Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis passed away on September 19, 2025, in Centennial Hospital in Nashville after a brief illness. Sonny is survived by his wife, Louise, daughter Sarah Curtis Graziano, son-in-law Neal Graziano, granddaughters Estella, Mira, and Sylvie Graziano, and sister Alene Richardson. He was 88.

Sonny was born in a Dust Bowl dugout on May 9, 1937, the second youngest of six children to Violet and Arthur Curtis. His parents were cotton farmers outside Lubbock, Texas. A guitar prodigy from age four, he learned to play guitar from his aunt Lorena before his fingers could stretch all the way across the neck. He wrote his first songs from the perch of his father’s tractor, scoring his first songwriting success, “Someday” for Webb Pierce while he was still a teenager. At age fifteen, he formed a band with his high school friends Buddy Holly, Bob Montgomery, and later, drummer J.I. Allison, who would remain his best friend throughout his life. Sonny left the band to play with Slim Whitman shortly before Buddy and J.I. formed the Crickets, rejoining the band as the lead singer and guitarist after Buddy’s death in an airplane crash. He continued to play with the band off and on for over 50 years.

In addition to his work with the Crickets, Sonny was a prolific songwriter, penning such enduring classics as “I Fought the Law,” “Love is All Around” (the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show), “Walk Right Back,” “More Than I Can Say,” and the country classic “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” Along with the Crickets, he backed some of the biggest stars of his day, from Buddy Holly to Waylon Jennings to the Everly Brothers. He was a member of the Musicians Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2012 he was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Crickets.

Sonny met the love of his life Louise in L.A. in 1969, and the two married a year later. In 1976 they relocated to a farm outside Nashville, where they raised their daughter Sarah. Though Sonny and Louise were opposites in pretty much every way, from politics to upbringing, they loved each other fiercely, and remained married for 54 years, until his death.

To the world Sonny may have been a rock ‘n’ roll trailblazer, but to his family and friends he was a gentle, generous soul, a doting father and grandfather, humble to a fault. He loved sitting on his front porch with his grandchildren, starting the day with a handful of vitamins and ending it with a cold Boddingtons beer, and, most of all, telling a good rock ‘n’ roll story, of which he had many. A self-taught perfectionist on the guitar, he practiced his craft for hours each day, drawing inspiration from Mozart, Andre Segovia, and his hero, Chet Atkins. Though he loved the Tennessee countryside, his heart remained true to the flat plains of West Texas. He had the spirit of a cowboy and the soul of a poet.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St. Jude’s Hospital.