Information/Write-up
Jack Scott — a famed Windsor-born musician and Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee — has died. The rockabilly legend passed away on Thursday (December 12) in Warren, MI. He was 83.
Scott suffered a heart attack on December 6 and eventually passed away of congestive heart failure at St. John Macomb Hospital, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts confirmed to the media.
While born in 1936 in the Ontario city of Windsor as Giovanni Scafone Jr., the musician moved with his family to the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park, MI, at age 10. After starting his music career as Jack Scott as a teenager, he went on to become one of Detroit's very first rock'n'roll heroes.
In the late '50s and early '60s, Scott cranked out a series of Top 10 hits, delivering such songs as "What in the World's Come over You," "My True Love," "Goodbye Baby," "The Way I Walk" and "Burning Bridges."
While largely known as a rockabilly star, Scott also ventured into the worlds of country and pop during his music career, which he continued to pursue into his 70s.
Despite his low-key star presence, Scott's "The Way I Walk" was famously covered by the Cramps, while he was also regularly praised by such in-the-know rock figures as Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant.
"My big love was country — Hank Williams, Red Foley, Eddy Arnold, all those guys. I just loved that music," Scott told the Detroit Free Press in 2003.
"My father bought a guitar for me when we were still in Windsor, when I was about 9 years old. I wanted a guitar. It was during hard times. People didn't have a lot of money. But he came home with a guitar. It didn't even have a case."
In 2004, Scott was inducted into the Michigan Country Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, TN, in 2006. In 2007, he was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
Scott was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.
-Brock Thiessen, Dec. 16, 2019
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