Brosville bluegrass musician nominated for Grammy

A Brosville bluegrass musician will head to Los Angeles later this month for the Grammy Awards. James King has been nominated for best bluegrass album.

For the Martinsville native who’s been playing music for 40 years, the news was overwhelming. It’s his first Grammy nomination and the ceremony will be held Jan. 26.

“You’re idling along and the next thing you know, you’re up for a Grammy,” King, 55, said during an interview Tuesday.

King, who plays guitar, sings and performs in two bands, is no stranger to recognition for his artistry. He has been named best male vocalist 12 times since 1995 by the Society for Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America, and is up for a 13th nomination. In 1997, he won the best emerging band award from the International Bluegrass Music Association.

The Grammy-nominated album, “Three Chords and the Truth,” was recorded over five years, from 2008 to 2013.

King first heard about his Grammy nomination in early December during a call from his record producer, Ken Irwin, while at Walmart around 11:30 p.m. Irwin was instrumental in getting George Thorogood and Alison Krauss their big breaks.

“He said to me, ‘you need to go to the bluegrass section and look for the album you’ve been nominated for,’” King recalled, adding that he couldn’t believe it and began hyperventilating upon hearing the news.

“I’ve made a living in the last 20 years but I‘ve never seen it take off like this,” he said.

Popular songs on King’s album include “Highway to Nowhere,” “The Devil’s Train,” “Talking to the Wall,” “Jason’s Farm,” “Blue Blue Day” “Riding with Private Malone” and “Things Have Gone to Pieces.”

The remaining nominees for best bluegrass album include The Boxcars (It’s Just a Road), Dailey & Vincent (Brothers of the Highway), Della Mae (This World Oft Can Be) and the Del McCoury Band (The Streets of Baltimore).

King’s recording label, Rounder, also includes Alison Krauss, Steve Martin and jazz artist Allen Toussaint.

While he has enjoyed success, King has also endured personal turmoil and heartbreak.

“Tragedy has played a role in how things turned out in my life,” King said.

He battled alcohol and cocaine addiction from 2001-06, quit cold turkey (his religious faith — he became a born-again Christian in 1974 — helped him, he said) and has been clean and sober for seven years. He suffered through agonizing withdrawal.

“I had bad night sweats for six months to a year, nightmares,” King said, adding that his cat was a comfort to him.

His best friend, Wade Jones, died in a fire in 1992 at 34. He wrote a song for Jones’ mother, “Don’t Worry, Mama.”

His daughter, Shelby Ann King, was killed in a car accident on Dec. 9, 2012.

After all his trials and tribulations, Julie Lillard-King and James King view his Grammy nomination as a victory of sorts. 

“No matter whether he wins the award, he’s already won,” Julie said.

King, who grew up in Cana near Mount Airy, N.C., came of age in a musically-inclined family. His father and uncle had a band and he first began playing music at 15.

He started out playing gospel at 16 in his Pentecostal Holiness church and later went through a rock/heavy-metal phase — listening to Steppenwolf, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Pink Floyd — before playing bluegrass in the mid-1970s, King said.

ZZ Top is King’s favorite rock ‘n’ roll band and his biggest influences are The Stanley Brothers, Dudley Connell, Jimmy Martin and Ted Lundy.

He joined a band, the Lundy Brothers, in 1980, and performed in Conowingo, Md. He started The James King Band in 1983.

King has lived in Pittsylvania County for seven years and has performed since 1994 with Longview, which includes J.D. Crowe on the banjo, Don Rigsby (mandolin) Ron Stewart (banjo and fiddle), Marshall Wilborne (bass) and Lou Reid (guitar).

The James King Band, includes John Marquess (upright bass and vocals), Rodney Worley (madolin, vocals) Jesse Smathers (rhythm guitar, vocals), David Carroll (banjo), Merl Johnson (fiddle, vocals) and King (guitar, lead vocals).