Country Singer Joe Ely Dead at 78

December 17, 2025, 10:47am

Joe Ely, the legendary country musician known for pioneering the progressive country sound, died Monday from complications of Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia. He was 78.

His “beloved” wife Sharon and daughter Marie were at his side as Ely passed at their home in Taos, N. Mex., according to a statement released on his official Facebook.

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Portrait of musician Joe Ely backstage at the fifth annual Farm Aid concert, Dallas, Texas, March 14, 1992. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

Ely was born on Feb. 9, 1947, and raised in Lubbock, Tex., forming the country band The Flatlanders with fellow Lubbock musicians Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock in 1972. That same year, the band released their debut album, All American Music, before breaking up soon after to pursue solo work.

“Back in the days when the three of us first got together, both Butch and Jimmie were such inspirations for me to start writing songs,” Ely told Lone Star Music magazine in 2011 of his work with The Flatlanders. “I mean, I’d written a few before then, but hearing Jimmie write ‘Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown’ and ‘Treat Me Like a Saturday Night’ and ‘Dallas’ … those are just like magic songs for me.”

“And I felt like Butch’s songs were all somewhere inside of me, and he just opened the door and let everything out,” he continued. “That’s what really made me sit down and say, ‘I can do that, too.’ Being a musician, you always have to have an inspiration.”

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – JANUARY 30: Joe Ely, vocal and guitar, performs at the Paradiso on January 30th 1991 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns)

Ely would then go on to release his first solo project, a self-titled album, in 1977, before traveling to London, where he befriended The Clash’s Joe Strummer and began touring around the U.S. and U.K. with the punk rock band, which also included Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicky “Topper” Headon. Ely can even be heard on the backing vocals for the band’s 1982 single “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

“I had teachers tell me I wouldn’t make it to 21 when I was going to high school, so I beat the odds, you know?” Ely told Lone Star Music. “I’ve traveled millions of miles, zigging and zagging in every kind of vehicle known to man, trying to get from one place to another to create some more music.”