Songwriter JD Graham Seriously Injured in Accident Ahead of New Album
This story has been updated.
Songwriter JD Graham is a rare specimen to say the least. A songwriter’s songwriter with an incredible catalog of compositions, he’s earned the respect of peers, and the admiration of fans by being the physical embodiment of rehabilitation through music.
Originally from Oklahoma where he grew up singing and playing with some of the big names from the Red Dirt scene like the boys in Cross Canadian Ragweed, Graham had just as much talent as his peers, but couldn’t stay on the straight and narrow to see that talent flourish. After being given a prescription for anxiety at age 11, this led to a 25-year battle with drug addiction.
It was a catastrophic automobile accident in 2017 that led to JD Graham’s incarceration for five years, and a complete rehabilitation and retooling of his life. While in prison, he founded a music program, raised over $20,000 for behind bars to help fund it, and worked with over 200 inmates to use music and songwriting to help aid their rehabilitation journey.
JD Graham recorded his album Razorwire Sunrise (2019) while in the Arizona State Prison. His albums Pound of Rust (2023) and Sergeant of Sorrow (2024) have become admired in songwriting circles. He’s been invited to big country music festivals like Mile 0 Fest. Graham is set to release his latest album Uppers and Downers on March 6th.
But once again it’s an automobile accident that has changed the life of JD Graham. On February 24th, Graham was involved in a major collision on the Interstate in New Mexico. “He has a broken back, broken neck, and broken ribs and they are not done with all of the tests,” says JD Graham’s daughter. “He was hit by one semi and then slammed into another. The crash was severe, and first responders had to cut him out of his vehicle. He was taken to a nearby hospital and then life flighted to a trauma center in Texas, where he is currently being treated.”
Graham is currently in the ICU. To add insult to injury, JD Graham’s wife Amy was recently diagnosed with Cancer, and has been in a recovery of her own. A Go Fund Me has been set up to help JD Graham and his family with expenses. After being set up on Wednesday morning (2-25), donations immediately started pouring in from the music community, including from JD’s friends in the songwriting and Red Dirt music community.
The Birds Nest Listening Room in Dunn, North Carolina is also planning a benefit show for JD Graham on March 15th.
JD Graham’s daughter Destiny tells Saving Country Music, “He was traveling to Oklahoma where he’s got some shows coming up, and a semi nearly ran him over. He had his dad’s dog with him. It killed the dog. He was taken to the Tucumcari hospital. They weren’t equipped to deal with his level of trauma. So he was lifeflighted to Amarillo. His back is broken, and it’s a unstable fracture, which means if they don’t fix it, he could become paralyzed.”
Destiny continues, “He’s going to have a 4-hour surgery, and they’re going to put a steel rod and screws in his back. He’s going to be in the ICU for the next week. But it is a good prognosis, though because of his past, it brings up a lot of trauma for him. He can’t walk now. It’s going to take him a few weeks to get there … My dad’s not the kind to ask for support. But we had so many asking, I thought it was appropriate to make the Go Fund Me for those who want to donate.”
The accident comes at a time that Graham had a calendar of shows scheduled to help promote his new album Uppers and Downers set to be released in less than two weeks. Produced by Jason Weinheimer, it features Tulsa’s version of The Wrecking Crew, with John Fullbright on keys, Jesse Aycock on guitar and pedal/lap steel, among others.
“When I was thinking about where I wanted to record this album, I had been listening to the Pony Bradshaw album, ‘Calico Jim’ and loved it. I decided to figure out where it was recorded, and who produced it. That’s when I found Jason Weinheimer and sent him an email,” JD Graham recently told Saving Country Music.“I asked him to listen to my last two albums, and let me know if he would be interested in making an album with me. He got back with me a couple of days later and said that he was in. He sent me the player list and my jaw hit the floor … I couldn’t believe that I was going to make a record with them.”
Ahead of the album, he’s released the song “Truth in Tears,” a duet with John Fullbright.
“This was the most fun I’ve ever had making an album,” JD said. “There was no one micromanaging the process. We just charted the songs out and played them. Everyone’s creative input was welcome. The album was recorded mostly live with everyone in one room. Three days into the studio I asked John if he would sing the second verse on ‘Truth In Tears’ and he agreed. It felt good to have one of your songwriting heroes sing on one of your songs.”
The reason there has been such an outpouring of support for JD Graham is because as respected as he is as a songwriter, he’s just as respected as a person. JD’s story has been an inspiration to many, in music, in prison, and in the outside world. The healing power of music is embodied in the JD Graham story. Hopefully that healing power can once again manifest itself to help JD Graham through his latest adversity.
Donate to the JD Graham Go Fund Me.
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February 25, 2026 @ 11:28 am
Sigh. I last saw JD at the Blue Door in OKC last year. Three observations. 1. Beautiful songwriter. Unvarnished truth teller. 2. Like so many people that have struggled with addiction, he makes no bones about owning his own problems. 3. He made the decision to stop playing “shows” where he is background music, even though a lot of singer/songwriter artists use those to pay the bills. He plays only shows where the music is the reason for the show. Bravo, man.
Prayers coming for you (and your wife).
February 25, 2026 @ 12:49 pm
Sorry to see this news. That is tough especially as he had things moving in the right direction again. He has a long road to recovery now.
When I saw the headline, I first thought Jon Dee Graham who has been recovering from a heart attack and stroke. I couldn’t believe that he had an accident too.
February 25, 2026 @ 2:47 pm
(healing wishes to JD and his family) 🥺❤️🩹
And looking forward to his newest labor of love next month.
February 26, 2026 @ 1:33 am
Karma sucks.
February 26, 2026 @ 11:38 pm
This story is getting curiouser and curiouser
From JD Graham’s daughter’s Facebook page:
Wreck on the highway in New Mexico: “He was hit by one semi and then slammed into another. The crash was severe, and first responders had to cut him out of his vehicle. He was taken to a nearby hospital and then life flighted to a trauma center in Texas, where he is currently being treated.”
There’s a video message from JD himself. Posted within 48 hours of the accident. He’s lying in a bed, partially wearing a hospital gown and with a brace around his neck. No bruises or scabs on his face or on the visible parts of his body. He says he’s almost dead.
More than a dozen postings about this event come up on the Internet search–Everyone from SCM and Whiskey Riff to Daily Express and Penn Live is “covering” it–but not a one of them has any info beyond giving the same quotes from JD’s daughter’s Facebook page.
No record of this event occurring, apart from the posting by Destiny Graham.
No mention of where in New Mexico the accident occurred or what hospital–or even what city–in Texas he was flown to. Forget about trying to send him flowers.
Not a single independent news report of the accident. No photos, no police reports. Was any driver issued a ticket? Were any other people injured? Were the truck drivers tested? Were there any eyewitnesses? Who knows/ who cares.
I guess this accident happened in some area of New Mexico that has no news operation. And with budget cuts the way they are, the news services that blanket the Internet don’t have the wherewithal to report the story the way stories used to be reported: by making some phone calls.
The Facebook page says he’s going for surgery. At whatever hospital he’s at. I wish him luck
February 27, 2026 @ 12:23 am
Luckoldsun,
You’ve been a reader and commenter here for many years, and I appreciate your patronage. But I don’t appreciate you questioning my credibility, which you have done now on numerous occasions.
There multiple things you say in this comment that are categorically false.
“Everyone from SCM and Whiskey Riff to Daily Express and Penn Live is “covering” it–but not a one of them has any info beyond giving the same quotes from JD’s daughter’s Facebook page.”
This is false. The quotes I included in this article from JD Graham’s daughter Destiny did not come from Facebook. One quote came from the Go Fund Me Page. Then, I personally spoke to Destiny on the phone while she was at the hospital with her dad. I have that phone call on record. That is where the majority of my quotes from Destiny come from.
“No mention of where in New Mexico the accident occurred or what hospital–or even what city–in Texas he was flown to.”
False. As it states in the article above, “He was taken to the Tucumcari hospital. They weren’t equipped to deal with his level of trauma. So he was lifeflighted to Amarillo. His back is broken, and it’s a unstable fracture, which means if they don’t fix it, he could become paralyzed.”
“Not a single independent news report of the accident. No photos, no police reports.”
You can see photos from the wrecked car here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVNTU5cjYjN/?hl=en&img_index=1
The Arizona license plate verifies it’s JD’s vehicle.
To answer your question, no, there are no local reports, first because the area between Amarillo and Tucumcari in New Mexico is extremely remote and desolate, and two, local news has been virtually eradicated in the United States.
This story has not finished. It’s just beginning. I might have more information on it soon. But I’m not going to drive to Amarillo, talk my way past nurses, and shove a microphone in this guy’s face as he fights for his life. Also, due to HIPAA laws, medical information is restricted.
February 27, 2026 @ 6:43 pm
You’re actually the only writer on this who’s done any work, whatsoever.
I see the story was posted on FoxNews.com today.
There’s not a scintilla of fact or information beyond copying your original story–minus the phone call to Destiny.
Fracking Fox News–and they don’t even have someone call the local police chief and try to find out what happened.
What’s funny is that the media are posting this story all over te place, but they’re not even making any effort to find out and report what happened.
You really don’t see anything odd here? The guy’s lying in bed and shooting a video less than 48 hours after being in a horrific crash, breaking his back, neck and ribs, and being taken by abulance to one hospital and being flow by another. He has no visible bruises or welts or scabs. He doesn’t appear to be hooked up to any sort of feeding machine. There’s no way you would be eating regular food immediately after experiencing something like that.
Now, I’ll grant you tha, notwithstanding your glowing write-up of JD as a “songwriter’s songwiter” who’s widely admired, relatively few people have heard of him. But still, even if he were not famous at all, the media should do some basic fact-checkin and reporting, rather than outsorce-the story out to the subject and his daughter.
February 27, 2026 @ 11:40 pm
Luckyoldsun,
I can’t speak for other outlets. When I heard about the accident, I immediately started making phone calls and writing emails trying to get whatever information about the accident and JD Graham’s condition that I could. I did not just rely on social media posts. I spoke directly to sources. I did reach out to the New Mexico State Police trying to find more information about the accident. No information was available.
A huge misunderstanding you’re having here has to do with geography. Saying “call the local police chief” verifies this. The stretch of road between Tucumcari and Amarillo where the accident happened is extremely remote, with virtually no towns to speak of. Tucumcari only has 5,000 people.
At some point, more of the story will come out. But your implication that it’s all a big scam is irresponsible. It’s not up to a dude stoved up in a hospital bed and a grieving family to disprove your conspiracy theory just because you’ve never heard of him. I was hanging out with JD Graham less than a month ago in Florida. I’d seen him last June in Kentucky. I’d seen him again in August in Texas where I took the picture at the top of this article. I know JD Graham on a personal level. This is not some sort of scam, and your accusations are heartless, and reckless.
February 28, 2026 @ 1:33 am
OK, I realized after I posted that that I probably should have said New Mexico State police. If there was a crash on a state highway involving two tractor trailers and another vehicle that resulted in major injuries and total destruction of a vehicle, and emergency medical services called, then obvioulsly, there’s a police report and a bunch of photos were taken at the scene. The fact that the area is so lowly populated should, if anything make the accident stand out more. It’s not like it happened on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where some people might think that incidents of this it type are so common that it would barely make an impression.
I’m not making accusations. But I’m pointing out that the reporting of this has been woefully deficient. I guess news departments have been defunded to the point that the news sources that Google and Microsoft etc. put at the top of their pages–Fox News, Parade, the Independent, etc., outsource their reporting to private–and interested–people’s Facebook pages and publish news articles without doing any investigating or reporting whatsoever. I’m sure they receive quite a bit of revenue for being at the top of the Internet chain. But if the publc accepts trashy “reporting” like that, they have no reason to spend the money that it would take to hire a few reporters to do it competently.
J.D. and Destiny are not a reliable source for a newsroom to disseminate without doing any fact-checking, whatsoever.
March 3, 2026 @ 9:07 pm
I meant off grid not grind, a few other grammar errors, but your energy and “logic” required a reply, you obviously haven’t driven in New Mexico much, if ever, & to think everything has to be a certain orderly way in this world.. phew, might wanna get out and about a bit. I wish J.D. healing and Godspeed
March 3, 2026 @ 8:54 pm
Lucky Ole Sun,
wow… you really are stupid. “the fact that it’s such a low populated area should make it stand out more”… uh… OK. Tucumcari is in a desolate no man’s land. There may be 5 thousand people, but it’s hard hard country, cold, hot, high winds, and the people are spread out all over the place. When you do go into town it’s literally like stepping into 1975, it is so poor and impoverished, or it’s just ranchers or off grinders, but interstate 40 goes through it. I-40 has far more fatal accidents than the Brooklyn expressway, because it’s wild windy. free for all country. Ive seen dozens of large semi trucks flipped over in snow storms out there, even back when local news was still a thing, it wasn’t news worthy. I really had no reason to comment except your attitude, tone, ignorance, and peurile pontifications & suppositions made me want to vomit. Police reports and such take there time out in such a place. “Poncho met his match you know, on the deserts down in Mexico, nobody heard his dying words, ah but that’s the way it goes”. If this is any kind of scam, that will come out. it likely is not, so sorry you can’t get the info you want, right now!! More sorry to read your peurile logic, maybe go visit Tucumcari, watch the big rigs out there!