{"id":2042903,"date":"2026-07-14T16:23:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2042903"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:23:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:23:59","slug":"jimmy-nichols-nashville-session-musician-and-touring-musical-director-dead-at-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2042903","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Nichols, Nashville Session Musician and Touring Musical Director, Dead at 64"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/JImmy-Nichols-CR-Nichols-Family-Billboard.jpg?w=960″]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n

\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tNashville musician, musical director and producer Jimmy Nichols died over the weekend at age 64. During his career as a keyboardist, producer and musical director, Nichols has performed and\/or recorded with artists including Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Mindy McCready, Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Womack and Gladys Knight.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Nichols was born Jan. 15, 1962. Growing up near Columbus, Ohio, he began performing with his siblings as part of the familial group The Nichols Brothers in the 1970s. According to an interview Nichols did with Yamaha All Access, the sibling group began touring with artists including Eddie Rabbitt, Willie Nelson and The Osmond Brothers, before The Nichols Brothers made their way to Nashville in the \u201990s.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Ella<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tHow Rare Is It for a Country Song by a Woman to Reach the Top 10 of the Hot\u00a0100?\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
  • \n
    Xander Zellner<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  • <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n\tNichols began playing keyboards on albums by Daryle Singletary and McCready. He soon began serving as a keyboardist\/vocalist on the road with McCready, as well as handling band leader duties. In 2001, he became the musical director and pianist for McEntire, touring with her for five years. In 2006, following his role playing keyboards on Faith Hill\u2019s Fireflies<\/em> album, Nichols joined Hill and McGraw as musical director on their Soul2Soul II world tour.<\/p>\n

    \n\t\u201cTouring was always in my blood,\u201d Nichols previously said in an interview with Yamaha All Access. \u201cI always consider myself an entertainer because of all those years I spent with the Brothers. When I get onstage, I hold nothing back. As a keyboard player, I try to be as entertaining and visual as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tAs a musician, Nichols was a 52-year member of the AFM and a 30-year AFM Local 257 member in Nashville.<\/p>\n

    \n\tHe played on albums including Singletary\u2019s 1995 self-titled album and 1996 album All Because of You<\/em>, McCready\u2019s Ten Thousand Angels<\/em> and If I Don\u2019t Stay The Night<\/em>, McEntire\u2019s All The Women I Am <\/em>and If You See Him<\/em>, Andy Griggs\u2019 You Won\u2019t Ever Be Lonely<\/em> and Freedom<\/em>, Urban\u2019s Be Here<\/em> and Days Go By<\/em>, Womack\u2019s There\u2019s More Where That Came From<\/em>, Underwood\u2019s Play O<\/em>n, Blown Away <\/em>and Carnival Ride<\/em>, McGraw\u2019s Southern Voice<\/em>. He also played on albums by Craig Morgan, Billy Gilman, Scotty McCreery, Jeff Bates, Brandy Clark, Ty Herndon and many others.<\/p>\n

    \n\tNichols was also instrumental in launching Black River Music Group and bringing in early label artists including Sarah Darling, Jeff Bates and Due West. He held the role of president and director of A&R at Black River, before leaving to help launch the artist development company Vision Artist Development in 2013.<\/p>\n

    \n\tNichols was involved in the 2017 film Wheeler<\/em>, written by Stephen Dorff and Ryan Ross, an ode to Nashville\u2019s music scene.<\/p>\n

    \n\tNichols also played keyboards on McGraw\u2019s recently released song, \u201cSong For America.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tOn June 25, a benefit concert was held at Nashville venue 3rd & Lindsley for Nichols and his wife Tonya Ginnetti, who has been battling health issues. The concert included performances from artists including Deborah Allen, Griggs, Heidi Newfield, and Jonell Mosser as well as a Nichols Brothers reunion performance. <\/p>\n

    \n\tOn June 27, Nichols was inducted into the Ohio Country Music Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

    \n\tInformation regarding a memorial service for Nichols has yet to be released.<\/p>\n

    \"Billboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/nashville-session-musician-jimmy-nichols-dies-at-64\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/JImmy-Nichols-CR-Nichols-Family-Billboard.jpg?w=960″] Trending on Billboard Nashville musician, musical director and producer Jimmy Nichols died over the weekend at age 64. During his career as a keyboardist, producer and musical director, Nichols has performed and\/or recorded with artists including Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Mindy McCready, Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Womack and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2042903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}