By The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Singer Vern Gosdin, who recorded country music hits such as the award-winning “Chiseled in Stone” during a 30-year career, has died. He was 74.
The singer’s administrative assistant, Dawn Hall, said Gosdin had a history of strokes and suffered the latest one a few weeks ago.
He released a box set in December and was renovating his tour bus for an appearance at the Country Music Association’s annual festival in June.
“Chiseled in Stone” was voted 1989 song of the year by the CMA. In the tune, an older man tells a younger man who is going through tough times, “You don’t know about sadness ’til you faced life alone, you don’t know about lonely ’til it’s chiseled in stone.”
Gosdin, who was known as “The Voice,” had several other hits in the 1970s and ’80s, including “Set ’em Up Joe,” “I Can Tell by the Way You Dance” and “I’m Still Crazy.”
During his career, he sang gospel music, bluegrass, folk-rock and then country. He had a rich baritone and was once described by Tammy Wynette as “the only other singer who can hold a candle to George Jones.”
He once said he used life experiences in his music.
“Out of everything bad, something good will come if you look hard enough — and I got 10 hits out of my last divorce,” he said after the breakup of his third marriage in 1989.
He was born in Woodland, Ala., where he grew up chopping cotton and singing on the Gosdin family gospel music show.
