Bluegrass and Country Music singer. He was the husband of country singer Lorrie Morgan. He was born in Ashland, Kentucky, and grew up in Sandy Hook, Kentucky. Keith learned to play guitar at a very young age and appeared on the Buddy Starcher regional television show as a small child. He formed a Bluegrass band with his friend Ricky Skaggs a few years later. When both boys were teenagers, they were asked to play spontaneously at a local show when Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys arrived late. Stanley came into the building while they were singing one of his songs and has always said that he thought it was a jukebox playing his actual recording. He soon hired them for his band, and they stayed for two years until Keith went to work for Carl Jackson. By 1974, he had already survived a car crash (at 120 mph) and driving a car off a cliff into a river, but, by 1978, his excessive drinking made him unreliable. He had developed a honky-tonk vocal sound. In 1986, he married rising country music singer Lorrie Morgan and cracked the Top 20 for the first time with "Miami, My Amy." Keith finally reached No. 1 in 1988 with "Don't Close Your Eyes." He continued his streak with his well-known song "I'm No Stranger to the Rain," but just as he had begun to have some success, he died. In 2022, Whitley was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Bluegrass and Country Music singer. He was the husband of country singer Lorrie Morgan. He was born in Ashland, Kentucky, and grew up in Sandy Hook, Kentucky. Keith learned to play guitar at a very young age and appeared on the Buddy Starcher regional television show as a small child. He formed a Bluegrass band with his friend Ricky Skaggs a few years later. When both boys were teenagers, they were asked to play spontaneously at a local show when Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys arrived late. Stanley came into the building while they were singing one of his songs and has always said that he thought it was a jukebox playing his actual recording. He soon hired them for his band, and they stayed for two years until Keith went to work for Carl Jackson. By 1974, he had already survived a car crash (at 120 mph) and driving a car off a cliff into a river, but, by 1978, his excessive drinking made him unreliable. He had developed a honky-tonk vocal sound. In 1986, he married rising country music singer Lorrie Morgan and cracked the Top 20 for the first time with "Miami, My Amy." Keith finally reached No. 1 in 1988 with "Don't Close Your Eyes." He continued his streak with his well-known song "I'm No Stranger to the Rain," but just as he had begun to have some success, he died. In 2022, Whitley was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Bio by: Roger Hicks
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"Forever Yours Faithfully"
J. Keith
1955 -1989
"His Being Was
My Reason"
WHITLEY
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