DECEMBER 8
1912: Music publisher Jack Stapp was born in Nashville. He co-founded Tree Publishing, which held copyrights for “Heartbreak Hotel,” “I Fall To Pieces” and “King Of The Road,” among others. He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.
1914: Singer/songwriter Floyd Tillman was born in Ryan, OK. Noted for writing “Slipping Around” and “I Love You So Much It Hurts,” he entered the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.
1941: The day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tommy Duncan announced he was leaving Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys to join the war.
1945: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs performed together on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time as members of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. The moment at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a seminal bluegrass event.
1947: Gregg Allman, of The Allman Brothers Band, was born in Nashville. The southern-rock singer and keyboard playerwrote “Midnight Rider,” remade as a 1980 country hit by Willie Nelson.
1959: Marty Raybon was born in Greenville, AL. As the lead singer for Shenandoah, he put an identifiable stamp on “Two Dozen Roses,” “The Church On Cumberland Road” and “If Bubba Can Dance.”
1973: Skeeter Davis sang “Amazing Grace” on the Grand Ole Opry and spoke out against Nashville police for arresting members of a “Christ Is The Answer” rally, made up predominantly of “hippies.” As a result, the Opry suspended her for 15 months.
1975: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw recorded Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” in a midday session at Nashville’s US Recording Studio.
1975: Glen Campbell sat in for Johnny Carson as host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
1980: Waylon Jennings & Jessi Colter recorded “Storms Never Last.”
1980: John Lennon died of a gunshot from a disturbed fan outside his New York home, the Dakota. Songs Lennon co-wrote as a member of The Beatles became 1980s country hits for Sweethearts Of The Rodeo and Rosanne Cash.
1982: Marty Robbins died in Nashville of a heart attack just two months after his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His 30-year career was marked by love songs, pop crossover hits and the classic Western story song “El Paso.”
1987: Clint Black showcased for RCA executives at Houston’s Backstage Bar. Three months later, Black would record his first album.
1987: Mike Reid was inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame in Kings Island, OH, honoring his Outland Trophy-winning career at Penn State.
1989: Joe Diffie recorded his first single, “Home,” at The Bennett House in Nashville.
1990: George Strait kicked off a five-week ride at #1 on the Billboard country chart with “I’ve Come To Expect It From You.”
1991: Roy Acuff was the first country artist recognized in the Kennedy Center Honors, attended by president George Bush. Among the participants in the Washington, D.C., ceremony, shot for a CBS-TV special: Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, Steve Wariner and Bill Monroe.
1993: Sting recorded “Every Breath You Take” with Tammy Wynette in Nashville for her album “Without Walls.”
1997: Trisha Yearwood presented Garth Brooks with the Artist Achievement Award at the “Billboard” LeAnn Rimes also took home four trophies, including Artist of the Year and Country Artist of the Year.
2005: Brad Paisley, Gretchen Wilson, and Jerry Douglas each received four Grammy Award nominations.
2012: Marty Stuart celebrated his 20th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Also appearing on the show? His wife, Connie Smith, as well as Charley Pride, Old Crow Medicine Show and songwriter Brandy Clark.
2015: Cover girl Miranda Lambert addressed her divorce from Blake Shelton as “Cosmopolitan” magazine hit newsstands. “It’s about living in the moment and feeling every tinge of pain,” she offered. “Then waking up the next day going, ‘All right, I’m going to ride my ponies. I’m going to have a girls’ night.’ That’s where I am.”
2018: Toby Keith received the Harmony Award from the Nashville Symphony during the Symphony Ball at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. He performed “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” “God Love Her,” “American Soldier” and the movie song, “Don’t Let The Old Man In” with the orchestra.
2019: Dolly Parton appeared on screen with Danica McKellar and Niall Matter as the Hallmark Channel debuts “Christmas At Dollywood.” The soundtrack includes Parton’s recordings of “Winter Wonderland,” “Joy To The World” and “Hard Candy Christmas.”
