Beloved Songwriter, Artist, Comedian John Hadley Has Died

The term “Renaissance Man” is bandied about often. And often, it’s employed to flatter as opposed to accurately describe. When it comes to songwriter, actor, painter, poet, writer, comedian, academic, and musician John Hadley, somehow “Renaissance Man” doesn’t seem to encapsulate the full breadth of his contributions. Whether you’ve heard the name or not, you’ve certainly heard the music, whether his name was ascribed to the writing credits, or his influence was simply present in the work of others.

Over 1,000 songs were published by John Hadley in his career. In fact, he owned his own song publishing company called Hadley Six Music, so you can add entrepreneur and publisher to his list of accomplishments too.

George Jones, Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, Garth Brooks, the [Dixie] Chicks, Wynonna Judd, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, Bobby Bare, Moe Bandy, T. Graham Brown, Joe Cocker, George Burns, Burt Reynolds and Dean Martin were just some of the names John Hadley wrote songs for. He was also a regular collaborator with writers such as Kevin Welch, David Olney, Tim O’Brien, Terri Hendrix, and Gary Nicholson just to name a few. Hadley wrote some 100 song with David Olney alone.

Some of the most recognizable songs from the John Hadley catalog would be “Pushing Up Daisies” off of Garth Brooks’ Scarecrow album, the song “Reno and Me” co-written with Kevin Welch off of Waylon Jennings’ The Eagle, or “Hello Mr. Heartache” for the [Dixie] Chicks album Fly. Roger Miller recorded Hadley’s “Rings For Sale” in 1972, and it became a Top 5 hit. When Moe Bandy recorded “Til I’m Too Old to Die Young” in 1987, it hit the Top 10.

For years, people in-the-know wanted to record a John Hadley song, and songwriters wanted to write one with Hadley. Among other good habits, Hadley loved to collaborate, though he rarely performed publicly. He preferred to let his writing do the talking for him. He was also a close collaborator with the famous bluegrass band Country Gazette with Byron Berline, Roland White, Roger Bush, and Alan Munde.

John Hadley was also an art professor at the University of Oklahoma for some 22 years—from 1965 to 1987. Pushing all his musical accomplishments aside, in certain circles John Hadley was known mostly as an artist, with high-profile exhibits and sought-after pieces, and people just as surprised to hear about his music career as music fans were of his art career.

Hadley left OU to explore another form of creative expression: comedy. He worked with the Smothers Brothers during their late ’80s reboot as a writer, appearing on the show as well.

John Hadley was a long-time resident of Norman, Oklahoma, but during the height of his songwriting career, he’d travel to Nashville every two weeks to participate in writing sessions. Hadley kept a cabin in Tennessee that was called the “Fiddleback Shack” for the amount of fiddleback spiders (a.k.a. brown recluses) that would congregate there every time he left, and would have to be rousted away upon his return.

Completing the circle of an accomplished and well-rounded life, John Hadley also once composed an Opera that was performed at Nashville’s famous Parthenon, and published numerous books, including his “Boogers and Hangnails” series where of course he handled his own illustrations.

It didn’t matter the medium. If John Hadley had something to express, he would do so, and in whatever medium that suited it best. Sometimes ideas came out in cross-medium collaborations. Hadley’s art aficionados loved to talk about the humor he expressed in physical form.

“For the last 50 years, John has been my main mentor and teacher and probably the best friend I’ve ever had,” said frequent song collaborator Kevin Welch at the news of John Hadley’s passing. “I can’t begin to address his life and influence here … Hadley has long been a big part of me, and that can never change.”

Gary Nicholson said, “It was his love of creating that he couldn’t contain. Five minutes in the presence of Hadley was enough for anyone to know how special he was, and if you were fortunate enough to be his pal and collaborator you were gifted with a lifetime treasure. As a visual artist his style was celebrated by all, because his sense of humor and irony was on full display, and John was a naturally gifted songwriter, intuitive and clever but also a relentless craftsman. He loved nothing more than creating, exploring every possibility of an idea.”

John Hadley was born in Lisbon, Ohio on April 10th, 1941. He passed away on December 18th in Norman at the age of 83. As is often the case these days unfortunately, Hadley’s passing was noted by his many friends, but not by the media. It turns out that among his other contributions, Hadley once wrote a short poem about this very moment, as recalled by his friend Donald Lipski upon Hadley’s passing.

You’re looking at one of 2000 writers
Who had a song that got cut by George Jones.
You can laugh and call me a liar,
But I’ve got the record at home.

If I die tomorrow, and it don’t make the papers,
If I go out cold and alone,
You’ll still find my name under the title
Of a song that got cut by George Jones.

John Hadley’s passing didn’t make the papers (at least not yet), but you can indeed find his name listed in the credits of the George Jones song “You Can’t Get The Hell Out of Texas” from 1981. And for any fan of country music, that’s all that matters.


This story has been updated to reflect that John Hadley worked with the Smother Brothers in the late ’80s.