Randy Howard, the country singer famous for his 1983 album "All-American Redneck," was killed in a gunfight with a Tennessee bounty hunter on Tuesday night.
Howard made seven albums during his lifetime, and shared the stage with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams Jr. Howard also wrote songs for Hank Williams III, and the surviving country singer took to Facebook on Thursday to pay tribute to Howard.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that bounty hunter Jackie Shell tried to detain the 65-year-old singer on a Marion County warrant charging him with a fourth-offense DUI, drug paraphernalia, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, and driving on a revoked license.
A spokesman for The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Josh DeVine, said that when Shell arrived at Howard's home in Lynchburg, the bounty hunter entered the home seeking to take him into custody. Howard opened fire, and Shell shot back.
Howard was killed in the fire fight, and Shell was hospitalized. Shell's mother, Mary Jane Shell, said her son subsequently underwent surgery at Erlanger hospital on Wednesday.
DeVine said that an investigation into the exact nature of the gunfight is still ongoing, and did not comment on whether Shell had a right to enter Howard's home.
Shell works for A-Plus Bail Bonding in Dunlap, and
WSMV-TV reported that while many states require bondsman to have licenses, Tennessee does not.
Howard's neighbor Terry Dotson told the station that the singer had missed his original court date related to the DUI and other charges, a claim corroborated by DeVine.
"One morning I went over there to take him to court and he wasn't ready," Dotson said. "He said, 'Well, I'll call them in a couple hours.' And that's when I got mad at him. I said, 'Look, we're supposed to be there at 9 o'clock.'"
"He said he wasn't going back to jail. That's what he told me," Dotson added.
The Associated Press reported that Howard was part of the "Outlaw" movement in country music, which tended to reject Nashville's polished sound in favor of a rougher one.