Outlaw Country Music Impresario Jeremy Tepper Dies at 60

Jeremy Tepper, who tirelessly championed the outlaw country genre by highlighting both its venerable icons and its revolutionary beginnings in his role as program director of SiriusXM's “Outlaw Country” channel, died Friday. Tepper's wife, singer-songwriter Laura Cantrell, announced his death of a heart attack at their home in New York. It was 60.

Tepper was a collective, omnipresent presence in the country, Americana and rock universes, seemingly always in the crowd or backstage at concerts and festivals, from the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson's ranch in Spicewood, Texas, to the Americana Music festival in nashville. at the opening last week of an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoring Mojo Nixon, Tepper's close friend and Sirius XM colleague who died in February. A meeting with Tepper at a show reliably came with two things, a “yeah baby” greeting and a hefty bear hug.

Born in 1963, Tepper was a graduate of NYU, where he majored in journalism. In 2004, he joined satellite radio giant SiriusXM as program director of a new channel launched by Steven Van Zandt called “Outlaw Country.” Backed by an army of wacky, often outspoken DJs, including Nixon, ex-WWE wrestler Hillbilly Jim, FoolJohnny Knoxville, Steve Earle and Elizabeth Cook, Tepper created a community for misfits and outsiders – artists and listeners alike.

The channel's playlists cast a wide musical net and included country pioneers outlaws like Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, cowpunk bands Old 97's and the Blasters, singer-songwriters like Lucinda Williams and Jesse Dayton, and a new crop of dumpers such as Vandoliers and Jokers. (Tepper also oversaw SiriusXM's “Willie's Roadhouse” channel.)

Many of these artists would follow Tepper out to sea on what became his annual signature event: The Outlaw Country Cruise, a raucous, multi-day voyage presented with music cruise company Sixthman. As the cruise's behind-the-scenes curator, Tepper assembled outrageously eclectic bands: The Mavericks, Emmylou Harris, Nikki Lane, Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites, Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw and New York punk troubadour Jesse Malin have traveled since . the inaugural OCC in 2016. Tepper prided himself on paying tribute to legends of all genres on the cruise and enlisted Country Music Hall of Famers such as Kristofferson and John Anderson and reggae pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry. The ninth edition of the cruise is scheduled for February 2025.

“The Outlaw Country cruise becomes a place where that legacy of what happened in the mid-1970s lives on,” Tepper said. Rolling rock in 2019. “It's still alive and kicking.”

Prior to his career at SiriusXM, Tepper was a vocalist in the band World Famous Blue Jays. He also founded and ran the indie label Diesel Only Records, which released the great celebration of truck driving music. Rig Rock Deluxe (Musical Salute to the American Truck Driver)in 1996, highlighting the depth and passion of his musical knowledge.

On Saturday, artists and colleagues remembered Tepper. “I lost my good friend Jeremy Tepper last night. An incredibly tragic loss so young,” Van Zandt He wrote. “He ran my Outlaw Country station on SiriusXM flawlessly. It's actually a very complicated shape and he made it look easy.”

In a statement, SiriusXM said Tepper “profoundly influenced us with his unwavering dedication to music and his innovative spirit. His contribution to the shaping of Outlaw Country and Willie's Roadhouse is immeasurable.”

Erl He wrote that the Outlaw Country and Willie's Roadhouse channels “lost our leader … He was our coach, cheerleader and a dear friend.” Journalist Ann Powers is described him as a “generator of joy”.

Tepper was a consummate concertgoer and spoke of living by a “rule of three” – every night out had to include at least three different bands. On a trip to Nashville earlier this spring to open SiriusXM's new studio downtown, that included Bob Dylan and the Black Crowes. Often, one of the three fell into the realm of the lawless country.

“We draw from a variety of food groups: rockabilly, honky-tonk, country-rock of the Byrds/Dylan variety, cowpunk, alt-country, to today's Americana artists,” Tepper once said. RS of the “lawless country” label. “It means something different to everyone.”