A native of Black Mountain, North Carolina, in the western part of the state, he struggled to make it for years on the Los Angeles music scene, moonlighting as a roaming performer at a Sunset Strip country bar with guitarist Leroy Powell before moving to Nashville. Jamey is still one of the best, but that sound of the original band hasnt been duplicated. The Steel Woods were cofounded by Wes Bayliss, Jason "Rowdy" Cope, and business partner Derek Stanley. I just wanted to be a part of a band and he was able to get his artistic side out. I knew the guitar player and founding member of The Steel Woods Jason Rowdy Cope personally. January 24, 2021 @ Our house isnt glass anymore. He was an extremely kind, funny, smart, and talented individual. Sarah Skates has been a writer and editor in the music business since 2004. I will truly miss hearing him ripping up the soundwaves. The band shared the news on Saturday (Jan. 16) with a social media post. Prior to co-founding the Steel Woods with singer Wes Bayliss in 2016, Cope played guitar in Johnsons band for nearly a decade and appeared on the outlaw country singers revered albums That Lonesome Song and The Guitar Song. January 17, 2021 @ Cope was an in-demand session guitarist, playing on albums by Lindi Ortega and the Secret Sisters, but he first became visible to country music fans by performing onstage with Johnson for nearly a decade. I had followed his career from before The Steel Woods, and I have absolutely nothing but love and respect for him and the legacy in life and music he left behind when he tragically passed away recently. So the last three years with Jason were, he just felt so free and truly healed.. An Alabama-bred singer/multi-instrumentalist with a drawling Ronnie Van Zant voice and a love for classic country and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bayliss first met Cope in 2015 at a bar they were both playing in Dickson, Tennessee, in the hinterlands outside of Nashville. Rest Peaceful, Rowdy , Jim L. Pictured: Rowdy (far right) with The Steel Woods. And, stylistically, he had the complete package, he could go from flat out hard core honky-tonk twang, to southern rock slide, with all the requisite nasty growling distortion and fast rock licks. January 16, 2021 @ Backstage at the Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 23, 2013, the night of the George Jones tribute concert, was the. He gave me an education you cant teach unless you lived it. The Steel Woods got off the ground six years ago, when Cope whose death was attributed to a complication of diabetes was playing guitar for outlaw country star Jamey Johnson. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. We are writing this still in a state of shock and kindly ask for your prayers for the family, friends and band at this time. R.I.P. The Steel Woods' Jason "Rowdy" Cope died in January, but his power-chord-meets-chicken-pickin' guitar style lives on with a posthumous album. of course cancelled due to covid . 8:09 pm. I lost a friend today, Lindi Ortega said at the news. January 17, 2021 @ Angela 7:23 pm, I am so sad to hear this I met Rowdy back around 2014-ish in Nashville. January 16, 2021 @ We want to hear it. Not sure of his vaccination status. Cope co-founded the Steel Woods with Wes Bayliss in 2016 and the group released their debut project,Straw in the Wind, in 2017, followed by 2019s Old News. While 2021 has hardly started, its unfortunately reminiscent of 2020: taking cherished country music icons away much too soon. Brent Cobb, Jamey Johnson, Jason "Rowdy" Cope, Jason Cope, The Steel Woods, Blackwater March 4, 2021 The Steel Woods have announced their third album, All of Your Stones, a record that arrives as unplanned eulogy to the Southern rock band's co-founder Jason "Rowdy" Cope. This has made the songs on the album feel even more poignant, as most of the songs on the album were written by Rowdy, and were largely autobiographical about some of the dark times he had faced in life and triumphed over. When the Steel Woods' co-founder Jason "Rowdy" Cope died unexpectedly at the age of 42 in January, the band had recently been recording new music.On May 14, Cope's surviving bandmates will move . 2023 Music Row Enterprises, LLC All rights reserved. After releasing their debut album Straw in the Wind in 2017 via Thirty Tigers, The Steel Woods immediately shot up the country and Southern Rock depth charts. There might have been 100 people in that tiny room, but those boys played like it was a packed stadium. He played on multiple albums for Lindi Ortega, and produced her 2017 EP Til The Goin Gets Gone. After knocking on the door repeatedly and receiving no response, the friend forced entry where he found Jason Cope unresponsive, and called 911. Cope also co-wrote one of Johnsons signature songs, Cant Cash My Checks. Through this time period, Cope also worked as an in-demand session guitar player, performing on records from artists such as Brent Cobb, The Secret Sisters, The Oak Ridge Boys, Pure Ed, Ted Russell Kamp, Nikki Lane, and for Jamey Johnson as well. He seemed like such a bright spirit. thanks Trigger. Steel Woods, Jamey Johnson Guitarist Jason Rowdy Cope Has Died, https://www.facebook.com/countryrebelclothing/videos/1171901902855487/, Family Bible Singer, The Tall Texan Claude Gray Has Died, Tyler Childers Opens Up 2023 Tour By Closing Out Two Step Inn, Alan Jackson Helps Jon Pardi Make History as New Grand Ole Opry Pick, Newest Adds to Saving Country Musics Top 25 Current Playlist (#118), Country Fans Arent Unwitting Pawns (a Response to Ketch Secor & NYT). All rights reserved. 5:25 pm. On the latter, he co-wrote the brooding Cant Cash My Checks, about a farmer forced to grow pot to make ends meet, and delivered a searing solo on the gospel-tinged Macon., Weve had a lot of conversations about where our hard livin years had gotten us and the kinds of relationships that it probably cost us by being drunk all those years. Hes also featured playing guitar on her 2013 albumTin Starand the Secret Sisters 2010 self-titled album. January 17, 2021 @ Please watch the full video to know more about Jason Rowdy's cause of death, age,. Rowdy was there every day of the trial for support for Waynes family, even when it snowed probably 12 inches on one of the days and the whole city shut down. I was shocked and greatly saddened when I heard this news. 6:11 pm, Trigger WOW. That song, All of Your Stones, ended up becoming the title track of the new album by Copes band the Steel Woods. In 2016, Cope founded the Steel Woods with singer Wes Bayliss in Nashville. 7:46 pm. All love to Jason Rowdy Cope, his friends, his family, and his fans. Photo by Jessica Blankenship. LEO spoke with Wes Bayliss, The Steel Woods singer and co-songwriter, to talk about All Of Your Stones, musical inspiration, and the bands return to touring in advance of their stop in Louisville. Jason Cope, the guitar player for the Southern rock band the Steel Woods and a collaborator with artists like Jamey Johnson and Brent Cobb, has died. I read that you guys were influenced by Southern rock, your stage shows and your music is inspired by like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. According to Don Aaron, Jason Cope was found by a male friend who went to his home on Erin Ln. The Steel Woods had always planned on recording a new album in 2020 but didnt realize theyd get a year to work on it. January 17, 2021 @ I dont know how superstitious I am, but Rowdy was.. What an amazing band. Both OHandley and Blankenship said that they plan to host more events in Kentucky soon. With Rowdy, he understood the technique, but when he played, it just poured. In addition to his work with Johnson and the Steel Woods, Cope also collaborated with other artists. January 17, 2021 @ The Steel Woods - Wikipedia January 24, 2021 @ Even though its just him pretending to be wild and crazy, he cared about that stuff, Cobb says. RIP, Angie Peoples God rest his soul . What do you most want people to take away? It was like he was forcing it all out at one time. Truly, he is. Are there any influences that you think maybe people wouldnt expect or wouldnt necessarily notice? Hed always say the secret to success was keeping irons in the fire. He was the real damn deal. On the Steel Woods 2017 debut, Straw in the Wind, he persuaded the band to cover Black Sabbaths Hole in the Sky. For 2019s Old News, Cope had them record the British metal pioneers Changes. They tackle one of Baylisss favorites, Skynyrds I Need You, on All of Your Stones, reimagining it as a duet with Ashley Monroe. They are my favorite band, one of my favorite artists, and I hope that they will put out new music again. Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Don Was Return for the Last Waltz Tour 2022, Despite their 13-year age difference, Cope and Bayliss spoke a similar musical language in the Steel Woods even if the elder Cope was just as passionate about hard rock and heavy metal bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as he was about the Allman Brothers and the Eagles. 6:04 pm. 9:17 pm, Moondog January 17, 2021 @ The band made the devastating announcement this evening on their social media: My heart goes out the guys in the band, Jasons friends, his family, everybody that had the chance to meet him along the way, and the die-hard fans of this great band. Its wild that he made sure to write another song with me for this record [You Never Came Home] and with Jamey too. A post shared by The Steel Woods (@thesteelwoods). OHandley and a family friend said they are looking to host more fundraising events in Bell County in the near future. How did Jason Rowdy Die? 2021 Update, Cause of Death, Reason? I couldnt have been more proud. The Steel Woods are one of my faves, such amazing songs. Jason was always nice. Your email address will not be published. Well, I think just that, that its really about even, you know, after, after the loss of Rowdy and everything, the one thing that Ive said every time is that bad things happen, and theres only one thing that we know to do, and thats to press on. He seemed to like arpeggios as well, and did a lot of interesting sounds and textures with unusual chord changes. He was a metalhead through all of his teenage years and he could play, like, Pantera, Cobb says. January 18, 2021 @ I didnt really want to do the solo thing, which is what everybody moves to Nashville to do, Bayliss says. According to Don Aaron, Jason Cope was found by a male friend who went to his home on Erin Ln. Ellen Foster We were the last two cars in the garage. His bandmates shared the sad news on social media on Saturday (Jan. 16). He played guitar with the heart and soul of a virtuoso and the passion of a freedom fighter, Jamey Johnson says of Rowdy. RIP Rowdy, you will be forever and greatly missed.Jason Cope made his name and became a familiar face to many country fans after touring in Jamey Johnsons backing band for nearly 10 years. If you think talking about artists like Jason Rowdy Cope results in large numbers of clicks beyond a very small niche of dialed-in independent fans, you dont know anything about how journalism and clickbait works. While his bandmates couldn't offer further details about his death, they marked the tragic news "with a broken and heavy heart.". Trigger January 19, 2021 @ The album was nominated for Saving Country Musics Album of the Year. 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