James Burton, a guitar icon from Nashville, recently revealed he was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
On Friday night, Burton posted on his Facebook page that he will be having surgery the following Monday (3 October) at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.
Although I am surrounded by excellent medical professionals, I am confident that God will see me through. A TOTAL RESTORATION OF HEALTH would be a wonderful answer to your prayers, which I would greatly appreciate. Don’t be shy about asking your social circle to help out here.
The Dubberly, Webster Parish native and guitar prodigy “Master of the Telecaster” is widely considered to be one of the greatest rock and roll session players of all time.
Over the course of his lengthy career, he has shared the stage with such luminaries as Bob Luman, Dale Hawkins, Ricky Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Claude King, Elvis Costello, Joe Osborn, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, Hoyt Axton, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Young, Vince Gill, and Su
Prior to the singer’s untimely death in 1977, he was the TCB Band’s lead guitarist.
Keith Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, inducted Burton into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. “Let me put it this way: I never bought a Ricky Nelson record, I bought a James Burton record,” Richards declared during his induction speech.
Additionally, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum have inducted Burton into their own halls of fame. On Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, he was placed at number 19.
Mark Deming, a music journalist, once said of Burton, “Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either country or rock…
If you’re a guitar player, he’s up there with the greatest of them.