Louisiana native, singer, guitarist and songwriter Tony Joe White has reportedly passed away.

The 75-year-old’s death was reported by the Tennessean. According to the report, he died suddenly from an apparent heart attack in his home in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. “He wasn’t ill at all,” his son Jody White told the outlet. “He just had a heart attack…there was no pain or suffering.”

In September 2018, the 75-year-old singer and songwriter released Bad Mouthin‘, which he discussed with OffBeat‘s John Wirt in a Backtalk. Below is an excerpt from that interview:

 

Was music a big part of your life early on?

My mom and dad and my brother and all the girls, they all played guitar and piano and sang. They had great harmonies. Daddy played guitar like Chet Atkins. I was 10, 11; I would just sit and listen, mainly.

What inspired you to play music?

My bother brought a Lightnin’ Hopkins album home. I mean, it was the start of Tony Joe White, really. I started borrowing my dad’s guitar, learning blues licks and stuff. I carried that guitar to my room every night, without daddy seeing where I took it. He was real particular about that guitar. And then he saw me at breakfast next morning, after I’d left his guitar up there. He said, ‘Boy, I want that guitar back on the couch as soon as you get through eating.’

Blues artists told me their fathers beat them for doing that.

My dad said, ‘Show me a couple of things you been picking up.’ And I played a little of ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go.’ Man, his eyes lit up. After that, it was all right with him. He really was proud of it, once he heard some of the stuff coming out of me. And then when I went home after ‘Polk Salad Annie’ came out, ol’ daddy, he was beaming like a fox.

You were a hometown hero in West Carroll Parish?

They even had Tony Joe White Days. People barbecuing and cooking shrimp and crawfish everywhere. And I’d come down with my drummer and we’d play. Sometimes my sisters would sing with me. It was a big day all the way around, man.

Can you talk about the origin of “Polk Salad Annie”?

I had moved to Corpus Christi and was playing the clubs. I started to write a little bit there. I said, ‘I really want to write something that I know about.’ After I finally got the talking part of ‘Polk Salad Annie’ finished, the next part of it just flowed in there. I knew two or three Annies down Boeuf River. They picked cotton. They were good-looking girls and we all went to school together. I had plenty of characters to draw off of. Roosevelt and Ira Lee, Willie and Laura Mae Jones. We picked cotton together. All of them were real people, real stories.

OffBeat sends condolences to the White family and all of Tony Joe’s fans.