R.I.P.: Hitmaker Chips Moman Dead At 79

Memphis music icon, Elvis Presley producer, country and soul-songwriting giant Lincoln "Chips" Moman has died, reports The Memphis Commercial Appeal.

The 79-year-old Moman died at a hospice facility in his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia on Monday, Moman's friend and longtime music industry associate Marty Lacker confirmed.

A gifted rockabilly guitarist and band leader in the 1950s, Moman went on to become one of the architects of Stax Records and author of some of the most enduring songs in the history of rhythm-and-blues and country music — from "Dark End of the Street" to "Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)."

Elvis and Chips

Born in Georgia in 1937, Moman hitchhiked to Memphis at age 17, where he was discovered by Sun Records star Warren Smith. Moman later joined up with brothers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, traveling with them for sessions in California at the famed Gold Star Recording Studios. Moman watched and studied noted engineer Stan Ross behind the board. "And from what I'd learned in California, I decided to take that experience and put it to work in Memphis," recalled Moman in a 2008 interview.

Moman played a pivotal role in Stax's development. He was the one who recorded the label's initial hits by Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and William Bell; helped develop "Last Night," the song that would become The Mar-Keys' smash; and was the one who was musically predisposed to turning Stax from a white country music company into a black R&B label in the first place. But a rancorous split in 1962 with Stewart and his sister and co-owner, Estelle Axton, brought all that to an abrupt end.

In 1965, Moman began developing a studio at 827 N. Thomas in Mephis. American Sound Studios took off with the arrival of local teen garage band The Gentrys, who cut a million-selling smash called "Keep on Dancing."

"They were just kids, and I wasn't much more," recalled Moman. "But that got me started to the point where I could afford to hire a secretary."

That secretary, Sandy Posey, would be his next protégé, and would go on to record the Top 20 Grammy-nominated hit "Born A Woman." "After that, people started calling me to produce records," Moman said.

Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Chips Moman

Moman left Memphis in 1972 and headed to Atlanta to start a new studio, taking most of the American band with him. His tenure in Atlanta was short-lived, however. After encountering problems with the new record label he'd set up, Moman decided to get out of the music business entirely.

Instead, he stopped in Nashville and wrote a hit song for B.J. Thomas ("(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song"), and decided to continue in Music City. Moman would spend the next dozen years in Nashville, where he would dominate the country field — writing hits and producing albums by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette and Ronnie Millsap.