J. D. Souther

The Southern California sound

John David Souther was born on November 2, 1945 in Detroit and raised in Amarillo, Texas; he died on September 17, 2024 at his home in Sandia Park, New Mexico, aged 78, a week before a tour with Karla Bonoff. He played drums in his first band, The Cinders, who recorded in 1965 at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. In 1969 he moved to Los Angeles, met Glenn Frey, and the pair made one album as Longbranch Pennywhistle on Amos Records in 1970. He helped form the Eagles as Linda Ronstadt's backing band but declined to join, and co-produced Ronstadt's Don't Cry Now (1973). The Songwriters Hall of Fame, which inducted him on June 14, 2013, called him a principal architect of the Southern California sound.

The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, with Chris Hillman and Richie Furay, made a self-titled album on Asylum in 1974 (US 11, Gold) and Trouble in Paradise in 1975, then split after sales fell. His solo albums were John David Souther (1972), Black Rose (1976), You're Only Lonely (1979, US 41) and Home by Dawn (1984). He left music in the late 1980s for more than twenty years, acting meanwhile in Thirtysomething, Postcards from the Edge and Nashville, and returned in 2008 with If the World Was You, recorded with a jazz band. Setlist.fm lists 273 shows from 1971 to 2024, and Live at the Boarding House, July 7, 1976 was released in 2023.