Reports: Texas outlaw music legend Jerry Jeff Walker dead at 78

Walker died from cancer-related complications late Friday

INDIO, CA - APRIL 26: Musician Jerry Jeff Walker poses backstage during day two of California's Stagecoach Country Music Festival held at the Empire Polo Club on April 26, 2009 in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) (Frazer Harrison, 2009 Getty Images)

Texas outlaw music legend Jerry Jeff Walker has passed away at the age of 78, according to a report from KTRK-TV in Houston.

Walker passed away Friday from cancer-related complications, the report said. He was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017, Pitchfork reports.

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The musician is widely known for his first hit 1968 song, “Mr Bojangles," which he wrote after meeting a homeless street performer while in a New Orleans jail cell for public intoxication.

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Walker moved to Austin in the early 1970s and soon reinvented himself as a “Lone Star country-rocker,” according to his website.

He had made several records for MCA and Elektra before forming his own independent record label, Tried & True Music, in 1986.

Walker’s album catalog is now composed of 33 records total.

He is survived by his wife, Susan, his son, Django and a daughter, Jessie Jane.

To learn more about Walker, visit his website here.

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About the Author:

Cody King is a digital journalist for KSAT 12. She previously worked for WICS/WRSP 20 in Springfield, Illinois.