And his love of the game led to his greatest success in music, first involving a young Farrah Fawcett and finally a legendary recording of his song “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight and the Pips.
Weatherly, who also wrote songs for Ray Price, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers and others, died on Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee, near Nashville, family friend Charlie Monk told the Tennessean newspaper.
He was 77 and his family told Monk that Weatherly died of natural causes.
Born in Mississippi, Weatherly played on the University of Mississippi football team in an undefeated 1962 season, an SEC championship and a national championship. The following year, he was the starting quarterback when the Rebels repeated as SEC champions.
Weatherly called Majors’ home one day, and the actor’s girlfriend, who would become “Charlie’s Angel” star Farrah Fawcett-Majors, answered. She said she was about to catch “the midnight plane to Houston” and visit her family.
“A little bell rang,” Weatherly told the NSAI. “It felt like a song title to me.”
He wrote “Midnight Plane to Houston” as a country song, never imagining it would become an R&B hit. When Gladys Knight & the Pips arrived, the title and style changed, and he became the classic Grammy winner # 1.
“I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did,” Weatherly told the NSAI. “It’s a timeless album.”
Knight and the Pips also had hits with the songs Weatherly “Neither One of Us” and “Best Thing That Every Happened to Me”.
On Friday, Knight tweeted, “I’m already missing Jim Weatherly. He was about life and love … We were made for each other. Our lives grew up together. I’m going to miss him so much and love him for. ever. “
As an interpreter, Weatherly enjoyed a pop and contemporary adult hit with “The Need to Be” and a country hit with “I’ll Still Love You”, according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 2014. “Midnight Train” is among Rolling Stone’s top 500 songs of all time.