大象传媒

Country Music legend died yesterday at the age of 80. It was announced earlier this month that he鈥檇 been suffering from lung cancer and during Friday night鈥檚 country show we received word from Nashville that he had taken a turn for the worse and wasn鈥檛 expected to last the weekend. Sad news.

Porter was a Grand Ole Opry institution, and recently celebrated fifty years as a member. I saw him there several times and he had a commanding presence on stage. You couldn鈥檛 helped be dazzled - if not by the music, then certainly by his distinctive rhinestone suits.

He鈥檚 the man that Dolly Parton wrote 鈥� I Will Always Love You鈥� about. She claimed the break-up of their partnership was down to creative differences. 鈥淚 was creative, Porter was different!鈥� said Dolly.

Porter was no country lightweight and over the years he鈥檚 recorded some pretty dark material about violent death, alcohol abuse and mental illness. Check out 'Committed to Parkview', a track which forms the centrepiece of his last which was something of a comeback record. The song was written for him by Johnny Cash about an institution in Nashville where both spent some time. There's a sobering video on his site which is well worth a look.

I'll do a full tribute on Friday night's .