The US singer Jody Miller, who was born in Phoenix/Arizona, passed away on Thursday (October 6) at the age of 80. Her management announced via the artists’ Facebook page that there had been “complications related to her Parkinson’s disease.”
The singer/songwriter was diagnosed with this nervous system disorder in the mid-1900s. She fought back bravely against the symptoms and stayed true to the (crossover) country scene.
As the industry journal “Billboard” reports, the creator of hits like “Queen Of The House” “passed away” with her family in Oklahoma: Miller made 27 entries in the “Hot Country Song” list over the course of her career the US Charts Institution. “Billboard” recorded six top ten hits.
“She had a God-given talent for creating and communicating the most beautiful tones,” her manager, Jennifer McMullen, said in an unctuous statement. “Everything seemed easy with her. It sometimes took a few moments to hear their true size. She was as authentic and unique as a person as her music was. Live and in the studio!”
Miller’s career began in the 1960s at Capitol Records in Los Angeles, which is still based in the legendary Stack of Records in Hollywood. Her first big hit came in 1964 with the song “He Walks Like a Man,” followed by the saloon hit “Queen of the House,” for which she received a Grammy for Best Female Country Interpretation in 1966.
Play with the genres
Years before her successor, Tyler Swift is being hailed as the “pioneer of female crossovers.” She played with genres with virtuosity, something that country purists have occasionally lamented.
Also under the aegis of Miller, Nashville’s male-dominated flannel shirt sound got a wider outlet with crossover hits like “Baby I’m Yours”, “There’s a Party Goin’ On” or “Darling, You Can Always Come Back Home”. Connections from Capitol Records to Cologne-based EMI Electrola even gave smashed versions of their art in German. For example “Now our stars are rising” or the gender-changing “Be my man”.
As early as the 1980s, things became quieter for her. With her husband Monty Brooks, she and her husband Monty Brooks began breeding horses on their ranch in Oklahoma – very Western-style. Then came the comeback with the album “My Country” in 1987. Their patriotic tunes were also well received by the “Grand Ol Party”, i.e. the Republicans. Miller received an invitation to the inauguration of US President George HW Bush.
Miller always tried to defy her Parkinson’s disease, she was on stage “as long as possible”. Also with daughter Robin Brooks Sullivan, to whom she had passed on her velvet talent.