Cowboy Jack Clement, the influential country music songwriter, producer and record executive, died at his Nashville home on 8 August 2013, aged 82, following liver cancer. His death marked the loss of a major behind-the-scenes figure whose work helped shape the careers and recordings of prominent country artists, including Charley Pride, Johnny Cash and George Jones.

Clement began at Sun Records in 1956, working with artists such as Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, and wrote two country-chart-topping Cash songs, “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” and “Guess Things Happen That Way”. After moving to Nashville and later Texas, he encouraged George Jones to record the 1962 number one “She Thinks I Still Care”; he then helped Pride secure an RCA deal and produced 13 of his albums. Clement also founded Jack Music Inc. in 1971, helping launch Don Williams, and wrote hits for George Jones, Cash, Bobby Bare, Jim Reeves and Pride.