Country music songwriting legend Tom T. Hall’s death has been ruled a suicide. The country music hall of famer was 85.
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A medical examiner’s report in the artist’s hometown of Williamson County, Tennessee stated that Hall died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The report, obtained by Saving Country Music, read that Hall “had sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on the morning of 8/20/2021. A 911 call was placed at 1115 hours on 8/20/201. Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and Williamson Medical Emergency Medical Services responded to the call. Paramedics confirmed death at approximately 1133 hours, due to obvious injuries.”
Hall was found dead in his Franklin, Tennessee home on the morning of Aug. 20, 2021. His son Dean Hall confirmed his father’s death on social media but did not share a cause of death at the time.
Writing dozens of country hits like “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968, and Americana standard “That’s How I Got To Memphis,” Hall won one Grammy Award, for his Greatest Hits album in 1972, and entered the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame by 1978.
Hall also penned several No. 1 country singles in the 1970s, including “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine” and “The Year Clayton Delaney Died,” in addition to and “I Love” in 1974 and 1975 Top 10 hit “I Like Beer.”
In 2008, the honors and accolades continued for Hall when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame alongside Emmylou Harris, Ernest Stoneman, and The Statler Brothers.
Throughout his nearly 60-year career, Hall became known as the “storyteller” of country music and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019 and honored by Jason Isbell, who performed his 1971 song “Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken).”
Performing sporadically through the mid-’90s, Hall had long retired from performing and recording. Enjoying his retirement and life on the farm with his wife Dixie Hall, who passed away in 2015, Hall gave his final performance in 2011 at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
Photo: Country Music Hall of Fame
