Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Music Writter Chet Flippo
33 views
Skip to first unread message
busgal
Jun 19, 2013, 1:35:40 PM6/19/13
to
http://www.musicrow.com/2013/06/respected-journalist-chet-flippo-passes/
Respected Journalist Chet Flippo Passes
Follow MusicRow on Twitter Print This Post Print This Post
Jessica Nicholson • June 19, 2013 •
Chet Flippo
Chet Flippo
Chet Flippo, Editorial Director of CMT and CMT.com, passed away early in the morning of Wednesday (June 19). The revered journalist helped shine a national spotlight on country music.
Flippo’s wife Martha Hume, also a noted music journalist and author, died on December 17, 2012. Friends believe he never recovered from the loss.
“Chet Flippo is the man who took country music out of the country and sent it around the world through Rolling Stone magazine,” explains journalist and friend Hazel Smith. “He knew that country music was a good as any other kind of music and he represented it 100 percent.”
“This is a stunning loss to all of us,” says CMT President Brian Philips. “Chet was a stoic Texan, fiercely loyal and intensely private. He was honest to the core and widely regarded as a bit enigmatic, even among his closest colleagues. For all, it was a terrific privilege to work with Chet Flippo.
“Chet Flippo was one of the early Rolling Stone writers and a legendary rock critic. He was the author of seven books, including On the Road with the Rolling Stones. Long ago, I read and re-read my frayed paperback copy of this book, living vicariously through Chet’s exotic pirate stories. Chet’s 1978 Rolling Stone magazine cover story “Shattered” (featuring his nose-to-nose confrontation with an angry Mick Jagger) is the kind of no-holds-barred music journalism that doesn’t exist anymore, anywhere. Chet was a fierce advocate for country music long before country was cool. Chet articulated the virtues and joys of country music with a passion and intelligence that helped make the genre respectable even among snobs and city slickers. If you knew Chet and you knew how much he loved Martha, it does not seem quite so surprising that he has gone to join her so soon. We will love and respect Chet forever.”
Flippo spent the last 12 years at CMT and CMT.com, where he oversaw editorial content. The music historian also enjoyed photography.
According to his official biography:
Before joining CMT in 2001, he was Country Music Editor for Sonicnet.com. From 1995 until joining Sonicnet in 2000, he was Billboard’s Nashville Bureau Chief.
Flippo was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism. After working as Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine while in graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, he became Rolling Stone’s New York Bureau Chief in 1974. After Rolling Stone moved its offices from San Francisco to New York in 1977, he became Rolling Stone Senior Editor. In addition to covering such artists and subjects as the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joseph Heller, Tom Wolfe, and the Who, he initiated country music coverage for Rolling Stone, profiling such artists as Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, and Waylon Jennings.
He left Rolling Stone in 1980 to write the book Your Cheatin’ Heart: A Biography of Hank Williams and since has written books on Paul McCartney, Graceland, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and published an anthology of articles, “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Dancing.” He has also written articles for the New York Times, TV Guide, Texas Monthly, and Q Magazine of London, and other publications and has written TV scripts for VH1, CBS and CMT.
From 1991 to 1994 Flippo was a lecturer in journalism at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, before moving to Nashville to work for Billboard. He has received the Country Music Association’s 1998 CMA Media Achievement Award. In 2006, The International Country Music Conference (ICMC) honored Flippo with the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism.
This story will continue to be updated as it develops. MusicRow offers sincere condolences to Flippo’s loved ones.
Respected Journalist Chet Flippo Passes
Follow MusicRow on Twitter Print This Post Print This Post
Jessica Nicholson • June 19, 2013 •
Chet Flippo
Chet Flippo
Chet Flippo, Editorial Director of CMT and CMT.com, passed away early in the morning of Wednesday (June 19). The revered journalist helped shine a national spotlight on country music.
Flippo’s wife Martha Hume, also a noted music journalist and author, died on December 17, 2012. Friends believe he never recovered from the loss.
“Chet Flippo is the man who took country music out of the country and sent it around the world through Rolling Stone magazine,” explains journalist and friend Hazel Smith. “He knew that country music was a good as any other kind of music and he represented it 100 percent.”
“This is a stunning loss to all of us,” says CMT President Brian Philips. “Chet was a stoic Texan, fiercely loyal and intensely private. He was honest to the core and widely regarded as a bit enigmatic, even among his closest colleagues. For all, it was a terrific privilege to work with Chet Flippo.
“Chet Flippo was one of the early Rolling Stone writers and a legendary rock critic. He was the author of seven books, including On the Road with the Rolling Stones. Long ago, I read and re-read my frayed paperback copy of this book, living vicariously through Chet’s exotic pirate stories. Chet’s 1978 Rolling Stone magazine cover story “Shattered” (featuring his nose-to-nose confrontation with an angry Mick Jagger) is the kind of no-holds-barred music journalism that doesn’t exist anymore, anywhere. Chet was a fierce advocate for country music long before country was cool. Chet articulated the virtues and joys of country music with a passion and intelligence that helped make the genre respectable even among snobs and city slickers. If you knew Chet and you knew how much he loved Martha, it does not seem quite so surprising that he has gone to join her so soon. We will love and respect Chet forever.”
Flippo spent the last 12 years at CMT and CMT.com, where he oversaw editorial content. The music historian also enjoyed photography.
According to his official biography:
Before joining CMT in 2001, he was Country Music Editor for Sonicnet.com. From 1995 until joining Sonicnet in 2000, he was Billboard’s Nashville Bureau Chief.
Flippo was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism. After working as Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine while in graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, he became Rolling Stone’s New York Bureau Chief in 1974. After Rolling Stone moved its offices from San Francisco to New York in 1977, he became Rolling Stone Senior Editor. In addition to covering such artists and subjects as the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joseph Heller, Tom Wolfe, and the Who, he initiated country music coverage for Rolling Stone, profiling such artists as Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, and Waylon Jennings.
He left Rolling Stone in 1980 to write the book Your Cheatin’ Heart: A Biography of Hank Williams and since has written books on Paul McCartney, Graceland, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and published an anthology of articles, “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Dancing.” He has also written articles for the New York Times, TV Guide, Texas Monthly, and Q Magazine of London, and other publications and has written TV scripts for VH1, CBS and CMT.
From 1991 to 1994 Flippo was a lecturer in journalism at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, before moving to Nashville to work for Billboard. He has received the Country Music Association’s 1998 CMA Media Achievement Award. In 2006, The International Country Music Conference (ICMC) honored Flippo with the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism.
This story will continue to be updated as it develops. MusicRow offers sincere condolences to Flippo’s loved ones.
radioacti...@gmail.com
Jun 19, 2013, 4:25:15 PM6/19/13
to
The late Flippo also, it should be mentioned, was an attendee at Presley's funeral in Memphis on Thursday, August 18, 1977. I happen to know this because meeting and hanging with Flippo for a couple hours that afternoon was almost as memorable a portion of my group's jaunt down from St. Louis as was the sad event itself.
(By the way, my two Missouri pals and I were drawn south in large part by the faint prospect of Dylan and maybe even all four Beatles making their respective ways to Tennessee on short notice that week. But in the end, the only two celebs we saw make the scene at the crypt were George Hamilton and Ann-Margaret.)
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
(By the way, my two Missouri pals and I were drawn south in large part by the faint prospect of Dylan and maybe even all four Beatles making their respective ways to Tennessee on short notice that week. But in the end, the only two celebs we saw make the scene at the crypt were George Hamilton and Ann-Margaret.)
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
0 new messages