Deaths
- February 19 — Johnny Paycheck, 64, legendary singer and songwriter, best known for "Take This Job and Shove It." (complications from asthma and emphysema)
- March 17 - Bill Carlisle, 94, singer-songwriter and comedian, lead singer of the Carlisles and stalwart of the Grand Ole Opry.
- April 22 — Felice Bryant, 77, songwriter and wife of collaborator Boudleaux Bryant.
- May 15 — June Carter Cash, 73, member of the Carter Family and wife of Johnny Cash (complications from heart surgery).
- June 30 - Sam Phillips, 80, founder of Sun Records and major player in emergence of rock and roll and its cross-genre popularity.
- August 22 — Floyd Tillman, 88, 1930s and 1940s singer instrumental in creating the genre's western swing and honky-tonk styles.
- August 26 — Wilma Burgess, 64, country vocalist of the 1960s best known for "Misty Blue."
- September 12 — Johnny Cash, 71, vastly influential singer/songwriter/guitarist whose music transcended musical boundaries; best known for hits like "Ring of Fire," "I Walk the Line," "Hurt," and "A Boy Named Sue" (diabetic complications).
- November 17 — Don Gibson, 75, influential songwriter (best known for "I Can't Stop Loving You") and singer who helped introduce the Nashville Sound (natural causes).
- December 16 — Gary Stewart, 58, rough, outlaw-styled country singer known for his drinking songs ("She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)") (suicide).
- December 22 — Dave Dudley, 75, best known for his 1960s-era truck driving songs, such as "Six Days on the Road" (heart attack).
Read more about this topic: 2003 In Country Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)