Jerry Whitehurst

He was born Gerald Thomas Whitehurst in Nashville on May 12, 1938. His first break came in 1961, in his early twenties, when he was working days for a trucking firm and was hired as a part-time pianist in the Opry’s backing band. While playing the Opry on weekends he became a staff pianist for WSM radio and television, including the syndicated Bobby Lord Show.

The Opry work led to occasional recording sessions. On May 4, 1966, at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, he joined Sonny and Bobby Osborne, Dale Sledd on guitar, Pete Wade on dobro, Lightnin’ Chance on bass and Willie Ackerman on drums for “Hard Times,” “World of Unwanted” and “Lonesome Feelin’.” “World of Unwanted” and “Hard Times” were paired on a Decca single in June 1966, and all three songs went onto the album Modern Sounds of Bluegrass Music (Decca, 1967). His other studio credits include records by Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Johnny Paycheck, Connie Smith, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Lester Flatt, Ernest Tubb and Merle Haggard, though he preferred playing for a live audience.

Television gave him his widest exposure. He was in the house band of Hee Haw from its CBS debut in 1969 and played on Pop Goes the Country and Dolly Parton’s variety show Dolly. Working on Emery’s early-morning show on WSM led to the job of musical director and pianist for Nashville Now, Emery’s talk show on The Nashville Network, which began in 1983; he also wrote its theme song. By the 1980s he was playing some 500 television episodes a year. The Nashville Now staff band he led won the Academy of Country Music’s Non-Touring Band of the Year award five years running, from 1985 to 1989.

Whitehurst died on October 30, 2022, at the age of 84.