Floyd Tillman Fan Club
Texas Legendary Artist/songwriter
Floyd Tillman
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Floyd Tillman, Country Music Star, Dies
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 25, 2003; Page B04
Floyd Tillman, 88, a Country Music Hall of Famer whose deep, plaintive drawl, honky-tonk guitar style and classic compositions about loss and adultery kept him a much-admired musical force for decades, died Aug. 22 at his home in Bacliff, Tex., south of Houston. He had leukemia.
Mr. Tillman, who had sung and played stringed instruments since childhood in the Texas Panhandle, was influenced by various pop, western swing and traditional country melodies as he rambled around in the 1930s.
Having established himself with such crossover hits as "It Makes No Difference Now" and "They Took the Stars Out of Heaven," Mr. Tillman broke new ground in post-World War II music, notably with "Slippin' Around." Considered daring for its blithe approach to adultery, the song became a million-selling duet in 1949 for Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely and also a top country recording for Ernest Tubb.
Mr. Tillman once told author Dorothy Horstman that he got the idea for the song while sitting in an all-night diner in West Texas at 3 a.m.
"There was a telephone nearby, and a lady was talking on it," he said. "I couldn't help but overhear the conversation. She said, 'Now, honey, you call me, and if a man answers, hang up.' I thought, 'Poor girl, she's just like me . . . slipping around.' "
Mr. Tillman wrote a hit follow-up, "I'll Never Slip Around Again."
His last hit song was 1960's "It Just Tears Me Up," but he never stopped performing on television, in clubs or on records.
Most recently, he was finishing a soon-to-be-released album called "Floyd Tillman -- The Influence," on which he sang duets of his songs with Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Willie Nelson.
Nelson, in particular, cited Mr. Tillman as a chief influence as a singer and songwriter. As an early champion of the electric guitar in honky-tonk pop, Mr. Tillman also was revered by early rock-and-rollers, having influenced the playing styles of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Mr. Tillman was the youngest of 11 children born to a sharecropping family in Ryan, Okla. He was 3 months old when his family moved to Post, Tex.
He learned banjo and mandolin, and by age 18, he was playing in the popular German-Czech swing band of Adolph and Emil Hofner in San Antonio. He also played in a Houston dance band.
Bandleader-fiddler Leon "Pappy" Selph recruited Mr. Tillman as lead singer for the Blue Ridge Playboys, which included pianist Moon Mullican and steel guitarist Ted Daffan.
Selph and Mr. Tillman made their songwriting mark in 1938 with "It Makes No Difference Now." First recorded by future Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis, the tune, which the duo sold for $300, also became a hit for Gene Autry, Bob Wills and, notably, Bing Crosby.
For Mr. Tillman, "It Makes No Difference Now" was the first of his many songs covered with great success by mainstream artists. Years later, Diana Ross and the Supremes and Ray Charles recorded versions of the song.
Some of his best-known songs included "I Love You So Much It Hurts," "This Cold War With You" and "I Gotta Have My Baby Back."
He was inducted into the County Music Hall of Fame in 1984.
His marriage to Margarete Hartis Tillman, who once sang under the name Little Marge, ended in divorce. They had remarried in recent years, and she died in 2001.
His second wife, Frances Woods Tillman, died in 1997.
Survivors include two sons from his first marriage, Larry Tillman of Bacliff and Donald Tillman of League City, Tex.
� 2003 The Washington Post Company
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