{"id":1744,"date":"2018-09-05T08:16:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T07:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:41:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T08:41:46","slug":"the-band-will-never-be-the-same-again-george-strait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/09\/05\/the-band-will-never-be-the-same-again-george-strait\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The band will never be the same again&#8221; &#8211; George Strait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-reactid=\"158\">George Strait\u00a0has issued a statement following\u00a0the death of his longtime drummer, Mike Kennedy, in a car accident on last Friday (Aug. 31), in Lebanon, Tennessee. On Facebook, the country superstar says it&#8217;s &#8220;hard to put into words how much Mike&#8217;s passing has affected us all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\"158\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\"165\">&#8220;Our hearts are broken. It\u2019s going to be very strange not being able to look over and see him there in his spot on stage and very emotional as well I\u2019m sure for all of us and also his fans,&#8221; Strait\u00a0continues. &#8220;The band will never be the same. A part of us is gone forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgeorgestrait%2Fposts%2F10155656392965906&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"784\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"in-article-oop-container sharethrough-container\" data-reactid=\"170\"><\/div>\n<p data-reactid=\"173\">Kennedy, 59,\u00a0was driving a 1999 GMC Sierra westbound on Interstate 40 when, just before 4PM, near mile-marker 238 in Wilson County, he hit a tractor and trailer as it was merging into another lane. The tractor and trailer then hit a Chevrolet Silverado, according to a preliminary report on the accident.<\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\"174\">Tennessee Highway Patrol identified the GMC&#8217;s deceased driver as Kennedy, a resident of Baxter, Tennessee. He was not wearing a seat belt, but investigators say that it would not have saved him had he been wearing one. No one else was injured in the crash, though the accident and the subsequent investigation blocked several lanes of traffic for hours.<\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\"175\">&#8220;We all loved Mike and will miss him terribly. He was just as solid a friend to us all as he was a drummer, and that was damn solid,&#8221; Strait adds in his Facebook post. &#8220;Our hearts and prayers are with his family. The Lord has him now. Rest In Peace my friend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\"176\">A drummer since childhood, Kennedy played with Barbara Fairchild and\u00a0Ricky Skaggs\u00a0before joining Strait&#8217;s Ace in the Hole Band in the early 1980s, after original drummer Tommy Foote left the band to become Strait&#8217;s road manager. A left-handed drummer, Kennedy also played with\u00a0Jamey Johnson,\u00a0Bill Anderson\u00a0and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Strait\u00a0has issued a statement following\u00a0the death of his longtime drummer, Mike Kennedy, in a car accident on last Friday (Aug. 31), in Lebanon, Tennessee. On Facebook, the country superstar says it&#8217;s &#8220;hard to put into words how much Mike&#8217;s passing has affected us all.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[274,39,40,273,272,124],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/5b8b01848a239.image_.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}