Songwriter's Hall of Famer JD Souther

Classic songs from Songwriter’s Hall of Famer JD Souther – Doolin Dalton, You’re Only Lonely, Something in the Dark – and a glimpse into his path to fame and beyond.

(JD Souther c 1970s Painting: A. Hamilton)

John David Souther was born November 2, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan. His father John D. Souther was a singer who sometimes performed as Johnny Warren (before and after serving in the army during WWII), and his mother Leota “Loty” Florene (nee Finley) was a Texas native. John David and his 2 sisters – Sharon “Shari” Ann Souther born May 14, 1956, and Susan Jane born June 27, 1950 – were raised in Amarillo, Texas, and heard a lot of opera, big band, and jazz growing up. 

Souther said in a 2015 interview with T. Cole Rachel for Interview Magazine that his grandmother sang opera, and his father sang in a big band. He was also influenced by fellow Texan Roy Orbison’s rock and roll music. His father John gave up touring with bands to run a record store (and serve as announcer for the Amarillo Gold Sox baseball team), and Souther had ample access to musical instruments and recordings from in that venue as well. Decades later, Souther revisited those early musical loves on his last album, Tenderness (2015).

In fourth grade Souther learned to play the violin, followed by the clarinet. As David Souther, he performed a violin solo at a 1956 PTA Father’s Night event for Amarillo’s Alice Landergin School.

It wasn’t until he was 12 years old that he learned to play the drums, the instrument he felt he played best, although he also later learned to play piano and guitar. During high school and college he played in different jazz and rock n’ roll bands as a drummer, including John David & The Senders. The Amarillo Globe-Times of March 3, 1961 noted David Souther of David Crockett Junior High School, had been selected as a contestant in the St. Patrick’s Teenager Jam Session and Dance, and would play drums. The following year,  Souther performed in the Tacosa High School dramatic production of Rebel Without a Cause.

(JD Souther 2008: Steve Covault)

According to Perfect Sound Forever online magazine, Detroit girl-group Honey Ltd. was comprised of friends Laura Polkinghorne and Marsha Jo Temmer, and sisters Joan and Alex Sliwin. The band started out in 1967 as the Mama Cats and were often backed up by The Mushrooms, which included a young Glenn Frey (in his pre-Eagles days). In 1968 the Mama Cats moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to Honey Ltd. 

Honey Ltd. was signed by country singer Lee Hazlewood’s label, LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries). They cut some singles, played local clubs and enjoyed a few television spots.

By 1968, 23-year-old JD Souther was also living in Los Angeles and earning a living as a session musician. He’d picked up a guitar that had been left in his apartment and found a new instrument besides playing drums and piano, that suited his songwriting and performing. Souther and Honey Ltd.‘s Alex Sliwin met and began dating that year.

Glenn Frey had also moved to LA from Detroit and was staying with the 4 girls from Honey Ltd. at their place in Toluca Lake. Souther’s girlfriend Alex Sliwin introduced Souther to Frey. The two men shared a Detroit background and similar tastes in music.

They quickly formed a lasting friendship and musical relationship, later sharing a house with Jackson Browne; all three singer-songwriters collaborated on songs at times.

Souther and Frey formed a folk/country/rock duo called Longbranch Pennywhistle in 1969, playing country western-bluegrass music. An older JD Souther talked to Decades TV about his early songwriting beginnings, early musical relationships and friendships.

JD Souther and Alexandr Sliwin had married in March 1969 in Los Angeles, and Alex quit Honey Ltd. at his request. The marriage didn’t last long and they were divorced in 1972 (by all accounts the marriage had dissolved long before that). Honey Ltd. was also finished. Alex went on to write songs and form a band (Bijoux) with her sister Joan in the 1970’s. 

JD. Souther and Glenn Frey recorded and released their band’s self-titled album Longbranch Pennywhistle (1970) before they too went  their separate ways to become solo artists. Most of the songs on the Longbranch Pennywhistle album were written by JD Souther.

Some of the women Souther has been linked with in the past includes singers Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Judy Collins, Stevie Nicks and Judee Sill. The lyrics in Sill’s hit song Jesus was a Crossmaker (written in 1971) “he’s a bandit and a heartbreaker” are widely attributed to Sill’s brief, unhappy romance with JD Souther that same year; Souther dropped Judee Sill for singer Linda Ronstadt.

Linda Ronstadt and JD Souther became a couple for a few years and lived together in the early 1970’s. In interviews, Ronstadt has said she found Souther’s easy ability to write songs frustrating for her (she was always a singer vs a songwriter).

Souther credited Judee Sill, Judy Collins, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt as strong songwriting influences on him, Linda in particular.

“[She was] more responsible for my career than almost anyone else because she was in my house when I was writing the first songs that I thought were good. She just set such a high bar. She picked the best songs of mine, the best of Warren Zevon’s, the best of Lowell George, the best of Jackson Browne…” 

Souther and Ronstadt maintained a life-long friendship despite their break-up, distance, and her illness (Parkinson’s Disease). 

In 1972 JD Souther released a self-titled solo album John David Souther, which failed to chart. He provided background vocals and produced Ronstadt’s album Don’t Cry Now (1973). In addition to writing hit songs for Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt during the 1970’s, J. D. Souther collaborated on songs with Glen Frey and Don Henley for the Eagles – Best of My Love (1974), New Kid in Town (1976), Heartache Tonight (1979).

Below, J. D. Souther performing Doolin Dalton live in 1973:

JD Souther’s song Faithless Love was first recorded by Linda Ronstadt and included on her 1974 Album Heart Like a Wheel; Souther recorded the song himself and it was on his own album Black Rose in 1976. When Glen Campbell recorded Faithless Love in 1984 and released it as his first single, the song made it to #10 on the Billboard Country charts.

By 1974 Souther was part of the new Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, a country-rock group comprised of Souther, Chris Hillman (The Byrds), and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco). The group made it to #27 on the US Charts with the hit single Fallin’ in Love from their self-titled first album, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. 

The title of their second album Trouble in Paradise (1975) may have said it all for Souther-Hillman-Furay Band; they broke up and Souther continued on his solo career. His solo albums were not particularly successful, but his session musician work and songwriting continued unabated; and he sang on other artist’s albums for Don Henley, Christopher Cross and others.

Souther also sang several duets with Linda Ronstadt including Hasten Down the Wind (1976) written by Warren Zevon, Prisoner in Disguise (1975, written by Souther), and Hearts Against the Wind (1980), from the movie Urban Cowboy.

JD Souther’s biggest hit single was the title song from his 1979 album, You’re Only Lonely, which made it to #7 on Billboard US Charts and held down #1 on the US Adult Contemporary Chart for 5 weeks. Souther performed You’re Only Lonely live at Farm Aid in 1986

JD Souther’s 1981 duet with James Taylor on Her Town Too (co-written by Souther, Taylor, and Waddy Wachtel) reached #11 on the Billboard charts.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s Souther was semi-retired from the music scene, building his “dream home” in Nichols Canyon in the Hollywood Hills and living there for 12 years. 

“After You’re Only Lonely hit I thought, ‘It’s time to retire for a little while.’ I had done what I wanted to do musically and I just thought to myself, ‘All the men in my family worked until they died, and I’m going to take a few years off and build a great house and have a life.‘ That stretched into 20 years, and I realized I’d better start getting back to work.” JD Souther, Songwriter J.D. Souther Stumbles Into His Role in ‘Nashville’, by David Browne, Rolling Stone Magazine, October 16, 2012.

While on a partial hiatus from the music industry, J. D. Souther turned his talents to acting, with a recurring role on the television series thirtysomething (1989-1990 season), and appearances in movies including Postcards From the Edge (1990). 

He also found time to perform on the Roy Orbison and Friends (1987) concert & video with his idol, along with fellow backing musicians Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, kd Lang, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, T. Bone Burnet, Jennifer Warnes, and others (below).    

Souther sang Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (by The Platters’) for the movie Always (1989); and continued to write songs with and for other artists, as well as the theme song for the television show Anything But Love (1989-1992).

His mother Loty F. Souther died in Amarillo, Texas at the age of 80 in February 2002, and his namesake father John Souther was 91 when he died in September 2007.

In his 55+ years, while on an extended vacation in Ireland, J. D. Souther met Cashel florist Sarah Nicholson at a dinner party. Nicholson told the Irish Times in 2022 that she moved with Souther to the U.S. with her 6-year-old daughter just a few months after they met, in 2004. 

Sarah and JD Souther got married and settled in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her daughter Anja. The had marriage ended by 2010 and Souther lived alone for several years on a farm outside Nashville, staying in the area until moving to New Mexico in the 2020s. 

Seeming ageless, Souther returned to recording with a vengeance – releasing 4 albums in 4 years. His first album in 25 years, If The World Was You (2008) featured jazz and standard songs…closely followed by a live album in 2009, and an album that included new versions of his greatest songwriting successes for other artists – Natural History (2011). Midnight in Tokyo (2012) was another live album from Japan.

He didn’t give up acting either – appearing in the movie Deadline (2012) and enjoying a recurring role as songwriter Watty White on the hit ABC music series Nashville (2012-2017).

John David Souther was welcomed into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. He was still killing it at age 70 when he sang Something in the Dark, included on his 2015 album Tenderness.

JD Souther died suddenly at his Sandia Park, New Mexico home on September 17, 2024, just a week before the 78-year-old legend’s concert tour with Karla Bonoff was slated to kick off in Phoenix, Arizona. He’s survived by sisters Shari Smeaton and Susan Burt, ex-wife Sarah Souther, and step-daughter Anja Nicholson. 

Note: This article was first published in 2015 as Celebrating Seniors: JD Souther Turns 70. It has been updated with new & additional content.