John Preston
Musician · d. 2013 · Paris, Kentucky
Best known for
Songwriter
John Brenton Preston was a Kentucky gospel songwriter best remembered for “I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages,” written during a stretch in solitary confinement and scratched out, word by word, on the damp cement floor of his cell with a small pebble. Larry Sparks introduced the song on record in 1976; Ralph Stanley made it a signature of his later years.
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- Born around 1933 in Paris, Kentucky.
- Wrote both the words and the music to “I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages” in solitary confinement during a period of incarceration; he scratched the lines on the floor with a pebble so he would not forget them before he could write them down.
- Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers cut the first commercial recording of the song in 1976.
- The song has since been recorded by Ralph Stanley with the Raybons, the Chuck Wagon Gang, and many other bluegrass and gospel acts.
- Died on September 3, 2013, at age 80.
