Billy Adams, rockabilly Hall of Famer who wrote 'Rock, Pretty Mama', dies aged 79
Billy Adams, the genius who wrote and recorded the rockabilly track 'Rock, Pretty Mama,' has passed away. The news broke out on Monday, April 1. The Rockabilly Hall of Famer was 79. As per a free press release from his publicist and manager, Adams died this weekend, on Saturday, March 30, in Westmoreland, Tennessee.
Adams was born in Redbush, Kentucky, to a family of 14 children. Incidentally, his father was a coal miner who worked in the Van Lear coal mine - the same place Loretta Lynn sang about in the song 'Coal Miner's Daughter.'
When Public Radio International did a series on rockabilly music, Adams was one of the musicians featured on it, and he revealed how he used to strum a lard bucket like a guitar, from lacking funds for instruments, in the past. He also spoke about his love for Bill Monroe, who he listened to on the Grand Ole Opry radio program, according to the Washington Post.
It was the life of hardship whilst growing up near the Appalachian Hills, that Adams recalls as his inspiration into the music industry. In his biography 'Gotta Have A Ducktail', Adams said: "I vividly remember looking up over the tall slender pine whose tiny green needles seemed to pierce the blue green sky and dreaming of the day when I would play my very own guitar."
Over the span of his extensive career, Adams blessed his fans with other solid hits in the '50s, including 'You Heard Me Knocking', 'True Love Will Come Your Way' and 'You Gotta Have a Duck Tail.' As for the cause of death of the musician, it has not been reported.