Born on This Day in 1964, the Rising Country Musician Who Backed Reba McEntire and Ricky Skaggs Before His Life Was Tragically Cut Short

A musician often relies on the strength of their backing instrumentalists. Even solo artists aren’t one-man bands. They need a host of excellent musicians to bring their vision to life. Chris Austin was one of these musicians. The guitarist and fiddle player was born on this day in 1964. Prior to his death in 1991, Austin played alongside Reba McEntire and Ricky Skaggs. Austin’s playing added an indelible sound to both artists’ careers. Revisit the life and career of Austin below.

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[RELATED: Reba McEntire Pays Loving Tribute to Her Late Friend and Mentor: “My Prayers Go Out to Everyone Who Will Miss Him as Much as I Will”]

Born On This Day in 1964, the Rising Country Musician Who Backed Reba McEntire and Ricky Skaggs

“Chris walked into the woods one day with a fiddle, and when he walked out, he could play that thing. That’s the way Chris was,” an old classmate of Austin once said, summing up his incomparable knack for instrumentation.

A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Austin was born in Boone, North Carolina. By the time he was 10, he was playing guitar. By the time he was 14, he had a spot in his father’s bluegrass band, staking his claim as a viable musician. It was in this band that Austin learned the rest of his rolodex of instruments, including the mandolin and the fiddle.

Austin got his big break after sneaking backstage at the Grand Ole Opry to meet Skaggs. It didn’t take long for him to earn a permanent spot alongside the bluegrass icon.

Ricky Skaggs and Reba McEntire

Though Skaggs wasn’t the only musician to hire Austin as a backing player, his time with Skaggs was his claim to fame. Austin helped pen Skaggs’ top five hit, “Same Ol’ Love.” That’s just one credit amongst Austin’s tenure with the mandolin player.

Austin’s other big credit is his work with McEntire. He joined the country superstar several years before his death, becoming a mainstay in her backing band. Devestatingly, it was with this group of musicians that Austin passed away, irrevocably changing the legacy of this lineup.

Plane Crash

Austin died in a plane crash alongside several other members of McEntire’s team, including Joey Cigainero, Paula Evans, Chris Austin, Kirk Cappello, Terry Jackson, Anthony Saputo, Michael Thomas, and Tour Manager Jim Hammon, pilot Donald Holms, and co-pilot Chris Hollinger.

“At about 1:45 a.m., a few minutes after takeoff, the jet was flying at 3,300 feet when the left wing clipped an outcropping of 3,500-foot Otay Mountain,” the report of the incident read. “The collision sent the plane cartwheeling into the rocky peak with a massive explosion.”

McEntire responded to this tragedy with a song, “For My Broken Heart.” “Last night I prayed the Lord my soul to keep / Then I cried myself to sleep,” she sings in this heartbreaking track.

“The loss of my band and tour manager got channeled into this album with every song, every lyric,” Reba once said. “Leland Sklar was the bass player in that session, and he came in after about the fourth song that we recorded, and he said, ‘Reba, are we going to do any happy songs?’ And I looked up, and I said, ‘Leland, not on this one.’”

This song was an apt homage to Austin and his fellow musicians. Revisit “For My Broken Heart.”

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)