b. 1 July 1955, Sandy Hook, Kentucky, USA, d. 8 May 1989, Goodlettsville, Tennessee, USA. Whitley, who grew up in a musical family, learned to play the guitar from the age of six and was on the radio with Buddy Starcher in Charleston, West Virginia, aged eight. He joined Ralph Stanley And His Clinch Mountain Boys when he was 15, and both he and his friend Ricky Skaggs made their recording debut on the same record, Cry From The Cross. At the age of 17, he survived a 120 mph car crash that killed a friend, and at 19, he drove a car off a cliff into a river. Whitley joined J.D. Crowe And The New South and his lead vocals on Somewhere Between were appreciated in Nashville. In 1983 he signed with RCA Records, recorded a mini-album, A Hard Act To Follow, and had his first US country success with ‘Turn Me To Love’ in 1984. He had further successes with ‘I’ve Got The Heart For You’ and ‘Miami, My Amy’. Whitley’s excessive drinking made him unreliable, but it did give him a hardened, honky-tonk voice, and he then only needed the right song. Unfortunately, his version of ‘Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind?’ was never released and ‘On The Other Hand’ was only an album track. He found what he needed in ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’, which was a number 1 US country single in 1988, with the resulting album selling over half a million copies. The song was inspired by the film California Suite. Whitley had another country number 1 with ‘When You Say Nothing At All’, and his version of Lefty Frizzell’s ‘I Never Go Around Mirrors’ includes an additional verse by its co-writer, Whitey Shaffer, and harmonies from Frizzell’s brother Allen.
In 1986 he married Lorrie Morgan, the daughter of country singer George Morgan, and a performer in her own right. Whitley recovered from his alcoholism and the couple started a family. In 1989 he had a US country number 1 with a Sonny Curtis song, ‘I’m No Stranger To The Rain’, but he subsequently returned to drinking, which resulted in his death at his home in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, in 1989. He had a posthumous number 1 with ‘I Wonder Do You Think Of Me?’. Kentucky Bluebird collected together out-takes and broadcast material from throughout his career and spawned a posthumous hit single, ‘Brotherly Love’, a duet with Earl Thomas Conley. Wherever You Are Tonight was a collection of demos given a professional arrangement. Lorrie Morgan organized Keith Whitley - A Tribute Album in 1994, which featured Alan Jackson, Joe Diffie and Alison Krauss.
