Tom T. Hall, Known as ‘The Storyteller,’ Dies at 85

Tom T. Hall, renowned singer/songwriter, passed away at his home on Friday, Aug. 20. He was 85.

“Tom T. Hall’s masterworks vary in plot, tone, and tempo, but they are bound by his ceaseless and unyielding empathy for the triumphs and losses of others,” said Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “He wrote without judgment or anger, offering rhyming journalism of the heart that sets his compositions apart from any other writer. His songs meant the world to Bobby Bare, Johnny Cash, George Jones, and other greats, and those songs will continue to speak to generations. He was a storyteller, a philosopher, a whiskey maker, a novelist, a poet, a painter, a benefactor, a letter writer, a gift-giver, a gentleman farmer, and many more things. My bet is that we won’t see the likes of him again, but if we do I’ll be first in line for tickets to the show.”

Born in Olive Hill, Kentucky in 1936, Hall began his career in Nashville as a songwriter at the publishing company, Newkeys Music. Known to fans as The Storyteller, a name given to him by Tex Ritter, he went on to write songs for country stars, including Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, and more. Hall penned the crossover hit “Harper Valley PTA,” recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968.

“Few could tell a story like Tom T. Hall. As a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, he was one of those triple threat artists who continued to make an impact on the next generation. I’ll always remember growing up listening to Tom T.’s music with my father, who was a huge bluegrass and Country fan,” said Sarah Trahern, Country Music Association, CEO 

Throughout his career, Hall won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1973 for the notes he wrote for his album Tom T. Hall’s Greatest Hits, and he won the Bluegrass Song Writer of the Year award in 2002-2005, 2007-2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Hall was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2002, receiving the induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also elected into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

Hall was preceeded in death by his wife Dixie Hall (2015), whom he married in 1969. He is survived by his son Dean Hall, from his first marriage to Opal “Hootie” McKinney.

Photo by John Russell/CMA