Tom Roady, a master percussionist who contributed to the recordings of Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Joan Baez, Art Garfunkel, Wilson Pickett, Bob Seger, Tom T. Hall, the Dixie Chicks, James Brown, Kenny Chesney and hundreds of others, died Sunday evening of a heart attack at age 62 while on tour.

“He’s one of the greatest in the world,” famed drummer Eddie Bayers told Modern Drummer magazine in 1996. “I’ve had the opportunity numerous times to work with him live in the studio, and it always made me a better player when he was there.”

Mr. Roady was diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer in October, though it did not contribute to his heart attack. He spent Sunday rehearsing for a tour with Ricky Skaggs and The Whites for the Skaggs Family Christmas tour, and was on a tour bus traveling to a concert date with the Skaggs family when he died.

Mr. Roady, who grew up in the St. Louis area, lived in the Nashville area for 28 years, and he was an integral part of hit singles including Brooks & Dunn’s “My Maria,” Kenny Chesney’s “When The Sun Goes Down” and Vince Gill’s “What The Cowgirls Do.” He toured with Skaggs, James Taylor, John Denver, Paul Anka and others, and he owned Big Bang Theory Studio in Kingston Springs.

Mr. Roady’s final days were filled with music. Saturday night, he played Puckett’s in Leiper’s Fork with friends Waldo LaTowsky, Gary Talley, Chopper Anderson, Dave Hoffner and Renee Armand.

“He was one of those rare people that everybody liked,” said LaTowsky. “Tom had a great smile and a great vibe.

Mr. Roady normally focused on percussion rather than sitting behind a standard drum kit: A drummer would play bass drum, snare and the like while Mr. Roady played conga, shakers, tambourines and other rhythmic instruments that complemented and elevated recorded tracks and performances. He added complexity and sophistication without clutter or distraction, as is heard on Suzy Bogguss’ 1992 hit “Outbound Plane” or the Dixie Chicks’ Fly and Wide Open Spaces albums, each of which sold more than 10,000,000 copies.

“You have to be supportive of the song,” he said in a 2010 interview with Erica Cantrell of the Mel Bay Company.

An in-demand session player for 40 years, Mr. Roady played R&B in Muscle Shoals, Ala. in the early 1970s and spent time in Los Angeles prior to moving to Nashville in 1983. He became an integral Music Row player, with credits on numerous contemporary Nashville touchstones, including Emmylou Harris’ Ballad of Sally Rose, Chesney’s When The Sun Goes Down and Trisha Yearwood’s Thinkin’ About You.

Mr. Roady is survived by his wife, Melanie.

A funeral service will be held Sunday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. at Highland Park Church - where he served as percussionist in the band - 5710 Knob Road in Nashville. Visitation will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Highland Park.

 

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Tom Roady didn't let cancer stop his tour with Skaggs

From the Greenville News

Tom Roady knew that the cancer eating away his insides would kill him within a year, but rather than go through painful treatments the 62-year-old percussionist who has worked with music industry legends wanted to tour with Ricky Skaggs one more time, his wife and friend said.

A show at Clemson University was supposed to kick off Roady’s ninth year with the bluegrass giant’s Christmas tour, but an empty drum set sat on stage where he should have been.

Roady was found dead when the tour bus pulled into the Hampton Inn parking lot in Clemson hours before the show at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts, Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said.

Loved ones said they prayed Roady would beat the cancer-- and he did. Heart disease was the cause of death, and the cancer spreading in his body was not a factor, Kelley said.

“They went to wake him up, and he was gone,” said his widow, Melanie Roady. “He passed in his sleep on the tour bus, going on the Christmas tour.”

Hours later, Skaggs and his band put on an emotional performance before a crowd of about 750 that included solo tributes to the late percussionist, including one by Skaggs’ daughter, witnesses said. Tom Roady’s drums were set up in tribute to him, but no one played them, they said.

“They came out and did a selection,” Brooks Center Director Mickey Harder said. “Within a song or two, (Skaggs) talked about the fact that they had lost this cherished band member, and it was hard for them to do this. But they loved this guy, and he was in a better place.”

While he might not have been a household name, the percussionist toured and recorded with several music legends, including Paul Anka, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Kenny Chesney and Lynyrd Skynyrd, friends and family said.

“He was probably the most well-known, unknown percussionists in the world,” said his friend and pastor Dale Robble of Highland Park Church in Nashville.

Tom Roady rehearsed with the band for nine hours Sunday before boarding a tour bus that carried the band through the night to South Carolina, Robble said. Band members let him have the biggest room on the bus, Melanie Roady said.

 

She said she received a text from him shortly after midnight saying that he was going to sleep and that he loved her, she said.

Skaggs called later with the news that her husband had died, she said.

“Mel, I’m so sorry,” she remembered him saying. “Tom passed away last night.”

Later, Skaggs spoke to about 70 performing arts majors and told them that while he and other tour members were saddened, they know their friend is “in a better place,” is “looking down on them and smiling” and would want them to continue with the show, said David Hartmann, performing arts professor and department chair.

Skaggs told the students he doesn’t play music to make money or win awards but because it warms his heart, Hartmann said. “Do what’s in your heart,” was his advice to students even as he headed off to perform with a heart heavy from the loss of a friend, Hartmann said.

Music was what was in Tom Roady’s heart, loved ones said.

Melanie Roady said that her husband played local honky-tonks and big auditoriums with equal verve, including a recent show in Nashville with Aretha Franklin.

“He kept saying over and over that he was blessed because he got to make a living doing what he loved-- doing music,” she said. “Not many people get to do that.”

Tom Roady learned in October that he had cancer and that he had about a year to live, Robble said. It was in his stomach, liver and lymph nodes, his wife said.

Chemotherapy would have bought Tom Roady about two more months, but he wasn’t interested, Robble said. He was even willing to putting off surgery-- an operation later deemed unnecessary-- to go on tour with Skaggs, Robble said.

“He wanted more than really anything else going on in this world to go out there and be on this tour with them,” he said.

After the diagnosis, friends and well-wishers flooded him with calls and visits, loved ones said. The Kingston Springs, Tenn. percussionists’ spirits remained high, and he seemed outwardly in good health, Robble said.

During the Clemson show on Monday night, Skaggs‘ daughter, Molly Skaggs, sang a “beautiful tribute” to Roady, one of several solo memorials by various band members, Harder said.

“She talked about how he had the biggest smile in the world and how he had mentored her,” Harder said. “She would see him once a year at this Christmas show.”

Band members shed many tears, Harder said. Skaggs, who draws on “ironclad faith,” never broke down, she said.

Steve Francis, a Pendleton area fiddle player who was at the show, said Skaggs remained composed while talking about the death.

“That’s a tough thing to do,” Francis said.

Skaggs told the audience that the death was something that had never happened to him, said Robin Denny, a Clemson University spokeswoman and bluegrass fan who was at the show.

“You could tell everyone there was emotional, but they gave a good performance,” Denny said. “I admire them for being able to go on.”

At a reception, Skaggs remembered Roady saying during their long Sunday rehearsal, “I’m so happy, if I go in five years or tomorrow, I’m OK,” Harder said.

Skaggs signed autographs after the show and spoke with fans, she said.

“As sad as it was, I think we felt like we were on a personal journey with them,” Harder said.