Apopka native John Anderson, the country music hitmaker whose gravelly, warbled vocals produced honky-tonk staples such as “Swingin’” and “Seminole Wind,” has died. He was 71.
Anderson’s family confirmed his death in a post on social media early Thursday, describing him as “a gifted country music singer whose voice and songs touched countless lives.”
Anderson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024, the culmination of a career that spanned nearly five decades.
Born in 1954, Anderson first picked up a guitar as a child. Although he was initially drawn to rock ’n’ roll, he pivoted after his mother brought home a country album by Ray Charles. But it was the pioneering voice of Merle Haggard — who would eventually become a friend — that hooked Anderson on the genre.
“I heard ol’ Merle Haggard and got turned on to his ‘Greatest Hits’ album,” Anderson told Pollstar in 2024. “I got ahold of that, and boy, that’s when I fell in love.”
After moving to Nashville, Tennessee, as a teenager in the 1970s, Anderson found mixed success until 1982, when his album “Wild & Blue” burst onto the scene.
A track from that album — “Swingin’” — became a country music anthem and remains one of his most enduring hits. More than 40 years since its release, Anderson could not touch a stage without playing it. “At this point, I would never think about not doing it,” he told Pollstar.
In a famously fickle industry, Anderson managed career reinventions and comebacks over nearly a half century, releasing dozens of records. After going quiet in the late 1980s, he roared back with “Seminole Wind,” an homage to his home state that was critically acclaimed as one of his greatest recorded vocals.
His last record, “Years,” was released in 2020. Four years later, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“I’m just glad I’m alive to see it,” he told Rolling Stone at the time.
Anderson remained active in the country music scene, touring and performing regularly, including stints with his friend and collaborator Blake Shelton and appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. As recently as Sunday, Anderson attended the Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Tim McGraw, among others.
“We talked, we laughed, we sang his songs that I loved so much together, just goofing off. I am completely heartbroken by his passing,” McGraw wrote on Instagram on Thursday. “There will never be a stylist in music, any music, that was so defining as his.”
Shelton also saw Anderson on Sunday, he wrote on Instagram.
“I am sick and I am stunned,” Shelton wrote Thursday. “But I am a very lucky man. I got the opportunity to find out that my hero wasn’t just the guy I hoped he’d be. He was so much more than that. John was my friend.”
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Information about survivors was not immediately available.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.