Gaining fame with her husband as one half of the country-bluegrass duo Joey + Rory, Joey Feek released eight albums and landed a top 30 hit with the furious, bluegrass-tinged “Cheater, Cheater” in 2008. During their eight-year career, Joey + Rory took home an ACM Award for Top New Vocal Duo of the Year and picked up a Grammy in 2017 for Best Roots Gospel Album.
Tragically, Joey Feek died of cervical cancer on March 4, 2016, at just 40 years old. Today, we’re remembering the beloved country singer-songwriter on what would have marked her 50th birthday.
Who Was Joey Feek?
On this day (September 9) in 1975, Joey Marie Martin was born in Alexandria, Indiana.
Her father, Jack, played guitar, while mom June sang gospel music. The couple passed down their musical passion to their five children, including Joey.
At just six years old, she made her public performance debut singing Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” at her first-grade talent show — with her dad accompanying her on the guitar. It marked a lifetime onstage for Joey Feek.
How She Met Her Husband
Growing up in Indiana, Joey Feek nursed two passions — music and horses. In August 1998, she packed her life into a cattle trailer and moved to a small rustic cabin in Lewisburg, Tennessee— an hour south of Nashville — to work as an assistant for a horse veterinarian in the area.
Her work there led Feek first to Wilbur Rimes (father of LeAnn Rimes), and later Barbara Brooks and her husband, Kix (of Brooks & Dunn).
Soon, Joey was taking care of the Rimes’ cattle and horses full time at their barn in Lebanon, Tennessee. In her spare time, she attended songwriters’ nights in Nashville. At one of those sessions, she met her future husband, songwriter Rory Feek.
The pair married on June 15, 2002, settling on a farm in Pottsville, Tennessee, with Rory’s two teenage daughters from a previous marriage.
Finding Musical Success Together
After the marriage, both continued to pursue their respective musical careers.
Joey Feek sang backing vocals on Blaine Larsen’s 2004 album Off to Join the World, which her husband co-produced. Signing with Sony Nashville, she recorded a debut solo album, Strong Enough to Cry, in 2005.
Unfortunately, restructuring at the label kept that album on the shelf for more than a decade. (In April 2017, Farmhouse Records released the album, re-titled If Not For You.)
At a friend’s suggestion, the duo decided to audition for the CMT reality competiton show Can You Duet under the name Joey + Rory. The show would prove to be their big break, finishing in third place and landing a contract with Sugar Hill Records.
In October 2008, the pair released their debut album, The Life of a Song. Thanks largely to the success of the top 30 debut single “Cheater, Cheater”, The Life of a Song reached number 10 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Health Battles and Death
In February 2014, Joey Feek gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Indiana Boone. Three months later, doctors diagnosed the Grammy-winning singer with cervical cancer. She was declared cancer-free after undergoing surgery and treatment, but tragically, that wouldn’t last long.
In June 2015, Joey learned that her cancer had returned — and this time, it had metastasized to her colon.
While undergoing an aggressive treatment plan, she recorded hymns in the couple’s hotel room for their final album together, 2016’s Grammy-winning effort Hymns That Are Important to Us.
Joey Feek died on March 4, 2016, at age 40. Their final gospel album — one she had always wanted to make — debuted atop the Billboard country albums chart and reached number four on the all-genre Hot 200.
“My wife’s great dream came true today. She is in Heaven,” Joey Feek wrote in his online blog following his wife’s death. “The cancer is gone, the pain has ceased and all her tears are dry.”
Featured image by Ethan Miller/ACMA2010/Getty Images for ACMA
The post Born 51 Years Ago Today in Indiana, One Half of the Grammy-Winning Husband-and-Wife Country Music Duo Who Left Us Too Soon appeared first on American Songwriter.
Go To Source | Author: Erinn Callahan
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