Doug Supernaw Has Died, But Not Before Finding Redemption
Doug Supernaw’s tumultuous life was like a country song. It went from obscure beginnings, to superstardom, to a return to anonymity, and eventually a path of new redemption. But now it has ended. Doug Supernaw has passed away after a prolonged battle with Cancer at the age of 60.
One of the most promising stars in country music in the early 90’s, Doug Supernaw’s album Red and Rio Grande calling on the border rivers of his native Texas saw his song “Reno” reach the Top 5 on the country charts, and then the heartbreaking “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” go all the way to #1. Signed to BNA Records and with a big following in his native state of Texas and beyond, Supernaw had a bright future in country music, earning a Song of the Year nomination for “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” from the ACM’s.
In 1995, Supernaw found further Top 5 success with his single “Not Enough Hours in the Night.” But soon Doug Supernaw became one of those country artists who seemed to disappear too soon, and become the subject of the question, “Where are they now?”
By the late 90’s and into the 2000’s, Doug Supernaw had assembled a rap sheet that included arrests for public intoxication and driving while intoxicated, and things began to spiral from there. By the late 2000’s stories began to emerge about the fragility of Supernaw’s mental state.
After a prolonged era of no news about him, 2011 found Supernaw reportedly living in Bandera, TX, sleeping on top of a pool table in a local pub, and trying to trade discarded television sets for sandwiches. After numerous incidents in the Texas Hill Country town, Supernaw was arrested and put under evaluation. At this point fans of the singer had moved far beyond worries of when he may release new music, and were simply concerned for his well-being.
But in 2016 and at 55-years-old, Supernaw started to emerge from his troubled past, and restart his country music career after a 20 year absence. Supernaw was inducted into the CMA of Texas Hall Of Fame. He recorded a Greatest Hits album comprised of new studio recordings of some of his classics, as well as two new songs, “Here’s My Heart” and “The Company I Keep,” and released it 2017. Supernaw was taking a one-step-at-a-time approach, and it was working. Supernaw also started playing more live shows.
“Doug fell on some hard times for some very specific reasons,” Doug Supernaw’s manager BJ Mezek told Saving Country Music in 2017. “Once he hit his all-time low, he realized that there was two sides to his life, and he chose to get back to the more positive side. Through that, he started making his way, cleaning up, and realizing that it’s not going to happen overnight. He started doing some gigs in Texas near home, and then a songwriter by the name of Jerry J. Thomas asked me, ‘Do you remember Doug Supernaw?’ I met with him, we sat and talked, he had a show in the Houston, TX area, and I can say with absolute assurity that he’s back. He wants to get back into it, and he’s pretty serious about it.”
Then, right as things were starting to come together for Supernaw, the Cancer diagnosis came in. First diagnosed with Cancer in his lung and bladder in February of 2019, it had recently spread to his brain and spine, and he had been placed in hospice care. “I have been hoping to not have to pass this information on to you, but, Doug’s cancer has spread to the brain and spine, and he is now under hospice care,” Doug’s wife informed fans on October 18th. “Please keep Doug in your thoughts and prayers, as you all have been.”
Born on September 26, 1960, in Bryan, Texas, Doug Supernaw’s mother was a big fan of country music, and exposed him to artists such as George Jones and Gene Watson at an early age. Doug played golf in high school and went to college on a scholarship, but dropped out in 1979, and started working on oil rigs. In the 80’s he moved to Nashville to become a professional songwriter, but left after four years. It wasn’t until he came back to Texas and started his band “Texas Steel” that he was discovered and awarded a major label deal.
Just as Doug Supernaw was beginning to see a second wind in his career, Cancer took it away from him. But he passed away after finding the straight and narrow, and redemption.
November 13, 2020 @ 10:52 am
Sad news. Godspeed on angel wings!
November 13, 2020 @ 11:04 am
Yet another sad loss in a year filled with the loss of so many greats. He loved Texas, and it’s nice to see he turned things around before his passing. Prayers to his family, friends, and fans.
November 13, 2020 @ 11:05 am
RIP sir I am glad you found your path back before that damn cancer took you from those that loved you. The heavenly band just got another good one!
November 13, 2020 @ 12:01 pm
This is so sad. My four-year old’s favorite song right now is “Reno”…
Doug Supernaw is one of the most underrated stars of the early 90s.
November 13, 2020 @ 12:18 pm
“Not Enough Hours In the Night” is a great country ballad. Requiescat in pace, Doug Supernaw.
November 13, 2020 @ 12:32 pm
The unfairness of it all. Why does tragedy so often strike troubled souls just when they’ve gotten their lives on the right track? It’s like they’re not allowed to be happy at all.
R.I.P.
November 13, 2020 @ 12:39 pm
Red and Rio Grande…what a real country album. Hard to imagine a mainstream debut album of that quality these days. He sang my favorite version of Five Generations Of Rock County Wilsons.
RIP
November 13, 2020 @ 1:33 pm
My favorite version of that song also and it was a hell of a debut!
November 13, 2020 @ 12:48 pm
Loved Reno, Fadin Renegade, State Fair, and so many others. He has always been a favorite of mine.
November 13, 2020 @ 2:26 pm
I have to concur. Reno and Fadin Renegade are excellent. The latter, obviously, is especially poignant now.
November 13, 2020 @ 1:30 pm
21-17 is still one of my all-time favorites. Sad to hear he passed. Godspeed.
November 13, 2020 @ 3:28 pm
Agreed. I remember watching the GAC top 20 countdown hoping that video would come on.
It’s really hard to find a way to stream that song (outside of YouTube). If you’ve found it anywhere, please let me know. I can’t even find copies of that CD easily
November 13, 2020 @ 1:42 pm
I listened to some Doug Supernaw earlier this week. RIP Doug!
November 13, 2020 @ 2:37 pm
I saw him play at a club in Greensboro, NC around 1994. He came on stage wearing a tennis skirt. He explained it was something to do with a bet he lost to one of his crew members. I wish I could remember the name of that club. Miss you Doug.
November 13, 2020 @ 3:16 pm
Damn. I always loved his music. As far as I know I have all his albums.
November 13, 2020 @ 4:24 pm
2020 SUCKS! Time for it to be gone!
November 13, 2020 @ 6:24 pm
I expect Rowdy Yates and The Original Country Gold will dedicate the first half hour to Mr. Supernaw tomorrow night as they have many many others that have passed
November 13, 2020 @ 6:55 pm
RIP.
I Don’t Call Him Daddy is the 1st song i remember hearing on the radio
November 13, 2020 @ 9:06 pm
Yet another terrible loss in 2020, and another one of my favorite 90’s country artists gone. I’d actually been listening to a lot of Doug’s music lately, my all time favorite being “Not Enough Hours In The Night,” especially. Loved that song ever since I was a kid! As already mentioned, Red And Rio Grande is an excellent album, and I also love his sophomore effort, 1994’s Deep Thoughts From A Shallow Mind (Wish that album would be added to Spotify already). I certainly can’t imagine albums like these coming out in mainstream country today.
While I’m glad that he had finally got his life back on track shortly before his passing, it just doesn’t seem right that it happened just when things were getting better for him again. To borrow a line from “State Fair,” (one of Doug’s underrated songs, imo), “Life can sure be unfair.” RIP Doug
November 14, 2020 @ 12:46 am
well done , trigger .
God bless mr. supernaw
November 14, 2020 @ 1:38 am
Not the biggest name in the 90’s but one of the most beloved and smooth voices. A great loss.
November 14, 2020 @ 9:24 am
I was born and raised in Bryan…I’ve lived lived here my entire life. I was a news photographer in the mid- 2000’s and was sent down to our local courthouse by the news director because “former country music singer Doug Supernaw” was being arraigned on some charge. When I arrived, Doug was pacing upstairs on his phone. He was very agitated. It was ridiculous for me to be there in the first place…an incredibly invasive and pointless assignment. Doug noticed me noticing him and immediately came over to me. He wasn’t combative or rude in any way. We sat and spoke in that upstairs courthouse hallway for close to thirty minutes. Doug was very anxious and seemed troubled..but he was very sincere and incredibly kind. I’d heard the stories about how unruly and erratic Doug had become…the stories of arrests, mental illness, etc. I had the opportunity to meet him again a few years later and saw a completely different person. Regardless…both times, he was a gentleman. It’s clear he’s hit some tough times…but he displayed a very kind and gracious spirit about himself Sad to hear of his passing this week..praying comfort and peace for his family. From what I saw at his lowest as well as his better days, Doug seemed like a very genuine and good man.
November 14, 2020 @ 4:51 pm
I liked Doug Supernaw quite a bit, from his first single that I heard –which didn’t go anywhere–called Honky Tonkin’ Fool, where a young man, quoting, Red, his much older barroom acquaintance, sings:
Roll away my tombstone, Put this jukebox in its place
Make damned sure ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ Is the only song it plays
I don’t need no stone with fancy words This jukebox would be cool
As a perfect final tribute to a honky tonkin’ fool
That was back when Hank Williams was still recognized and saluted on country radio.
Funny thing about Doug was in his short heyday, it seemed every single he’d put out got him in some sort of trouble with some p.c. interest group.
Supernaw was one of several artists to record Dennis Linde’s “What’ll You Do About Me?,” (Randy Travis and Steve Earle also cut it) but Doug was the only (male) artist to release it as a single. Great song, and it made it into the top 20, but it sort of got pulled when a l of listeners and some writers interpreted the song as being sung by a protagonist who’s a psycho stalker.
Supernaw released “I Don’t Call Him Daddy.” As you note, it went to #1, but it still took some flack from step-families groups because the young boy in the song is unflichingly loyal to his somewhat absent real dad.
Doug cut “Reno,” a great song, with the lyric, “The Lady’s a lot like Reno
She ain’t got a heart/ And she don’t care when your down. Clearly, the lyric was using the casino business as a metaphor for cruelty, but some boosters from of Reno took it as an insult of the entire city and complained.
Finally, Doug released a song called “State Fair,” about some kids driving to the fair to have fun, but their car gets hit by a drunk driver and one of them dies. The song seemed to carry an anti-drunk-driving message. However, a line in the lyric suggested that perpetrator was not the only one who’d been drinking–There was alcohol consumption in the narrator’s vehicle as well–so MADD protested against the song and got it off the radio.
It’s a wonder that Doug managed to get any momentum with all that arrayed against him.
After Jerry Jeff and Billy Joe and a bunch of hero ballplayers, this is getting hard to take.
November 18, 2020 @ 3:54 am
Wasn’t aware of this but just goes to show some groups can’t help themselves getting on their SENSITIVE wave losers!
November 18, 2020 @ 9:27 am
Supernaw’s debut single “Honky Tonkin’ Fool,” tanked. Around the same time or a short while later, another artist released a somewhat similar, but more upbeat song on the theme of honkytonks, jukeboxes, and last requests–and it became a #1 smash and one of his several career records. That’s be Joe Diffie and “Prop Me Up Beside the Juke box….”
November 14, 2020 @ 7:01 pm
Great talent. So glad he returned to record again. Always loved his music.
November 14, 2020 @ 8:36 pm
Very sad, what an underrated career. It seems like he was doing his best to get his life back together. Memory eternal, Lord have mercy.
November 15, 2020 @ 2:53 pm
Damn, I really hate to hear this. Some of his albums still remain some of my favorites to this day. I saw him live at the Palamino Club in Wilmington N.C. in the mid 90’s. Many of his songs helped to make the soundtrack of my 20’s.
November 17, 2020 @ 7:36 pm
In my opinion Doug Supernaw could make you feel his music, there was that something their that just grabbed you, you know. Listen to the first three knock out punch songs on the Fading Renegade Album, perfection!! I really love his voice. Ironically bout the only CD’s in my plastic ziplock sandwich bag that I keep in my truck are the Debut Albums of Doug Supernaw and Van Halen and Fading Renegade and 1984 that’s it that’s just me, later………. Rick Ainsworth
November 27, 2020 @ 11:41 pm
Thank you,Trigger.
Doug absolutely adored his fans, and only really felt “at home” on stage. He said more than once that all he thought about when not on stage, was getting back on stage. As much as I miss my friend, he is in a much better place. No more pain from any person or thing. Getting him back on the road where he needed to be, will always be something I will smile about. He deserved it. He battled the demons, and won. Unfortunately, that was cut short. Had Doug passed, 10 years earlier, it would have been just as sad, but the story line would have been a lot different. And for that, I am grateful.
Rest easy, you long tall Texan; this fadin’ renegade’s made his last stand.
Bj Mezek
January 10, 2021 @ 6:46 pm
So sad to see another great one pass just as he’s getting his life back on track, it’s so hard when you’re at your all time low and to make it back, I know from experience how hard it is. This really hits home with me. I wish so badly I could have went to Bandera to see him. One of the all-time best. RIP
May 12, 2022 @ 1:20 pm
I live in Bandera, saw him hanging out and living with Bryan Black, i bought him a beer and he sang “Reno” for me.
Godspeed
June 8, 2024 @ 5:22 am
I absolutely love Doug’s music!
Red And Rio Grande always makes me throw my Horns Up baby!
Fading’ Renegade is about the best damn Country Song I’ve ever heard!
RIP Superman you are certainly missed by this old truck driver cowboy! (Stephen) ????
June 26, 2024 @ 7:01 pm
I worked at a bar in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Doug came by a few times, knew the owner. I found out Doug was living in the owner’s barn at the time. One night when we were sweeping & cleaning up Doug grabbed a broom & started sweeping with us. I commented to him something like “you don’t have to do that, Doug. We got it. I can’t ask a friend of ours to do that” & he just smiled & told me “you need better friends!”
That has stuck with me for many years… I’m glad he is at peace. He was genuinely kind to me & smiled every time I ever saw him & shared stories about seeing him perform “back in the day.”