Remembering 2025’s Music Losses: Johnny Tillotson

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Hey, I’m up! I’m enjoying some chicken soup (yes, I can taste it, unlike the last time I had covid and lost my sense of smell and taste), taking my vitamins and medication, and ready to spring another musician on you whom we said goodbye to in 2025. Here’s today’s performer. Johnny Tillotson I mentioned this in the monthly obit list when he died: it’s really hard to categorize Johnny Tillotson. “Poetry in Motion” was a fun rock song, while “It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’” was straight country. Of course, that just expanded his popularity in the late 50s and early 60s! Tillotson was discovered nationally in a talent contest sponsored by Pet Milk, which also happened to be a sponsor for the Grand Ole Opry. From there, he was signed to the record label the Everly Brothers were on (Cadence) and started having hits. He wrote some (“It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’” was inspired by his father’s illness and death) and he covered some (he did a version of the Ernie Ashworth hit “Talk Back Tremblin’ Lips”). All ini all, he had fourteen top 40 hits before Beatlemania took over. He was still a popular artist on the “oldies” circuit into the 2010s. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s forced him to retire and eventually ended his life in April 2025, three weeks before his 87th birthday. While he’s largely forgotten in the sea of superstars that filled 60s music, I always enjoyed him, so I’ll let you hear him one last time. Johnny Tillotson Born April 20, 1938, Jacksonville, Florida Died April 1, 2025, Los Angeles, California (Parkinson’s disease) (age 86) HALL OF FAME: Florida Artists, 2011 Tillotson’s biggest hit, “Poetry in Motion”: