In the spring of 1990, one of the biggest songs on country radio was Keith Whitley’s “I’m Over You.” It climbed all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard country chart in late May, almost exactly a year after Keith Whitley had been found unconscious in his home outside Nashville. The cause of death was alcohol poisoning. And the song on the radio was about a man telling an old love that the stories about his drinking simply weren’t true.
A Song About the Talk Going Around
“I’m Over You” was written by Tim Nichols and Zack Turner, two Nashville songwriters who had met at a songwriters’ night at the Bluebird Cafe. Years later, Tim Nichols would win a Grammy for co-writing Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying.”
The song itself is simple. The man singing it has heard what people are saying about him since the breakup: that he’s been drinking too much, that he doesn’t look well, that he’s taking it hard. He doesn’t argue or raise his voice. He just wonders why anyone would make that up, because he’s over her.
Keith Whitley recorded it for his third studio album, I Wonder Do You Think of Me, recorded in Nashville in April 1989. He co-produced the record with Garth Fundis, the producer who had helped him make Don’t Close Your Eyes. On “I’m Over You,” Keith sings in that low, unhurried Kentucky baritone, never pushing, never breaking. American Songwriter later noted that the song would likely have been a hit regardless, but that its lines about drinking and looking unwell landed differently with fans after his death.
Sessions That Did Not Go Smoothly
On paper, Keith Whitley’s life was at its peak that spring. “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “When You Say Nothing at All” had both gone to No. 1, and in April 1989 “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” became his third straight chart-topper. He was reportedly just weeks away from being asked to join the Grand Ole Opry.
Behind the scenes, the drinking that had followed him since his teenage years in Sandy Hook, Kentucky, had returned. He had gotten sober in 1987, and at the time he described quitting in stark terms:
“It was a matter of life and death.”
That sobriety lasted about six months. According to Country Universe, Garth Fundis had been assured by RCA that Keith’s drinking days were behind him when they made Don’t Close Your Eyes, and those sessions went well. The sessions for the next album were a different story. The same account says Keith frequently missed recording dates, and that Fundis ended up building the album from the work they had managed to finish. Other references simply say Keith completed his sessions before he died. Either way, his vocal on “I’m Over You” was on tape.
The Morning of May 9, 1989
In early May, Keith drove his wife, Lorrie Morgan, to the Nashville airport for a promotional trip to Alaska. Before she boarded, he handed her a greeting card with a note inside. She decided to save it and open it on the flight home. Lorrie Morgan has said she lived on pins and needles whenever he was on the road. With her gone, Keith began a weekend of heavy drinking. That same weekend, on Saturday, May 6, he played what turned out to be his final concert, at the Armadillo Ballroom in Brazoria, Texas.
Tuesday morning started like an ordinary day. Keith Whitley spoke briefly with his mother on the phone. His brother-in-law, Lane Palmer, came by the house in Goodlettsville. The two men drank coffee and made plans to play golf and have lunch. Keith also planned to start writing songs that he and Lorrie could record together when she got back.
Lane Palmer left around 8:30 a.m. When he returned about an hour later, he found Keith fully clothed on his bed, unconscious. An ambulance took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 34.
The Davidson County medical examiner, Charles Harlan, reported a blood alcohol level of .47, roughly the equivalent of twenty one-ounce shots of 100-proof whiskey, and ruled the death alcohol poisoning. Harlan later lost his medical license over misconduct in other cases, which fueled years of speculation. But Lorrie Morgan and the Whitley family have never publicly disputed the finding.
The Single Nobody Could Have Planned
RCA released I Wonder Do You Think of Me on August 1, 1989, three months after Keith’s death. Lorrie Morgan personally approved the title track as the first single, and it went to No. 1. “It Ain’t Nothin'” followed it to the top. Then, in January 1990, came “I’m Over You.”
The single spent the winter and spring climbing. It reached No. 3 in late May 1990 and finished at No. 15 on Billboard’s year-end country chart for 1990. It was Keith Whitley’s last solo Top 10 hit.
Anyone who flipped the 45 over found one more song from the same album. The B-side was “Tennessee Courage,” written by Vern Gosdin, Rex Gosdin and Louis Brown, a honky-tonk number about settling onto a barstool and counting on Jack Daniel’s as a friend in hard times. On one side, a man insisting the drinking stories were invented. On the other, a man raising a glass to the bottle.
Do you remember where you were the first time you heard “I’m Over You” on the radio?