Memorial concerts planned for Oklahoma Red Dirt rocker Chad Sullins
At least two memorial concerts are in the works to honor Oklahoma singer-songwriter and Red Dirt rocker Chad Sullins, who died June 27 in Altus. He was 43.
Sullins, who had a history of heart problems, died of a torn aortic valve, according to a message posted on his official Facebook page.
“Sullins was a poet in the mold of Woody Guthrie and Bob Childers. He was the essence of what Red Dirt means to its artists and its fans until his last breath,” said Josh Crutchmer, author of the book “Red Dirt: Roots Music Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, at Home Anywhere,” said in a statement to The Oklahoman.
“He loved a song and he loved when it found ears. His passing is a tragedy, but he spent his last day singing to his friends at the farm in Stillwater, then put all he had into his Altus gig, and I know if he could choose his last 24 hours, that’s what he’d have picked. He never really got his due in this mortal world, but nobody who heard him play or chatted him up at an Oklahoma dive bar is ever going to forget him.”
Born in Hobart and raised in the Altus area as well as in Knoxville, Tennessee, Sullins told The Oklahoman in a 2012 interview that he was working a job he hated in the southwestern Oklahoma oil-fields when a pal introduced him to Red Dirt music, that enigmatic and heady blend of country, rock, folk, blues and Western swing.
While working as a truck driver, he honed his songwriting…
