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Tributes paid to music great Glen Campbell

Updated / Thursday, 10 Aug 2017 07:00
Glen Campbell onstage in Nashville, Tennessee in June 2004
Glen Campbell onstage in Nashville, Tennessee in June 2004

Tributes have been paid to the iconic American singer Glen Campbell, who has died aged 81.

Campbell, who had hits with By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Rhinestone Cowboy and Wichita Lineman, died on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee at an Alzheimer's facility surrounded by his family, his publicist Sanford Brokaw said.

Ashley Campbell, Instagram

In a statement on Campbell's website on Tuesday, his family said: "It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease."

The singer and guitarist, who played on songs by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys as well as enjoying a hugely successful solo career, announced that he had Alzheimer's in 2011.

Campbell was born in Billstown, Arkansas and was one of twelve children. He learned guitar as a boy and played in his uncle's band as a teenager and rose from an impoverished childhood to sell 45 million records.  

He became a huge star in the 1960s and 1970s with hits including By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Gentle on My Mind, Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy.

Campbell began his career as a well-regarded recording session guitarist in Los Angeles before becoming a fixture on the US music charts, radio and television in the 1960s and '70s. He won six Grammy Awards and had nine No. 1 songs in a career of more than 50 years.

Before stardom, Campbell was part of the Wrecking Crew, a group of Los Angeles studio musicians that also included guitarists Barney Kessel and James Burton and pianists Leon Russell and Mac 'Dr. John' Rebennack.

Glen Campbell pictured with his wife Kim Woollen and their children, Shannon and Ashley, in 2006

Among the hit songs Campbell played on were Presley's Viva Las Vegas and the Monkees' Daydream Believer and Last Train to Clarksville.
           
He released a final studio album in June 2017 called Adios, which was recorded after his farewell tour wrapped up in 2014. In the same year he was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary, Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me.

Campbell, who was married four times and had five sons and three daughters, played Ireland many times, including at the Midlands Festival in 2007 and The Convention Centre in Dublin in November 2011.

Glen Campbell began his career as a well-regarded recording session guitarist in Los Angeles 

He also played with Merle Haggard and Nat King Cole, as well as touring with the Beach Boys, playing bass guitar and singing many of Brian Wilson's falsetto parts.

He starred as the rather wholesome Texas Ranger La Boeuf in True Grit opposite John Wayne in 1969.

In his later years, Campbell crossed genres. His 2008 album, Meet Glen Campbell, featured songs by U2 (All I Want Is You), Paul Westerberg (Sadly Beautiful), Green Day (Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) and Foo Fighters (Times Like These).

Earlier this year, Campbell's friend and the man who wrote many of his solo hits, Jimmy Webb, spoke about working with the singer for the last time on the song Adios, which Webb originally wrote for Linda Ronstadt.

"Glen and I used to play that song all the time," Webb said. "We played it in dressing rooms, hotels, we played it over at his house, we played it at my house. He always loved that song.

"I heard Adios this morning and my wife and I both broke down and cried all over this hotel room. It's the first time we ever heard it." 

After he stopped touring in 2014, Campbell's wife Kim moved him into a long-term care community near their home in Nashville.

Fellow musicians, singers and fans have been paying tribute:

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