John Doyle, Irish hurler died he was , 80

John Doyle was an Irish sportsperson and politician, hailed as one of the best defenders in hurling^[3] and his county's most iconic player upon his death  died he was , 80. He played hurling with his local Holycross-Ballycahill club from the 1940s until the 1970s and was a member of the Tipperary senior inter-county team from 1949 until 1967. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest hurlers in the history of the game^[5] and is one of only a handful of players to have won All-Ireland medals in three separate decades.
Doyle’s status as one of the all-time greats is self-evident. His haul of eight senior All-Ireland medals is a record which he jointly holds with Christy Ring.^[5] Doyle was also the first hurler to win ten Munster Championship titles, a record which was later equalled by Jimmy Barry-Murphy. His tally of 11^[5] National Hurling League medals is a record which has never been equalled. Doyle held the record for most Championship appearances (54) by a Tipperary player until overtaken by Brendan Cummins in 2009.^[1]
Doyle has also been the recipient of many awards and honours off the field. In 1964 his hurling prowess earned him the prestigious Texaco Hurler of the Year award. He was later honoured in 1984 when he was named, by popular opinion, in the left corner-back position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century. He was named in the right corner-back position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium in 1999. In 2009 he was named in the Sunday Tribune's list of the 125 Most Influential People In GAA History.^[5]


(12 February 1930 – 29 December 2010)

Early life

John Doyle was born in Holycross, County Tipperary in 1930.^[5] An only child, whose mother died six weeks after his birth, he was raised by his father on the family farm. Doyle was educated at the local St. Michael's national school in Holycross, and later attended Thurles CBS. From an early age he showed a great interest in hurling, and it was in secondary school that his skills were further developed and nurtured by the Christian Brothers.

Doyle's style

Possessed of a strong physique and a long stride, Doyle was famed for his dependable close defensive play, marked by his ability to execute long clearances from very tight entanglements in his corner-back position. His tussles with such illustrious Munster forwards as Paddy Barry (Cork) and Jimmy Smyth (Clare) have gained legendary status with the passing years. He holds a unique record in that he was never substituted in 19 years of inter-county championship and national league hurling, ample proof of his renowned durability.
Individually, his mastery of the shoulder-to-shoulder charge, allied to an above average number of deliveries out of defence marked him apart. Collectively, with fellow inner-defenders, Michael Maher (Holycross) and Kieran Carey (Roscrea), he completed a very formidable trio as Tipperary's last line of defence for a ten year period from the late 1950s. Their marshalling territory in front of goal was famously known as "Hell's Kitchen" because of the often tempestuous nature of the exchanges which greeted the dropping ball arriving from mid-field. Their engagements with Cork in the Munster Championship and Kilkenny and Wexford in the All-Ireland series were among the most thrilling episodes of hurling play in the mid-century. They were past masters at 'holding-off' the forwards, which was a legal ploy designed to afford protection to the goalkeeper, thus allowing him ample time and space to 'catch and clear'. This was an integral and important part of their defensive strategy which paid rich dividends through many campaigns. This was a period when goalkeepers were legitimate targets for in-rushing forwards who were then allowed to charge the custodian with impunity, not a welcoming prospect for most goalkeepers intent on keeping an eye on a fast approaching sliothar. However, a succession of Tipperary goalkeepers enjoyed maximum protection from the 'Kitchen' staff who repelled all invaders, employing ample strength and muscle as the occasion required. Doyle considered Ned Wheeler (Wexford) and Eddie Keher (Kilkenny) his strongest opponents and is quoted as saying that tackling Wheeler was like colliding with a tree.

Playing career

Club

Doyle played hurling with his local Holycross-Ballycahill club. Although not regarded as one of the most successful clubs in the Tipperary SHC, Doyle still had much success with the side. In 1948 he won his first county title with the club. Incidentally it was also the club’s very first county title. Two more followed for Doyle in 1951 and 1954.

Inter-county

In 1946 Doyle played his first matches at minor level for Tipperary. That year his side reached the All-Ireland final, however, they were beaten by Dublin. The following year he was back again with the Tipp minors who this time comfortably defeated Galway to win the All-Ireland. It was these performances that brought Doyle to the attention of the senior selectors, and he was quickly slotted in to the senior team.
Doyle made his senior debut in 1949 at the beginning of a glorious era for Tipperary hurling. That year he won his first Munster title before having a huge victory over Laois to claim his first All-Ireland medal. In 1950 Doyle began the year by winning the first of a record ten National Hurling League titles with Tipp. He later won his second provincial title before converting it into his second All-Ireland medal following a 1-point win over Kilkenny. In 1951 Doyle captured his third Munster title in-a-row. Once again this was converted into his third All-Ireland medal in-a-row, following a huge victory over Wexford.
1952 began well for Doyle when he won his second National League medal. Later in the Munster semi-final Tipp secured their 15th consecutive championship win, a record which still stands today. It looked as if Doyle’s side would cruise to further Munster and All-Ireland titles, however, Cork put a stop to this with a victory in the Munster final. The next few years proved frustrating for Tipperary in the Munster championship, however, Doyle added to his National League medal tally in 1954, 1955 and 1957.
In 1958 Tipperary had bounced back and Doyle collected his fourth Munster medal. Once again this was converted into a fourth All-Ireland medal following a huge win over Galway in the final. In the meantime Tipperary captured two more National League titles in 1959 and 1960. It would be 1960 before Tipp wrested back their Munster crown from Waterford with Doyle capturing his fifth provincial title. In the final Tipp faced Wexford, thus beginning a great rivalry between the two counties that would last for the entire 1960s. Unfortunately Doyle ended up on the losing side in that final. In 1961 it was National League medal number eight and Munster medal number six for Doyle. In the All-Ireland final Tipp faced Dublin, however, in spite of being red-hot favourites, Doyle’s side were lucky to clinch victory by a single point bringing his All-Ireland medal tally up to five.
In 1962 Tipp were still the kingpins of Munster hurling with Doyle capturing a seventh provincial medal at corner-back. In the subsequent All-Ireland final the second instalment of the Tipperary-Wexford rivalry resulted in a win for Tipp and a sixth All-Ireland medal for Doyle. Two years later in 1964 Tipperary were once again invincible to all attack. In the National League Doyle claimed his ninth title and in Munster Doyle captured his eighth medal. In the All-Ireland final Kilkenny were the favourites to retain the title, however, Tipperary completely swept them off the field and won by 14-points. It was Doyle’s seventh All-Ireland medal and he was quickly closing in on Christy Ring’s record of eight All-Ireland medals.
In 1965 the year began well when Doyle captured his tenth and final National League medal. He subsequently captured his ninth Munster title. In the All-Ireland final Wexford were once again waiting for Tipp, however, victory went to Doyle’s side and he captured a record-equalling eighth All-Ireland medal. Two years later in 1967 the chance for Doyle to capture an unprecedented ninth All-Ireland medal presented itself. Tipp breezed through the Munster championship with Doyle capturing his tenth and final medal. In the All-Ireland final Tipp’s opponents were Kilkenny. The omens were good as Kilkenny hadn’t beaten Tipperary in the championship since 1922. On the day, however, Kilkenny were the stronger side and Doyle was denied his ninth medal. Time had finally caught up with him, so he retired from inter-county hurling following this defeat.
Although Doyle holds the same number of All-Ireland medals as Christy Ring, he still regards the Cork man as the greatest hurler of all-time. He has admitted, to his own great credit, that it was his team-mates who won the eight medals for him but it was Ring who won the eight medals for his team-mates.
As well as his All-Ireland and National League victories Doyle also won five Railway Cup medals, six Oireachtas medals and two Cu Chulainn awards in 1963 and 1964.

Sporting retirement

In retirement from inter-county hurling Doyle continued to work on his farm in Holycross. His status as one of the greatest players of all-time was further enhanced in 1984 and again in 2000 when he was named on the Gaelic Athletic Association’s Hurling Team of the Century and the Hurling Team of the Millennium.

Political career

In later years he entered politics. He stood unsuccessfully as a Fianna Fáil candidate at the 1969 general election for the Tipperary North constituency, but was subsequently elected to Seanad Éireann on the Agricultural Panel. He served until 1973 when he lost his seat.^[6][7]

Death

Doyle died on 28 December 2010 at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife Anne, seven children and fifteen grandchildren ^{[8] [9]} Taoiseach Brian Cowen was among those who paid tribute saying "He was an immense hurler and an incredibly decent man, his love of the GAA was matched by his concern for his country and his own community, he was a Tipperary legend and a proud Irishman".^[10] Doyle was buried at Holy Cross Abbey outside Thurles on 31 December 2010.^[11]

Honours

Tipperary

Player

• All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (8): 1949, 1950, 1951, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965
• Munster Senior Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (10): 1949, 1950, 1951, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967
• National Hurling League:
  • Winner (11): 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1965
• All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (1): 1947
• Munster Minor Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (2): 1946, 1947

Munster

• Railway Cup:
  • Winner (8): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1966

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Bill Erwin, American actor (Seinfeld, Falcon Crest, The Twilight Zone).died he was , 96

 William Lindsey "Bill" Erwin ^[1] was an American film, stage and television actor with over 250 television and film credits died he was , 96. As a veteran character actor, he was widely known for his role of Sid Fields, an embittered, irascible man on Seinfeld^[2] – for which he received an Emmy nomination – as well his appearances on shows such as I Love Lucy and Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[3]
Irwin was a self-taught cartoonist, published in The New Yorker, Playboy and Los Angeles.^[2] He won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, four Drama-Logue Awards, Gilmore Brown Award for Career Achievement, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters' Diamond Circle Award, and Distinguished Alumnus Award from Angelo State University.^[2]

(December 2, 1914 – December 29, 2010) Background and personal life

Erwin was born in Honey Grove, Texas. He attended San Angelo College before graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1935, earning a Bachelors degree in Journalism. He completed a Masters of Theater Arts degree in California at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1941. After serving as a Captain in the Army Air Force in World War II, Erwin returned to Hollywood to resume his acting career. His first film role was in 1942 in "You're in the Army Now", with Phil Silvers.

Family

He lived in North Hollywood with his wife, actress and journalist Fran MacLachlan Erwin (who predeceased her husband). The couple had two daughters and two sons.

Death

Bill Irwin died on December 29, 2010 in Studio City, Los Angeles, near the production lot where Seinfeld was filmed.^[2]

Career

Film

In the late 1950s, Erwin was in such pictures as "A Streetcar Named Desire", Man From Del Rio, The Night Runner, and The Cry Baby Killer. He played Jack Nicholson's father in "Cry Baby Killer", Nicholson's first starring role in 1958. The long out-of-print film was released on DVD on November 22, 2006. He would later co-star alongside Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in the 1980 romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time – as Arthur Biehl, the Grand Hotel's venerable bellman – and attend annual reunions of cast, crew, and fans of the movie Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Erwin has appeared in a number of films directed by John Hughes, with cameos in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Home Alone, and Dennis the Menace. Hughes often paired him with Billie Bird as his wife.

Television

His television credits were far more numerous in the 1950s, having appeared in such television shows as I Love Lucy, Crusader, Trackdown, Colgate Theatre, "Perry Mason" and The Rifleman. In the 1960s, Erwin appeared in television shows such as: The Andy Griffith Show, Mister Ed, Maverick, The Twilight Zone, 87th Precinct, The Fugitive, and Mannix.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s he appeared in Barnaby Jones, Cannon, and Gunsmoke. ER, Highway to Heaven, Voyagers, Seinfeld, The Dukes of Hazzard, Married... with Children, Growing Pains, Full House, The Golden Girls, Moonlighting, My Name is Earl, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Erwin played Dr. Dalen Quaice, a friend and mentor of Dr. Beverly Crusher. He was the first character to disappear in the episode "Remember Me".
In the Seinfeld episode ("The Old Man"), for which Erwin received an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor, he played Sid Fields, who participates in the Foster-A-Grandpa Program, which pairs him with Jerry Seinfeld. Erwin's crochety, aggressive, foul-mouthed character ensures that the relationship is doomed from the beginning. Erwin later reunited with Michael Richards when he guest-starred on the short-lived The Michael Richards Show. In the 2000s, Erwin appeared on Monk, The West Wing, King of Queens, Everwood and My Name Is Earl.

Other media

Erwin began his theatrical career as ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage manager for Bergen's 1941 tour of the country. Erwin dryly recalled, "I was in charge of the dummies."

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Mondine Garcia, French Gypsy jazz guitarist.died he was 75

Mondine Garcia , was a French, Parisienne guitarist who specialized in playing traditional French gypsy jazz died he was 75.

(1936 – December 29, 2010)

 Career

The father of guitarists Ninine and Rocky Garcia, Mondine Garcia had a long, highly respected career in France as a notable part of the second generation of gypsy guitarists after Django Reinhardt. He often performed at the same venues and festivals alongside such contemporaries as Moreno Winterstein, Dorado Schmitt and Marcel Campion, and is succeeded by such "third generation" players as Angelo Debarre. His regular venue was La Chope Des Puces at Porte De Clignancourt in Rue Des Rosiers, Saint-Ouen.^[2] One of his last festival appearances was at the Festival Jazz Muzette.^[3]

Guitar

Garcia played for decades on a guitare Favino, fitted with a Stimer S.51 held on by packing tape, the string action “adjusted” by a folded wad of paper beneath the bridge.^[4]

Partial discography

• Les Enfants de Django – (1993)
• The Gypsies of St. Quen – w/ Ninine Garcia (2007)
• Une Histoire en Cours… (contributor – 2010)

Film appearances

• Les enfants de Django (1993)

External links

• Playing at La Chope Des Puces on YouTube
• With Pierre Kamlo Barré at La Chope Des Puces

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Bennie Briscoe, American boxer. died he was , 67

 "Bad" Bennie Briscoe was the quintessential Philadelphia boxer  died he was , 67. "Bad" Bennie fought from 1962 to 1982, and retired with a career record of 66 wins (53 by KO) 24 losses and 5 draws. Briscoe was a top-rated Middleweight contender during the 1970s, unsuccessfully challenging for the World Title on three different occasions. His record reads like a "who's who" list of prominent fighters from his era.

(August 2, 1943 – December 28, 2010)  Amateur career

Briscoe had a standout career as an amateur, compiling a record of 70–3 (Source: The Ring, Sept 1963). He won the Middle Atlantic AAU title three times, the last in 1962 at Convention Hall in Philadelphia.

Professional career

Bennie fought Middleweight champions Marvin Hagler, Vito Antuofermo, Rodrigo Valdez, Emile Griffith and Carlos Monzón. He also fought and defeated future light-heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Tom Bethea, Carlos Marks, Rafael Gutierrez, Charley Scott, Billy "Dynamite" Douglas, George Benton, Vicente Rondon, Jose Gonzales (twice), Art Hernandez, Tony Mundine, Stanley "Kitten" Hayward, Juarez DeLima, Eugene "Cyclone" Hart and Tony Chiaverini. Briscoe also dropped two decisions to former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez.
Bennie was known for his toughness, strong punch and body punching. He fought future middleweight champion Monzon to a draw in Buenos Aires on May 6, 1967, but dropped a 15 round decision to the champion in a 1972 title match. Briscoe was outpointed by former welterweight and middleweight king Emile Griffith in their first match, but fought Griffith to a draw in a rematch. He was outpointed by future middleweight champions Marvin Hagler and Vito Antuofermo.
Bennie also fought Rodrigo Valdez three times. He was outpointed twice, but Valdez scored a rare KO over Briscoe in an elimination match to determine the WBC middleweight champion on May 25, 1974 - it was the only time in 96 fights that Briscoe was ever stopped. The WBC had decided to "strip" Monzon of its version of the middleweight crown, although the rest of the world continued to recognize Monzon as champion.
Briscoe was one of the most feared middleweights of his era. In 2003, he was named to the The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.^[2] His final record was 66-24-5 with 53 knockouts and one No Contest.
Briscoe fought with the Star of David on his boxing trunks in tribute to his managers, first Jimmy Iselin, whose father Phil owned the New York Jets, and Arnold Weiss.^[1]

Death

Bennie Briscoe died on December 28, 2010.^[1]

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Denis Dutton, American-born entrepreneur and philosopher, creator of Arts & Letters Daily and Bad Writing Contest, died from prostate cancer he was , 66

Denis Dutton  was an academic, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand died from prostate cancer he was , 66.  He was also a co-founder and co-editor of the websites Arts & Letters Daily, ClimateDebateDaily.com and cybereditions.com.^[1]

Dutton was from Los Angeles, California, specifically the San Fernando Valley, where his parents owned a bookstore;^[2] he was educated at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He taught at several American universities, including the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan–Dearborn, before emigrating to New Zealand. From 2008 to 2010 he was the Head of the Philosophy school in an unofficial capacity at Canterbury and, when Professor Copeland, Head of the School^[3], was quarantined because of influenza in 2009, Dutton acted briefly as Head of Humanities.
He was one of the founding members and first chair of New Zealand Skeptics.

(9 February 1944 – 28 December 2010)  Art appreciation theory

Dutton's 2009 book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution^[4] opposes the commonly held modernist view that art appreciation is culturally learned, claiming instead that art appreciation stems from evolutionary adaptions made during the Pleistocene.^[5] He set out an abbreviated version of his theory in a 2009 Google Talk lecture.^[6]

Criticism of academic prose

Dutton used his editorship of the journal Philosophy and Literature to criticise many literary and cultural theorists for a writing style that is, "no better than adequate -- or just plain awful."^[7] In 1995, his Bad Writing Contest criticised the prose of Homi K. Bhabha and Fredric Jameson.^[8] In 1998, the contest awarded first place to University of California-Berkeley Professor Judith Butler, for a sentence which appeared in the journal diacritics:

The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

Dutton said, "To ask what this means is to miss the point. This sentence beats readers into submission and instructs them that they are in the presence of a great and deep mind. Actual communication has nothing to do with it."^[7] Butler challenged the charges of academic pedantry and obscurantism in the pages of the New York Times^[9] and the affair briefly became a cause célèbre in the world of academic theorists. Dutton then ended the contest.

Public radio advocacy

Dutton was a passionate supporter of public radio. In the early 1990s he founded the lobby group The New Zealand Friends of Public Broadcasting in response to proposals to devolve New Zealand's two non-commercial public radio stations.^[10]
In 1995 he was appointed to the board of directors of Radio New Zealand, where he served for seven years.^[11] After concluding his term as a director, Dr Dutton and Dr John Isles issued a report criticising Radio New Zealand for loss of neutrality in news and current affairs, failure to adhere to charter and opposed to contestable funding of broadcasting.^[12]

Recent academic contributions

In 2010, Dutton introduced a course entitled “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” ^[13](Phil220) The title was borrowed, with permission, from the title of a book by philosopher Daniel Dennett, the man who famously called Darwin's formulation of evolution "The single best idea anyone has ever had." One of the purposes of the course was to demonstrate why Dennett's claim is defensible.
The required anchor text for the course was The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, by Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary theorist. Writings by Charles Darwin were sourced from another recommended text, Darwin's On the Origin of Species, edited by Joseph Carroll. Carroll's collection included important excerpts from The Voyage of the Beagle and The Descent of Man, as well as historical background (including Darwin's own short autobiography) and source material on other evolutionary thinkers.
Dutton intended this course to be a thought-provoking journey through the making of The Origin of Species, highlighting not only his personal journey but also the obstacles that thwarted early understanding of evolutionary theory.
Because of Dutton's death, this course will not be offered again. Douglas Campbell will staff one of Dutton's entry level courses, Philosophy 110"Science Good, Bad and Bogus," as mentioned above. Campbell founded with Dutton, and at present edits, Climate Debate Daily; However, the remainder of Dutton's Courses are likely to be cancelled indefinitely ^[14]

Death

In his final Email to his students in Philosophy 110, he wrote that the shoulder pain he had been suffering from was in fact cancer, and that he had recently begun a non-alternative treatment which left him feeling much better. He continued to decline, however, so that in his last lecture of 2010 he announced to his Philosophy 220 students his reluctant retirement from university teaching. Without ceremony, he thus slipped out the door of the university where he had lectured since 1984. Other students did not know of his retirement until they received a memo acknowledging the cancellation or restructuring of the courses he had been teaching. At its December 2010 graduation ceremony, the University of Canterbury awarded him a Research Medal for his work,^[15] barely a fortnight before his death from cancer on 28 December 2010.^[16][17]

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Fred Heron, American football player (St. Louis Cardinals). died he was , 66,

Frederick Roger Heron ^[1] was a former professional American football defensive lineman in the National Football League. He played seven seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals died he was , 66.

Heron was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 1966 college draft, and Vince Lombardi traded him as a replacement for a lineman in the St. Louis Cardinals who had been forced to retire due to a heart murmur. ^[2]

(October 6, 1944 - Dec 28, 2010)

He suffered a back injury in a game in 1969 that led to an operation in April 1970, but resulted in ongoing pain for some time.^[2] By the end of his time with the Cardinals, he had become bothered by the violence of the sport, and in one interview stated "I watched the quarterback on the ground in obvious pain. I suddenly thought to myself, ‘Have I turned into some kind of animal? This is a game, but I’m trying to maim somebody.’"^[3] He and his wife Betty studied the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses and were both baptized as Witnesses in February 1972. The Cardinals released him from his contract after his back injuries led to another surgery in October 1972.^[2] After Heron's retirement from football he went on to work as the campus security assistant at Rio Calaveras Elementary School in his hometown of Stockton, California.^[4]
He died on Dec. 28, 2010^[1].

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Gene Kelton, American blues, rock and rockabilly singer and guitarist, died from a multiple injuries from vehicle collision he was , 55.

Sidney Eugene "Mean Gene" Kelton ^[2] was an American guitarist, harmonica player and singer-songwriter, based in Houston, Texas, though he was born in Booneville, Mississippi.^[3] He played Americana, blues-rock, Southern rock and rockabilly music died from a multiple injuries from vehicle collision he was , 55..


(April 10, 1953 – December 28, 2010)

Blues roots

Gene Kelton's mother sang gospel music on the radio. She divorced his ne'er-do-well father when he was six. Afterward they lived with his grandfather, a cotton plantation share cropper. On weekends he listened to down-home blues in a dirt-floored juke joint. His step father, Bob Allbritton, who played rock 'n roll guitar then in a manner, as it can be said that Conway Twitty, sang country songs, exposed Gene to all types of music. His mom bought him a Sears Silvertone guitar at the age of ten, and they moved to Texas where he formed his first band, The Moven Shadows. Following a serious motorcycle accident, he played with several cover bands until "giving up" music after his first marriage. It took years of moving through various jobs, getting back into music after a divorce, and trying for a few years to get together a band, going through what he called "the worst of the worst" musicians, before he finally formed The Gene Kelton Band with bass player A.J. Fee and drummer Russel Shelby around the time of a national blues revival sparked by Stevie Ray Vaughan.^[4] Kelton has been a full-time musician since 1983 when he began playing for tips in bars after losing his DJ job while newlywed in his second marriage and in desperate straits trying to support his unemployed bride and two sons from his previous marriage.^[5] While publishing Texas Blues magazine in the early 1990s he lost everything but the rights to his songs in his second divorce. The band went through another name, The Love Buzzards, before fans called them "die hards" for playing long sessions in the hot sun suggesting their final revision. Finally, a demo tape played on KPFT helped Kelton raise enough money to release his first CD. Another musician saying, "Gene you play a really mean guitar," led to his nickname and the title of the group's second CD.^[4]

Die-hard career

In 1992 he named his current band The Die Hards, under which name they have been playing ever since. At the time of his death Kelton was playing with drummer Ted McCumber and bass guitarist Ed Starkey( who has played with such names as the Dottie West Band).^[5]

In December 1999 he released his first blues CD (Jambone Records), Most Requested. The album was quickly picked up by several Houston Radio stations, occupying the #1 call-in request on some of these stations. In addition to radio coverage, which garnered him mainly local attention, his popularity spread online through such sites as mp3.com where various songs from Most Requested remained at the top 10 for two years. Kelton's making his music available for download on the internet has resulted in a listener base spanning the globe with over 150 radio stations around the world carrying his music and an average of over 150,000 hits per month on his website. In 2003 he released his second blues CD Mean Guitar. In 2007, Mean Gene Kelton released Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis, a rockin' tribute to the King of Rock n Roll, recorded in none other than Sun Studios.

Style

Kelton's songs are most notable for powerful guitar and lyrics that range from emotional to raunchy. His raunchier songs often use innuendo, with lyrics that taken literally are perfectly benign. Such songs include: "The Avon Man", "Let Me Pump Your Gas",^[3] and "Two Thangs". Others are a little more overt in their sexuality, such as "The Texas City Dyke", "My Blow Up Lover", and, his most well-known tune, "My Baby Don't Wear No Panties",^[3] which Kelton began improvising to the tune of "Mean Mistreater" in 1988 when, after a drunken girl jumped up on a bar table, ripped off her shirt and began dancing, a guy yelled out, "That ain't nothing, my baby don't wear no panties." Eventually it evolved into the current audience participation version with fans shouting, "How do you know?" after each chorus. Discovering how audiences respond to songs with sexual innuendos, Kelton really caught their attention by beginning "The Texas City Dyke", "She's got tattoos on her titties." Gradually he developed this into his song by using all the jokes he had heard about this landmark fishing dike.^[4]
Some of his songs have a more pained or melancholy feeling to them. Examples are the nostalgic songs "Cruisin' Texas Avenue" and "Leaving Paradise". Another common theme in several of his songs is the power of the blues. Songs like "Sweet Mother Blues" and "If Everybody Loved The Blues", extol blues music as having remarkable properties, like being able to end war and having "almighty healin' powers".
Many of his songs use alliteration in their lyrics. Some alliterative lines include "Sweetest song we ever sang was in each others arms" and "Sowed my seeds in search of truth". His songs also contain lots of imagery.
Self-described as a performing "black leather blues and redneck rock 'n roll,"^[6] Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards have been called by ReverbNation "one of the top Biker Rally and Blues Festival headliner acts."^[7]

Death

Kelton was killed on December 28, 2010,^[3] when his SUV collided head-on with a school bus in Crosby, Texas, two days before he was due to perform on New Years Eve at Rowdy Buck's in Crosby, Texas.

Discography

• Most Requested (1999)
• Mean Guitar (2003)
• Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis (2007)
• Cajun Thunder - upcoming
• The Lost Sessions - unpublished but available at shows^[4]

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