Rickie Lee Reynolds, Black Oak Arkansas Guitarist, Dead at 72

Rickie Lee Reynolds, founding member and guitarist for Southern rock group Black Oak Arkansas, has died. Reynolds passed away on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 4 at the age of 72, his daughter, Amber Lee, confirmed in a message shared to Facebook. According to Lee, the famed guitarist died after he went into cardiac arrest. Previous statements shared to Facebook by Lee indicated Reynolds had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and later suffered from kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

In a health update shared just a day prior to Reynolds’s passing, Lee wrote that her father “was suffering from kidney failure” and had “begun dialysis.” However, she said her father’s “blood pressure had dropped too low in order for them to retain it for long” and he “suffered from cardiac arrest, in which they performed CPR and shocked him twice to bring back his heart beat” that morning. At the time, she said he was “heavily sedated and unconscious” and there had “been no viable verbal or physical response from him today.” She announced her father’s passing Sunday morning.

“This is so difficult to have to share, but every single one of you meant the world to him. Unfortunately, this morning he suffered another cardiac arrest, which they were unable to resuscitate him from. We are all heartbroken by this massive loss, and the whole world feels colder and more empty without his presence among us,” she wrote. “Please take a moment of silence today to remember all of the love he gave to the world, and take some time to give back some of those wonderful feelings that he gave us all in our times of need. Share his greatness with another today, and help make the world a better place, just as he did. Let’s shine his light upon all around us. Look at something beautiful today and truly appreciate it deeply in your soul.”

Reynolds founded Black Oak Arkansas, then known as The Knowbody Else before they decided to rename the band after their hometown, with original vocalist Ronnie Smith, fellow guitarists Stanley Knight and Harvey Jett, bassist Pat Daugherty and drummer Wayne Evans in 1963. According to Variety, Jim Mangrum later joined as the band’s frontman after they decided Smith would better serve as the band’s stage production manager. The Southern rock band went on to achieve success in the ’60s and ’70s with three gold-certified albums and hit singles such as “Up,” “Hot Rod” and “When Electricity Came to Arkansas.” Reynolds left Black Oak Arkansas in 1977 before rejoining the group in 1984 and continuing to tour with them.