Accomplished steel guitar player and producer Robby Turner, who has played with artists including Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, The Highwaymen and Chris Stapleton, died Thursday, Sept. 4, at age 63.
Turner’s son Bobby Turner confirmed the passing of his father on social media, writing, “We’re sad, but we know he’s walking without any help, and he’s no longer in pain.”
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Known as the “Man of Steel,” Turner played on projects including the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws, from Jennings, Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, which spawned the Jennings/Nelson hit “Good Hearted Woman” and became the first country album to become certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Turner also recorded and toured with country supergroup The Highwaymen (Jennings, Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash) and contributed to the group’s 1990 project The Highwayman 2 and their 1995 album The Road Goes On Forever. He contributed to several of Jennings’ albums and became the Country Music Hall of Famer’s primary steel guitar player until Jennings’ death in 2002.
In 2019, Turner was honored as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Nashville Cats series. During his interview for the series, he said of working with Jennings, “Waylon never really told us what to do…we just played until he smiled.”
Turner contributed to albums by Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, John Prine, Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale, Loretta Lynn, Travis Tritt, The Oak Ridge Boys, and more recently, projects from Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson and Colter Wall, playing on Stapleton’s CMA Awards album of the year-winning projects Traveller and From A Room: Volume 1, Simpson’s High Top Mountain, and Wall’s self-titled album. He also performed with artists including Johnny Paycheck and The Chicks.
Turner was surrounded by music from an early age; his parents Doyle and Bernice Turner were part of Hank Williams Sr.’s Drifting Cowboys from 1946-1948.
During the Nashville Cats series, Turner also spoke of why he loved both recording steel guitar in the studio and also playing onstage. “It was part of my learning process,” he said. “I had to. I wasn’t going to just fall right into the studio. [Steel guitar player, known for his work with George Jones, Tammy Wynette and others] Pete Drake, my mother would take me by there and drop me off at Pete’s place…when I was younger, [steel guitarist, known for work with artists including Dolly Parton and Charley Pride] Lloyd Green and Pete Drake owned the radio…Pete asked me when I was 12, ‘What do you want to be? A session player or a road guy, play with artists live?’…I thought about it and the next couple of months when I was down there…I said, ‘I want to be able to do both. I want to play on records and I want to produce records…I’ve had recording equipment since I was nine years old…I want to do both, but I really want to concentrate on studio stuff.”
Of performing with The Highwaymen, Turner said, “That was the greatest band that you could ever ask to play with…the American rhythm section and those four guys. Sometimes I would literally pinch myself, it was like a dream…it was one of the highlights of my life.”
Along the way, Turner also released his own projects, including 1996’s Man of Steel and 1998’s Steel Country.
Jennings’ son, musician/producer Shooter Jennings, wrote in tribute to Turner on X, “So sad to hear about Robby Turner. A once in a lifetime talent and the funniest guy I ever met. What a player. Was lucky to have toured and recorded with him many times. Rest in Peace, Robby.”
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