Early Life
Kennedy is one of those rare talents for whom raw skill and opportunity flawlessly aligned. The son of music industry A-Team heavy hitter Jerry Kennedy and singer Linda Brannon, he grew up steeped in the sounds of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Statler Brothers, not only because his parents were spinning their records but because his dad was either producing them or playing guitar on their albums.
A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Kennedy moved to Nashville in 1961, when he was still a baby and his hopeful parents were trying their hands in the industry, spurned on by Mercury exec and family friend Shelby Singleton. The young family stayed in Nashville and became a pillar in the development of the industry over the next few decades.
As Kennedy was growing up, his father spent 16 years running Smash Records, the country subsidiary of Mercury Records. He played on albums for the likes of Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr, produced 13-time Grammy Award-winner Roger Miller and won four Grammys himself.
Read more about this topic: Gordon Kennedy (musician)
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