11/04/2025
John Wesley Ryles—who died at age seventy-four on Sunday, November 2—recorded eight Top Twenty country hits as a solo artist and performed for decades as an in-demand background singer on countless Nashville recordings. His session credits include cuts by more than twenty-five members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he contributed to such well-known hits as Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” Tracy Byrd’s “Watermelon Crawl,” Alan Jackson’s “Drive,” George Jones’s “Choices,” Martina McBride’s “Independence Day,” Dolly Parton’s “An Eagle When She Flies,” and Travis Tritt’s “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive.”
Born in Bastrop, Louisiana, Ryles became a professional singer in childhood, singing gospel music on radio programs in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the Ryles Family Singers. The group became regulars on the popular “Big D Jamboree” in Dallas. Moving to Nashville with his family in 1965, Ryles signed with Columbia Records in 1967.
His first single, “Kay,” was a surprisingly mature narrative for a seventeen-year-old and became a Top Ten country hit in 1969. His highest-charting song, “Once in a Lifetime Thing,” which was written by hit songwriting duo Jerry Foster and Bill Rice, reached #5 on the "Billboard" country singles chart in 1977. Ryles moved into session work as a background and harmony singer in 1988.
A well-liked figure in Nashville music circles, he is survived by his wife, Joni Lee Ryles, daughter of Country Music Hall of Fame member Conway Twitty.
