The Sordid Story of the REAL “Murder on Music Row”

Most any true country fan can likely quote you at least a couple of the verses of the now classic country music song “Murder on Music Row.” Originally written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, and recorded by the bluegrass group Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time as the title track to their 1999 record, the song would go on to be widely popularized when George Strait and Alan Jackson performed it on the 1999 CMA Awards as a protest against the encroachment of pop into the country genre.
Far from banishing the two country music superstars from the industry, “Murder on Music Row” became both a commercial and critical success. The next year at the CMA Awards, the duo’s performance of the song won the CMA for Vocal Event of the Year. And after the two recorded a studio version of the song in 2000 for George Strait’s Latest Greatest Straightest Hits compilation, radio even began playing the song. Though it was never officially released as a single, “Murder on Music Row” peaked at #38 in the charts. The year later, in 2001, “Murder on Music Row” also won the prestigious CMA for Song of the Year. It’s now considered a country music standard.
“Murder On Music Row” is a work of fiction about how the traditions of country music were murdered on 16th Avenue just west of downtown Nashville where the mother brain of the country music industry resides. But few remember the actual murder that occurred on the Music Row campus in 1989 that left a young magazine employee who knew too much laying dead, an aspiring country music entertainer seriously injured, and a mystery that went unsolved for many years until the eventual exposure of an elaborate scheme involving cash payments to embellish numbers and help launch country music stars under false pretenses eventually led investigators to the motive, and the killer.
30 years ago this week, on March 6th, 1989, a man by the name of Kevin Hughes, who was an employee of a country music trade periodical called Cashbox Magazine, was exiting a recording studio on Music Row with up-and-coming country music artist named Sammy Saddler. As the two men were getting into their car, an armed gunman wearing a ski mask and dark clothes approached them and opened fire.
Kevin Hughes, who was 23-years-old at the time, was shot three times as he attempted to flee down 16th Avenue, including a fatal shot to the back of the head. The 21-year-old Sammy Saddler was shot in the shoulder and was severely wounded, but was able to run to a nearby building for cover. Saddler would later recover from his wounds, though his career never would. And just like in the song “Murder on Music Row,” the assailant fled from 16th Avenue without anyone getting a good description of him, and no weapon or fingerprints to trace.

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