Dale Morris, one of the leading names in the ranks of Nashville music managers, who helped build up superstar careers for the group Alabama and then Kenny Chesney nearly from scratch, died Friday at 89. A representative said Morris died in his sleep.
“He lived a big, bold, beautiful, blessed life, and I’m holding onto that right now,” said his protege and eventually managerial partner of many years, Clint Higham, president of Morris Higham Management. “It’s the end of an era.”
Morris met the fledgling Alabama in 1989 while heading up Dale Morris & Associates and played a massive role in making the group the most successful band in the history of country music, with 33 No. 1 hits in the 1980s and ’90s, along with a huge touring career that led to their being named Entertainer of the Year three times by the Country Music Association and five times by the Academy of Country Music in the mid-’80s. Alabama’s meteoric rise saw the group being credited for being early in country music to adopt some of rock’s touring production values, finding rock-star-level success as well.
Lightning struck twice for Morris, as he oversaw the rise of Chesney from a country also-ran into the genre’s most reliable stadium-filler, who was named Entertainer of the Year four times in the 2000s by both the CMAs and ACMs, and who has enjoyed 32 No. 1 Billboard country smashes.
