R.I.P.: Fred Foster, Iconic Nashville Producer

Fred Foster

Fred Foster — a Nashville music legend who helped launch the careers of Dolly Parton and Roy Orbison and founded Monument Records — died Wednesday.

He was 87, according to The Tennessean.

His singular, 60-year career as a producer, songwriter and
label owner was celebrated in grand fashion in 2016, when Foster was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. That evening, Parton stood on stage and paid tribute to the man who “saw things in me that nobody else did.”

“You started my life with my first record,” she said.

Introducing Parton to the world is just the start of Foster’s accomplishments. He did the same with Kris Kristofferson and Orbison, recognizing each artist’s inimitable gift and bringing it to the forefront of their sound.

“I tried to do the best I could every time,” Foster told The Tennessean in 2016. “I tried to do something time would not be critical of. It’s like Orbison said to me one time, ‘What’s the most important thing we’re going to do?’ I said, ‘We’re going to eliminate every gimmick you come up with. They don’t endure.’”

Foster was born July 26, 1931, in rural North Carolina. At 15, he took over the family farm when his father died. Two years later, he moved to Washington, D.C., where his sister lived. Foster wanted to be anything but a farmer, and he started to write songs.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Foster was involved in the careers of such greats as Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Tony Joe White, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Jeannie Seely, Ray Stevens, Connie Smith, Larry Gatlin, Boots Randolph, Grandpa Jones and Charlie McCoy.