J.J. Cale, a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter who is probably best known for songs played by Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, died on Friday at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California.
A statement posted on his website says he had a heart attack, and died at 8 p.m. on Friday night. He was 74.
Cale shot to popularity when Eric Clapton covered his song “After Midnight” in 1974. At the time he described himself as “dirt poor,” having been in the music business as a singer-songwriter since 1955. He had fallen on hard times, according to The Washington Post, but he decided to stay in the music business once he realized that songwriting was “a little more profitable business.”
"Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing so I got into songwriting,” Cale once said in his biography.
In addition to “After Midnight,” Cale went on to write a number of hits for Clapton, including “Travelin’ Light,” “I’ll Make Love to You Anytime,” and “Cocaine.” He also wrote “Call Me the Breeze,” which Lynyrd Skynyrd made famous, along with a number of hits for The Allman Brothers, The Band, and even Widespread Panic.
Cale has been credited as an architect of what became known as the Tulsa sound of the 1970s, being pointed to an influence to Neil Young, Bryan Ferry, and Mark Knopfler. He released his first album, Naturally, in 1972, the NY Times reports, and went on to tour through 2009. He won a Grammy in 2009 for an album with Eric Clapton. He never cared much for notoriety, keeping his vocals low within the music on albums that he sang on.
As he once told his producer, "I'd like to have the fortune, but I don't care too much about the fame."
No ceremony has been announced, but his website asks for any donations to be made to local animal shelters, as Cale was a longtime pet lover.