How Keith Whitley's Short Career and Early Death Changed Country
“The whole deal with my music has been the emotional quality,” Whitley said in 1988. “Songs I do have to strike an emotional chord the first time I sing them. It’s not so uncommon for me to get so wrapped up in a song that I cry several times when I sing them. That’s the difference between my music and some of the other folks.” Thirty-plus years after Whitley's sudden death at age 33 from alcohol poisoning, a lifetime of passion and pain still comes through stereo speakers loud and clear whenever fans and artists revisit one of country music’s all-time-great vocal stylists.