On The Jon Hensley Obituary (An Update)
Jon Hensley, an artist manager known for his work with Shooter Jennings and Wanda Jackson, has died in his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A 911 call was made just before 10 a.m. Monday (6-1) morning, and when authorities arrived at his home on Nutwood St., Hensley was unresponsive. A cause of death has yet to be released, but the death is being preliminarily called “accidental.” He was 31-years-old.
Jon Hensley is given credit for helping to revitalize the career of Wanda Jackson when the Queen of Rockabilly began to perform and record again after a lull in her career. Wanda Jackson recorded an album with Jack White called The Party Ain’t Over in 2011, and worked with Justin Townes Earle on 2012’s Unfinished Business, putting her back into national prominance. “Jon’s very valuable to me and the resurgence of my career,” Wanda Jackson is quoted as saying. “We’re kindred spirits.”
Hensley also managed Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and The Dirt Daubers—two acts involving performer JD Wilkes, and also managed Gary Bennett of BR549, and Goose Creek Symphony. John previously worked under the management, publicity, and distribution company Thirty Tigers.
Recently Hensley was best known as the manager and right hand man of Waylon Jenning’s son Shooter Jennings. Along with managing the second-generation performer and regularly traveling with him on the road, Hensley helped to operate and launch Shooter’s record label BCR Media that specialized in vinyl, tapes, and Record Store Day releases.
Jon Hensley was also a member of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels—an honorary aide-de-camp to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Update: Funeral services will be Friday, June 5, 2015, at 1:00PM at Tucker Funeral Home in Central City, with Rev. Justin Latham officiating. Burial will be in Eades Cemetery in Greenville. Visitation will be Thursday, from 5:30-8PM at the funeral home. Online condolences may be made at www.tuckerfuneralhomes.com.
UPDATE: Jon Hensley Police Report Released
(6-2-15) 3:30 AM CDT: Posted by Trigger:
First off, I want to offer my sincerest condolences to the friends, family, and loved ones of Jon Hensley, including his long-time girlfriend Mary Sparr, and anyone affected by his tragic, and untimely death. Any time a life is lost, it is a tragedy that transcends any and all previous regards, and should unite everyone in mourning and deep reflective thoughts about the preciousness and fragility of life.
When I heard that Jon Hensley had passed, I felt it was my obligation as a journalist, once I had confirmed the news, to share this tragic story with the public so that thoughts and prayers could be sent to loved ones, and the focusing of attention on the life lost and and the accomplishments achieved by Jon Hensley in his tragically brief but impactful life could come sharply into focus, and we all could attempt to learn and grow from the passing of another soul.
The posted obituary was not meant to be the final chapter on Jon Hensley’s life from this site. That is the reason it was prefaced, and concluded with verbiage explaining that this was a developing story. However because of the issues that have arisen due to this post, and the specific requests from Jon Hensley’s girlfriend Mary Sparr, I decided to temporarily remove the originally-posted obituary for a brief period.
(Update 6/2 12:20 PM CDT): Due to continued attacks and mischaracterizations on the content of the obituary, I have since reposted it.)
In the obituary posted by Saving Country Music, there was nothing but reverence and respect shown towards Jon Hensley, his family, and the circumstances surrounding his passing. Nonetheless, the post was used as a rallying point for a mob mentality to characterize the obituary as slander, and to attack the integrity of Saving Country Music. Subsequently I have personally received death threats, threats of hacking the site, destroying the site’s social network properties, and other ill will, some promising that this would happen even if I removed the post. All one has to do is navigate to the comments section of this article to see very specific examples of these reactions to what otherwise was a very commonplace act of journalism—writing a obituary and a news story for an individual that has unfortunately passed on.
Because of these specific threats and characterizations of the article, it became imperative that I repost the original obituary unedited, to prove there was absolutely no acrimony or malicious intent in the post. I have been informed by numerous people that they have taken screen shots of the post, so any concerns of future editing by SCM before posting are null and void. As concerned as I want to be for the wishes of the grieving, it is my journalistic duty to report the news, and to also uphold the freedoms bestowed by me through the 1st Amendment.
This issue has shaken me to core, has caused me great personal concern and anguish, but it is nothing compared to the anguish of the grieving family, friends, and loved ones affected by this tragedy. I send nothing but love and hopes of healing to everyone touched by the death of Jon Hensley, and hope we can all come together and learn from his unfortunate passing, as opposed to using it as a flashpoint to seize on past grievances.
Sincerely,
Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos
June 2, 2015 @ 4:22 pm
First off, my condolences to everyone who had been touched by Jon at some point in their lives, whether you shook his hand once, or family and long time friends and colleagues. That being said, there was nothing disrespectful about that post. I knew Shooter and Trig have butted heads, and do not know if the Jon/Trig feud is related, but I’d say it was a standup move on Trig to post this. 100% respectful and proffesional. I see no need for Trig to apologize. Side note, if you really want to see a disrespectful obituary, search Matt Taibbi and his write up on Andrew Brietbart. Then come back and tell Trig how disrespectful he is…
June 2, 2015 @ 4:30 pm
Official cause of death that’s being reported was a cocaine overdose
June 2, 2015 @ 4:33 pm
Uh never came on this site before but what made me come is all the hate and jon’s friends doing drama are doing… Just my two cent here, next time dont post hate stuff and msg him in private….
and whats the problem..because maybe drugs was involded..someone help me here
June 8, 2015 @ 5:16 pm
it was not an over-dose!!!!!!!!!!!
June 2, 2015 @ 5:55 pm
I’ve followed SCM every day for 4 years……toggled between 3 locally-owned FM country stations every day for 20 years on my daily 60-mile commute….own a stack of classic country vinyl that a show pony couldn’t jump over……I front a local country band, and consider SCM an invaluable resource for new music & commentary. Go Trigger.
June 2, 2015 @ 5:55 pm
Take this page down! Out respect of his family! For fuck sakes people!
June 2, 2015 @ 6:15 pm
You’re following links that were posted 18 hours ago. This is a dead issue. The article was pulled, augmented, and reposted at the request of the family.
June 2, 2015 @ 7:14 pm
Sorry if I missed this in the maelstrom of comments Trigger, am I reading this correctly that the family has requested that you repost your article? If so, have they apologized to you or retracted any of the crap that has been dished your way?
June 3, 2015 @ 7:28 am
Condolences to his family, friends, loved ones, and anyone who is affected by his untimely passing.
I’ve never heard of this site until I googled his name looking for a news article to see if it would shine a light on the cause of death. 31 is just so young. There was nothing disrespectful in the article. The death threats and hate toward the operator of this site is not warranted.
I honestly think Mr. Hensley’s friends and loved ones are just grieving and can’t wrap their heads around him being gone at such a young age. My family just went through this with my brother-in-law 2 months ago when he overdosed on heroin at 27 years old. It’s hard to admit to yourself but in the end you have to acknowledge it’s the individual who chose to do drugs knowing there’d be NO positive outcome.
There’s no one else to blame. We blamed ourselves asking if we did enough to help him curb his addiction but really it wasn’t our fault my brother-in-law chose heroin. There is no blame to be placed on the operator of this site either. He was respectful, nothing more and nothing less.
June 2, 2015 @ 6:34 pm
Trigger
I have read every single comment and I am in shock at people’s behavior honestly so I am going to throw this out there since you did nothing wrong PERIOD. I guess we should all be sympathetic towards the family and friends ,but its his friends that seem to be going over board with their negative feeds, what I really like to say every encounter I personally had with him in business was horrible, he was responsible for Shooters tour dates ,so maybe being at shows on time, playing the agreed time that your supposed to, not having an attitude like the promoters were at fault, maybe not leaving a green room looking like a frat party happened, and asking were you could get an eight ball in a concert hall office and his habits were no secret, so I guess now that he is gone all of his buddy’s want to defend him, sorry thats crap. and last but not least lets be hush hush about the Wayne Mills evening I love how that just disappeared just like him and Shooter that dreadful night, so Lets call a spade a spade!!!!!
June 2, 2015 @ 7:04 pm
Yea. That’s classy. Talk shit about the man on what Kyle says is a respectful obituary. Please tell me the venues you represent. I’m sure many, myself included, would love to never personally put another dollar in your pocket.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:24 am
Same.
June 2, 2015 @ 6:55 pm
Lol. He overdosed on blow. whatta loser.
June 3, 2015 @ 11:49 am
Honestly it is unfathomable how ignorant you are! You are a sorry excuse for a human being! (Bill Blaze!)
June 2, 2015 @ 7:40 pm
This is just amazing to me! I would never have heard of this man if not for the kind words in this obituary… Now, all you assholes bitching about the article make me never want to look into his career out of fear I might accidentally support one of you living pricks!
June 2, 2015 @ 8:27 pm
I just don’t even know what to start. I trolled Facebook this morning, as I do every morning looking for something interesting to share. I saw lots of pictures of Jon Hensley. I never once caught he had died. I thought maybe he had won an award, announced his wedding day, or even was going to be proud poppa. I thought something positive had happened in his life and his friends and family were celebrating it all with him. I knew him by sight and could usually pick out his voice in a crowd. We were not friends and barely acquaintances. I found out standing outside talking to Chris Bratcher as to what had happened. Shortly after that I dropped something off to Johnny Thompson and he too asked me if I had heard. I said I had heard from Chris. When I got to work I asked Clayton Brothers, who is friends with Mike Natcher & his band mates, if he had heard. He had and I asked if I knew anything. I then contacted another friend who had interacted with both Jon & you Trigger and he had no idea what the hoopla was, but only because he hadn’t had time to read through it all.
I’m name dropping for sure. I’m name dropping a few names of the people in our community here in South Central Ky, that are very involved in our music scene. If you know me than you know I love this region and I love my town–BG. Mr. Hensley opened quite a few doors for our locals. He gave them chances they probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Mary did the same. He, like some others, like Ryan Zumwalt, Ben Ewing, and Mary Sack, helped further enrich our musical arts community by often encouraging Nashville talent to play and visit here. The music community here in our region is still shaking it’s head in disbelief and sadness.
My point is to remove the Shooter Jennings angst out of it because I’m sure he’s quite used to media circuses, while Mary and her family are not.
I’m not at all condemning your post. I’m not condemning those who reacted with anger. I think Mary, who I meet when she was dating Aaron, aka Chuck Falcon, so I’ve known her, not well, but for awhile, just did something normal and that was post something. That something was to post about his death through social media. I went to school with the mad geniuses at Print Mafia as well, and know of Mary’s knack and knowledge of using social media and how that helped to build their business. So I dare say she ‘out of habit’ posted about Jon’s death. Maybe she wanted to tell as many of his friends as easily as she could. Again I remind you through all my trolling this morning I didn’t read anything about his dying.
I have to say maybe you just didn’t remember that the girl would be blasted not only by social media, but by phone calls, people stopping by, and everything else. Blasted my man….BLASTED. Maybe it didn’t occur to you that you posting something would just make it all worse. Maybe. BG is a small town and Nashville is still got a small town mentality at her core. You know everybody is kinda in everybody’s business.
The shock of a sudden death so close to you can have you acting like machine. You just do the things that are normal without thought. So maybe the shit storm the posting created wasn’t meant to be malicious but was still a storm and the girl is already drowning.
June 2, 2015 @ 10:33 pm
My heart breaks for her. You, however, lost me at “Maybe.”
June 2, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
I didn’t see anything negative in the obit posted yesterday. It’s a shame the man died like he did and I feel sorry for his family that has to live with his passing. My condolenses go out to Mr. Hensley’s family & friends. As for the negative comments about Trigger, get a life, he is only doing his job. I hope we can all learn something from this young man’s passing. It saddens me to know end that it could have been a drug overdose, hopefully, this tragedy will convince someone out there to get help from drug addiction,if that is in fact what he passed away from.
June 3, 2015 @ 4:11 am
I’ve thought about this for two days. I work in a professional field where I have to make difficult decisions. From those difficult decisions I know that there are two types of results, people will be happy and people will be upset. Living in a small town there are indirect consequences for myself and my family if I do not make the “politically correct decision.”
There are a few things I know for certain. I know that here was not a friendship between Jon and Trigger. I know that at the time Trigger was the only person who reported Jon’s passing. When I received the phone call I told some of my friends to brace themselves because Trigger will write something and it will be controversial. I know that Jon is dead and that his family and friends who he saw as family are grieving. Now I know that there is an obituary from the funeral home that covers the passing of Jon.
From this I ask myself why do people need to comment anymore on this page? I know it is hypocritical because I am commenting at this time. But I also know that it is causing more harm than good. Trigger your point is made and taken. I understand that you “are doing your job” and “paying respects.” Well it’s over now.
I too run a forum and if you think country music is controversial then try the topic of education. Whenever there is a topic that becomes as upsetting and personal as this one, for the good of the Group and good of the cause it is removed or comments are cleared. For two days this has become a pissing match. Whenever I come into a situation involving a student and I have to make a decision I ask myself “is this best for kids?” Trigger I ask you is letting this continue best for you?
June 3, 2015 @ 6:18 am
Where are you guys finding an “official cause of death” being reported? Because I haven’t been able to find anything about his death? Nothing at all about him or his death was mentioned at all in the Bowling Green papers online. His Wikipedia page was mentioned in earlier comments but I couldn’t even find that….not being nosy, but he has high school friends etc that would genuinely like to know how he passed and no one is saying that I am aware of- aside from rumors and heresay? Is there anything official?
June 3, 2015 @ 6:29 am
Hello Concerned,
I have not seen an official cause of death. I am closely monitoring the situation, and as soon as that information is available, I will report it. It can take weeks, sometimes months to receive the results of toxicology reports and an autopsy. Some people have been saying that he died of a cocaine overdose, but that information has not been released. Furthermore, it would be impossible for toxicology/autopsy results to be concluded at this point, let alone released to the public. Anyone can update Wikipedia. I never saw the entry. Perhaps it was on Shooter Jennings’ Wiki page, but either way, the information was incorrect, or at least too preliminary. Maybe they found cocaine on his person or cocaine in his system. But for a coroner to rule on a cocaine overdose or on any cause of death is going to take much more time. Folks need to be patient, and not assume a cause of death until we hear something official.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:14 am
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hensley_%28radio_personality%29
That is the link to his Wikipedia page. I looked at it yesterday and it said that he had died of an OD. It was also written so everything was in a past tense. It has been edited again with his death completely removed and the biography reworded to present tense.
June 8, 2015 @ 5:28 pm
i seen the autopsy!!!! the man strangeled to death on a piece of meat!!!!!
June 3, 2015 @ 6:51 am
Thank you.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:15 am
The Greenville topix is saying cocaine overdose .. Google Greenville topix
June 3, 2015 @ 7:30 am
Well, I couldn’t navigate through all the pop up ads and video streaming ads to find the specific thread, but I can tell you from my experience covering death cases and autopsy reports, it is scientifically impossible to arrive at a conclusive cause of death in 24 hours. Folks need to be patient and wait for an official cause of death to be released by either police, or the medical examiner.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:00 pm
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/greenville-ky/T771HTVUU79R9ETGV
June 3, 2015 @ 7:03 pm
Thank you.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:17 pm
it’s sad, really. I remember him from a Black Crowes board I was on a decade or so ago. he interviewed both Chris and Rich in the early ’00’s, went by the name “mosthigh” on the message board…and I sent him a couple of gem shows from my collection back then (as I did with most board peeps)…he was in his early 20’s when he did the interviews, I believe they were recorded by a couple of people there.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:16 am
I’m just going to leave my two cents here. I only came to this site because I am a fan of the angrygrandpa and have seen Jon on his youtube channel a lot lately. I was curious as to cause of death and this article came up first.
As for the drama that has unfolded, I think its highly disrespectful and selfish for this Trigger guy to keep this article up, despite knowing that it bothers the family and that Jon disliked him, apparently a lot. I think Trigger is loving the attention and at the expense of a great guy who can no longer speak for himself.
You deserve what you get at this point Trigger. If you choose to keep the article up despite high emotions and requests from close friends and family then I suspect you are going to find out very quickly the power of an angry internet. That’s up to you I suppose. If views are worth the drama then it is what it is.
I think it’s corny, fraudulent and fake as all can be for someone who didn’t get along with someone to write an obituary about them.
June 3, 2015 @ 7:28 am
Rockabye,
There is no request from the family of Jon Hensley to take this article down. This issue was dead thirty hours ago. Furthermore, the “family” never requested anything of me. Jon’s girlfriend specifically requested I take the obit down Monday night, and I did. And as explained at the time, and as explained in this article, because people seized on the fact that the obit wasn’t posted to construe it as an attack on Jon Hensley, it was necessary for me to repost it after the situation had been diffused.
” If you choose to keep the article up despite high emotions and requests from close friends and family then I suspect you are going to find out very quickly the power of an angry internet.”
You’re 24 hours too late. All of this has already happened and resolved. Many people, completely unknowledgeable about the situation did come here and attack me, and in my opinion, offered more disrespect to the reverence of this situation and the memory of Jon Hensley than my heartfelt and well-meaning obituary ever could.
It’s over. This article is not going to be taken down, and never should have been taken down to begin with.
June 3, 2015 @ 8:56 am
Am I missing something?
Is the article that you’re objecting to the six-paragraph item that begins
“Jon Hensley, an artist manager known for his work with Shooter Jennings and Wanda Jackson…”
and ends with
“More information on the death of Jon Hensley will be posted as soon as it is made available.”??
That’s pretty much as straight an item as one could write on a newsworthy person’s passing.
June 3, 2015 @ 8:24 pm
**THE STATEMENTS POSTED BY ME ARE MERELY MY PERSONAL OPINION AND ARE NOT TO BE MISCONSTRUED AS FACT. I AM CHOOSING TO EXERCISE MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH***
I hate to be the cynical one and say this however a spade is a spade and calling it by any other name is NOT going to change that. In my opinion the girlfriend is being completely ridiculous and petty. There is no fathomable way this article actually hurt her as much as she claims. It is my opinion she is behaving like this to garner sympathy and deflect away from the fact he was known to do serious drugs and chances are she was probably right there taking a bump next to him.
There was yet another sincere, genuine, heartfelt condolence sent to her on Twitter by a completely different person. She also replied to that with petty ridiculousness saying his “ghost” was going to haunt the woman making the gesture.
Whether he died from an overdose or not is not known as of yet. From my personal experience of having a loved one who abused coke regularly I can assure you the coke plays a significant role in how the physical body works. The official cause of death for my loved one was respiratory failure however his vital organs were in such bad shape from the years of cocaine abuse. While he didn’t overdose the drugs were still responsible for his death. A person just can NOT continually abuse their body like that and expect there to be no consequences.
June 3, 2015 @ 8:49 am
If the original SCM obituary is what’s posted at the top of this page, then some people are seriously crazy. There’s absolutely nothing offensive about what’s written there.
June 3, 2015 @ 11:11 am
I think some people are seriously crazy. Whether it is driven by grief or hatred or feuding or some mix of the three, they are seriously out of their minds.
At the end of the day, they have embarrassed themselves immensely and dishonored the deceased in the process, though I suspect they lack the self-awareness to recognize this. The post Trig put up was kind, concise and respectful. It should not have elicited any kind of response, let alone the one that it did. True colors are revealed in adversity and through this sad episode, the true colors of many have been unfurled and made apparent to anyone who reads this site. I, for one, am aghast that this has taken place, that Trig has suffered what he had to suffer, and that no one from the Hensley circle have come on here to offer a public apology.
The elephant in the room here is the feud that existed/exists between Shooter and Trigger. It seems that similar tactics employed at the height of the feud have once again been implemented here. Moreover, though the feud has not been hot for a while now, it seems the Shooter camp still has some bad blood here. I can’t speak for Trigger and his feelings toward Shooter, but he has not done anything public to dredge up the situation.
In the past, someone’s passing was considered a moment to pause in civil conflict and recognize the end of a life. Here is a recent example of this kind of thing, written by a pro-choice partisan in honor of the passing of a pro-life partisan: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/opinion/linda-greenhouse-where-credit-is-due.html?_r=0 This kind of tribute from adversaries was once commonplace, now, like old rules of civility, it is nearly gone and it is practically extinct on the internet.
Whatever your view on the Shooter/Trigger Wars, Trig did the respectful thing and posted a kind obit at someone’s passing. Then the hounds were unleashed and Trigger’s very life was threatened. They should be humiliated at their and their partisans’ behavior. In the end I don’t think this is over until Shooter himself comes on here and says something to the effect of “Trigger and I have had our differences and we are not friends, but this reaction was wrong. I apologize to him on behalf of my supporters for the threats and accusations directed at him. In the future I hope that he and I, as well as our supporters, can engage in meaningful, constructive debate and all work towards a common goal of protecting the legacy of country music”. Or something to that effect.
June 4, 2015 @ 5:27 pm
I’m reposting Shastacatfish’s wonderfully articulate sentiments here:
“At the end of the day, they have embarrassed themselves immensely and dishonored the deceased in the process, though I suspect they lack the self-awareness to recognize this. The post Trig put up was kind, concise and respectful”.
Thanks for reposting the original obituary, Trig. It was exactly as I had presumed and reinforces my high opinion of you and SCM. How anyone could find offense in it is beyond me. I can only guess that your tenacity, commitment and continued success ruffles some feathers. We call that the Tall Poppy Syndrome in NZ. That if you do well and rise above mediocrity “they” will cut you back down to size. It’s an ugly side of the human condition. I think it means you’ve made it! Thank you for all that you do, for being a constant and consistent champion of real country music and for sharing the gift of your discerning opinions and brilliant writing with the rest of us. I’ve always got your back, brother.
June 4, 2015 @ 1:05 pm
Basically the latest up shot of all this is, ‘I had originally taken down the article but when I realised the amount of notice it was dredging up, I decided to re-post it as a click bait tool for my website. As you know no press is bad press, if it brings eyeballs to my website I couldn’t care less about this dead fellow.’
June 4, 2015 @ 1:47 pm
Another profound statement.
June 6, 2015 @ 2:45 pm
Just a fan. Don’t mean to start shit but my old lady would be pissed too if I passed after a fight we had. It’s raw. God bless Jon God bless Mary and everyone else who is hurting. Sometimes shit just happens we don’t intend.
June 6, 2015 @ 3:16 pm
Remembering Jon Hensley: https://youtu.be/2IuSUfwYivw
June 9, 2015 @ 2:47 pm
Death is horrible. Young death is devastating. Regardless of cause, a loved one is gone. The reason doesn’t really matter at this point. Should it be OD, won’t be the first or last in this industry. I’ll make no judgements for those suffering this loss right now. They are entitled to their feelings and to grieve quietly with the ones they love.