Country Music Mourns Loss of Songwriting Icon ‘J.J. Cale’

While he is probably best known for writing tunes made famous by Rock acts like Eric Clapton and Lynyrd Skynyrd, songwriter extraordinaire J.J. Cale wrote numerous hits for some of Country's biggest stars. The world lost one of its songwriting legends when J.J. Cale passed away last Friday in Los Angeles.

In April of 1980, Waylon Jennings broke the top 10 with J.J. Cale's 1972 song "Clyde."

And here's J.J. Cale doing the same tune.

Starting in 1971, every band in every Country bar in the nation took to playing J.J. Cale's "Magnolia."

So why, you ask, didn't we see more of J.J. Cale fronting his own tunes? It seems the man was incredibly shy when it came to media exposure. During the first 15 years of his recording career, he purposely avoided using photos of himself for album covers. Cale was voted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, but declined an offer to attend the ceremony.

According to J.J. Cale's management agency, he died from a heart attack at a La Jolla hospital last Friday at the age of 74.