Darryl Worley

Darryl Worley was one of the biggest names in traditional country music in the 2000s before stepping away from the limelight, only to return with a new album in 2019.

Worley was born in Memphis, Tennessee on 31 October, 1964 to a Methodist minister and choir singer and with a grandfather who played country and bluegrass on the banjo. Worley studied biology and chemistry and took up the latter professionally, but opted to try his hand in the music industry on the advice of his father. He landed a job as a songwriter at Fame Publishing and in 1994 landed a deal with EMI.

By the end of the decade Worley had landed a record deal with DreamWorks and in 2000 released the album 'Hard Rain Don't Last', which spawned three hit country singles. The follow-up, 2003's 'I Miss My Friend', fared even better, with its title track hitting number one in the country singles chart. With the patriotic single 'Have You Forgotten' in 2003 Worley had his biggest hit to date, occupying the country chart top spot for seven weeks.

Worley continued to put out hits through the early 2000s, but a poor run of luck with labels going out of business saw a more erratic release schedule through the latter half of the decade. Meanwhile, Worley and his wife had had a child and he began to become more focused on his family. His output dried to a trickle of singles, but in 2018 he began to work on a comeback. He and his band recorded 'Second Wind: Latest and Greatest', a mix of new material and re-recordings of his biggest hits, releasing it in April 2019.