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“Cowboy” Jack Clement To Be Inducted Into The Country Music Hall Of Fame

April 11 2013

“Cowboy” Jack Clement was born in Whitehaven, TN and recorded his first album in 1953. He went to college at Memphis State University, which is where he received his lifelong nickname “Cowboy”. In 1956, he began working for Sun Records where he was behind the mixing board for recording sessions with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis. He then moved to Nashville in 1959, where he became an assistant to Chet Atkins at RCA and was considered one of the first independent producers to work for a major record label. In addition to producing timeless hits such as Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, Clement is also a prolific songwriter, publisher, and artist executive. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and has penned classic songs like “Ballad Of A Teenage Queen”, “Guess Things Happen That Way”, “She Thinks I Still Care”, and “Just Between You And Me”. He has written songs for Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, George Jones, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton.

Clement also ran his own publishing company, Jack Music Inc and record label.

Beyond country music, Clement produced three tracks for U2's Rattle and Hum and an album for Louis Armstrong. In other ventures, he built four of Nashville's leading studios, produced a cult classic horror film and made perhaps the world's first music video on Don Williams in 1972, nine years before MTV launched.

The induction ceremony is set to take place later this year in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s newly constructed CMA Theater.