worked with Eric Clapton He performed guest guitar and vocals on the track. In a Vanity Fair interview several years ago, Clapton said Cale was the living person he admired most, according to Cale's agent's website.
He was born in Oklahoma City in 1938 and then moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and flourished.
Cale, real name John Cale, influenced some of the world's most famous musicians with songs that were laid back and mellow, yet with a driving groove.
Neil Young, Bryan Ferry and Mark Knopfler were among his many fans in the music world.
Young once described Cale as the best electric guitar player he had ever seen other than the late Jimmy Hendrix.
A former member of the Grand Ole Opry touring company, Cale never rose to the level of success of his admirers.
But his fingerprints could be heard all over the genre in the 1970s, and his music remains influential.
As his latest studio album, 2009's Roll on, was released, Cale said: "I remember when I made my first album, I was 32 or 33-years-old and I thought I was way too old then," according to his website.
"When I see myself doing this at 70, I go, 'What am I doing, I should be layin' down in a hammock,'" he joked.
But for the guitarist, producer, engineer, singer, songwriter, music was a lifelong vocation.
YOUR COMMENT
