The late, great Joe Ely, 1947-2025, didn't have to walk that lonesome valley by himself...
- Letters To You
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: a few seconds ago
December 20, 2025
From Bruce Springsteen's official website/social-media statement on the passing of the great "Lord of the Highway," Joe Ely, who died earlier this week on Monday from complications of Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and pneumonia:
"Over here, we’re deeply saddened by the loss of Joe Ely, a singular American singer, great musician and great artist. I was lucky enough to count Joe as a true friend and I will miss that voice and his companionship. Our hearts go out to his wonderful wife Sharon and the family. We’ve lost an American classic."
In the wake of Ely's passing, his official YouTube channel has posted a special version of the 1995 Ely-Springsteen duet on Ely's song "All Just To Get To You." Their recording is accompanied by the beautiful, moving video that was played behind Springsteen onstage last April at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's 2025 American Music Honors, as he performed "All Just To Get To You" during his induction of Ely as one of this year's Honorees:
That night, Springsteen also had this to say about Ely as he inducted him:
“If the world was a fairer place, Joe Ely would have been huge! I mean huge... He’s a great songwriter... He’s a fabulous stage performer, always with a great band. He’s got that voice, the one I wished I had. It’s got that slight southern country twang, it’s got a hint of rockabilly. It’s got the depth and emotion of Johnny Cash and it’s as deeply authentic as his Texas roots. Now, from his early classic band The Flatlanders, with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, he made a music unique to Texas that touched folks all around the world. He had records like Musta Notta Gotta Lotta, Love and Danger, Letter to Laredo [on which the 1995 Ely-Springsteen version of "All Just To Get To You" first appeared,] Love and Freedom, and a dozen top-shelf others that a lot more people should have heard and gotten to love. Joe left his mark, though, on the Texas and the world music scene. He opened for The Clash in 1978. That’s incredible! As they sang on Sandinista!, ‘There ain’t no better blend than Joe Ely and his Texas men.’ Now Joe Strummer, he knew greatness when he heard it.
“Joe is a member of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. He spent 2016 as the reigning Texas State Musician. He’s a writer, a poet, he’s an accomplished visual artist. He’s been my friend for thirty-plus years and I take great pride to be able to call him so. He’s a sweet, sweet man. We’ve had some wonderful times together, including one post-show Irish night in the pubs and clubs of Dublin that I won’t soon forget. Nor will I say anything more about it! [Note: Another great Ely-Springsteen Dublin moment, as seen in the photo below, was their getting to perform together with one of their greatest musical heroes, The Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis, on the first night that Ely ever appeared as a guest-performer at a Springsteen concert.]
"But I’ve been blessed to sing on his records and be onstage with Joe on occasion and the only thing I can say is: Thank God he wasn’t born in New Jersey! I would have had a lot more of my work cut out for me."
In late June of 1993, Joe Ely was among Bruce Springsteen's special guests at two special benefit concerts: in New Jersey on June 24 for the "A Concert to Fight Hunger" event (officially released/available in the Nugs/Live Archive series,) and at New York's Madison Square Garden on June 26 for the special "A Concert for The Kristen Ann Carr Fund" benefit event that launched Bruce's longtime, strong, and sustained support for the Fund and its ongoing endeavors. That evening opened with a one-time-only performance of Woody Guthrie's version of "Lonesome Valley." Ely joined Springsteen and his 1992-93 touring band, as well as one of Kristen's all-time favorite musicians, the artist formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby, in delivering a powerful, moving, and fully appropriate opening to a very special and important concert:
In 2005, Ely also contributed his musical talents to fighting another deadly disease, with his recording of Bob Dylan's "Winterlude" for the to: KATE - a benefit for kate's sake Christmas album, a project spearheaded by Garry Tallent:
(Coincidentally, to: KATE... also featured a track from another recently passed-too-soon musical great: Raul Malo's one-man-band version of Willie Nelson's song "Pretty Paper," first recorded and released by Roy Orbison back in 1963.)
Just last year, the world was treated to another officially released Ely/Springsteen collaboration on the recording of Ely's song "Odds of the Blues" for his album Driven to Drive:
Finally, this week's Texas Monthly article by journalist and musician Michael Hall, a fan of both Ely and Springsteen, provides an excellent perspective and overview of everything that made Joe Ely such a great musician and a great person. (Its opening sentence reads, "For many Texans, Joe Ely was our Bruce Springsteen.") As Hall's article details, Ely lived a beautiful, significant, and meaningful life, and when he had to face the reality of illness and decline that ultimately would cut it short, he didn't have to walk that lonesome valley all by himself. He was surrounded and protected by a core group of people who loved him deeply, including his longtime friend Bruce Springsteen.
Ely's wife Sharon relates to Hall how supportive Bruce was during Joe's health struggles. (There's also an indication of one more officially released Ely-Springsteen recording collaboration coming in the near future.) And after discussing the difficult - but definitely correct - decision that she and her husband made earlier this month to allow him to die at home, Sharon tells Hall about receiving a phone call from Springsteen shortly afterwards. "Bruce called as soon as he heard, and I said, ‘I think he’s still here. If you want to, I’ll let you say what you feel right now to him or to the universe or whatever.’ And I put the phone up to Joe’s ear, and Bruce said what he felt about Joe to him.”