Music to my ears. The world lost legendary country artist Keith Whitley way too soon when he tragically passed away 37 years ago, on May 9, 1989, after a well-documented struggle with alcohol. But even though his career was all too short, Keith Whitley became, and remains to this day, one of the most influential country artists of all time.
Jesse Keith Whitley, an artist himself and the son of the legendary Keith Whitley and Lorrie Morgan, recently stopped by the Drifting Cowboy podcast to talk about his own life as the son of such an incredible artist, who passed when he was just under two years old.
Of course, that presented plenty of struggles because he grew up without his father, but he talked a lot about being able to learn about his dad through so much footage that was taken of him while he was pursuing his career, and of course, his memory lives on in so many other artists who knew him well and could also tell him about his dad.
Jesse remains fiercely protective of his dad’s legacy, as he should be, and carries on his legacy well, and during the conversation, he revealed that he has a tribute album in the works to honor his father, which will include songs that weren’t necessarily huge radio hits, but are some of his own favorites and songs he wants to shed light on.
But he also revealed that there is an archive of unreleased Keith Whitley music that never got released during his career, which they apparently have plans to put out. He also teased a “co-write” between him and his dad, which leads me to believe there might have been some unfinished stuff that he added to we’ll get to hear as well:
“Oh Yeah, oh yeah. Hell yeah there is… I can’t dig too deep into that. But we’ve got some plans with that, you know, it’s been discussed. Definitely. There’s quite a few of them, so I’m excited about that.
There’s a lot. There’s more than I thought. It kind of fell in our lap about three weeks ago. There might even be a co-write with me and my dad.”
Because Whitley passed so young, he was only able to put out two studio albums during his lifetime in L.A. to Miami (1985) and Don’t Close Your Eyes (1988), though his total discography, including posthumous releases and compilations, includes at least five major studio albums. I Wonder Do You Think of Me (1989) was released shortly after his death, followed by Kentucky Bluebird (1991) and Wherever You Are Tonight (1995).
But I’m sure many country music fans like me feel like it wasn’t nearly enough, and even though Jesse wasn’t able to reveal much at all about the project yet, it’s exciting to think we could be getting to hear some unreleased Keith Whitley music from the prime of his career.
I imagine it falls in line with another similar project that honored country icon Waylon Jennings when his son, highly sought-after producer Shooter Jennings, put out Songbird, a collection of archival songs he found from the prime of his dad’s career, and released as the first of part of a three-album project last year.
Typically, I’m not sure I would love the idea of digging up songs an artist never put out themselves and releasing them without the person not being here to give it the okay, but considering this has the blessing and approval of their sons in these two instances, I know they will do it right. and are happy to put it out to fans to honor the legacy of both of their dads.
Jesse Keith couldn’t say much more about it right now, but stay tuned, because it sounds like we might get to hear new Keith Whitley music in 2026…
The full podcast is available below.
