Friends and neighbors of veteran ‘outlaw’ country singer say he did not need to die in Tennessee: ‘This is not Dodge City’

On the outskirts of Lynchburg, Tennessee, the boarded-up front door of an old wooden cabin was creaked ajar. A lonely country music song warbled from a portable boom box inside the cabin. The sliding back door’s glass covered the living room floor.

Inside that house, a few miles down the road from Jack Daniel’s main distillery, a bounty hunter last Tuesday shot to death 65-year-old outlaw country singer Randy Howard, authorities say.

The veteran musician, who had released seven records and shared the stage with some of the genre’s most influential artists, had continued to live the outlaw lifestyle he sang about, even in his final moments that ended in a shootout.

“He was the epitome of outlaw country,” says Paul Hornsby, a Macon, Georgia, producer and musician who worked closely with Howard. “He only not sang that life, but he lived that life.”



Investigators say Howard, who is believed to have lived alone, had fired first after being approached by a bounty hunter, but locals and friends question how the incident was handled.



Those who knew Howard described him as a kind and caring person, and sparked questions about the toughness of regulations facing bounty hunters in Tennessee and elsewhere in the United States.



Sometime on the night of 9 June, bounty hunter Jackie Shell attempted to serve Howard with a bench warrant for failing to appear at a recent court date in Marion County. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), which was asked by a local district attorney to handle the case, the singer faced charges for his fourth DUI offense, driving on a revoked license, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shattered glass covers part of the floor inside the living room where country singer Randy Howard was allegedly shot to death. Photograph: Max Blau/For the Guardian

TBI spokesman Josh Devine, who declined the Guardian’s request to obtain a police report , citing the ongoing investigation, confirmed that Howard died from his injuries in his countryside home on Griffin Road.

“Shell shot Howard after Howard fired a weapon at the bounty hunter, who also sustained injuries during the incident,” Devine said in a written statement to the Guardian.

Jackie Shell’s mother Mary Jane Shell told reporters that paramedics had transported her son to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery.

A Plus Bail Bonding, a bail bonding company located more than 80 miles east in Dunlap, Tennessee, had authorized Shell, a former detective in nearby Sequatchie County, to track down Howard. A spokesman for the firm referred enquiries from the Guardian to a company lawyer who did not respond to requests for interview.

“We try to go get them ourselves, but I don’t have the manpower to run down everybody so a lot of bondsmen do bring in people themselves,” Marion County Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnette told local NBC affiliate WRCB-TV.

With the exception of several states, bounty hunting largely remains legal in the United States as a way to track down people who violate their bail bond contract, the civil document a defendant signs to be released from police custody prior to a court date. When someone like Howard doesn’t show up to court, a bail bondsmen, or a contracted bounty hunter, has a limited window to return the person to jail, or else be on the hook for the bond’s full amount.

Hank Salyer, a bail bondsman from Ashland City who is reputed to have arrested more than 4,500 people over three decades, says bounty hunters often have greater arrest powers than those granted to police agencies, often with minimal regulations.

“Bondsmen can arrest at a person’s residence,” Salyer says. “If a person doesn’t open the door willingly, the bondsman can open the door or the window. … There’s nothing in the state law that says what force is needed or not needed.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Howard’s first record, All American Redneck, came out in 1983 and attempted to de-stigmatize the slur. Photograph: PR

Tennessee law doesn’t mandate bounty hunters to be licensed. But the state’s code requires bail bondsmen and recovery agents to attend an eight-hour class every year. Salyer says the course can vary drastically depending on the teacher. County sheriffs are also supposed to conduct criminal backgrounds on bounty hunters to ensure they’re not felons.

Terry Dodson, Howard’s neighbor who spends much of his time restoring junk cars in his front yard, criticizes the bounty hunter’s methods in attempting to arrest Howard. According to Dodson, he tried giving Howard a ride to his court date. The country singer, who had broken both his leg and foot in recent months, refused to leave his house despite his neighbor’s insistence. Nevertheless, Dodson says a different approach, even asking him to mediate the situation, would have saved the singer’s life.

‘He hunted him down like a wild animal’

“This is not Dodge City,” says Clayton Walker, one of Howard’s newer neighbors whom recently moved to Griffin Road. “The bounty hunter was in the wrong. He could’ve addressed it a whole lot better. He hunted him down like a wild animal.”

Howard’s neighbors – who left near his door flowers and a note that read, “Gone But not Forgetten” [sic] – said the singer typically kept to himself on most days. Wanda Burns, who lives two houses down from Howard, never saw the singer leave his home. Retired septic tank cleaner Ray Burton, a lifelong resident of Lynchburg, recalls the singer as a friendly neighbor whenever they chatted in passing.

“The man liked his booze and liked his drugs,” Burton says. “But he wouldn’t harm nobody or nothing. He didn’t bother nobody.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Howard’s neighbors left flowers and a note that read, “Gone But not Forgetten” [sic] Photograph: Max Blau/For the Guardian

Howard’s first record, All American Redneck, came out in 1983 and attempted to de-stigmatize the slur. But Hornsby says the title track, Howard’s most popular song, became a cult jukebox favorite because it had been considered “too racy for country radio.”.

“It can be positive,” Howard told the Associated Press that year. “When I play clubs, I ask if there are any rednecks out there. I get a good response whether I’m in New York or Miami.”

According to Howard’s social media accounts, he has since shared the stage with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Gregg Allman, and other artists during his lengthy career. Hornsby said the singer had toured several times with Billy Joe Shaver and Confederate Railroad.

Hank Williams III, whose 1999 debut record opens with a cover of Howard’s song, I Don’t Know, expressed his condolences in a Facebook post that included a photo of them together and an update that reads: “RIP Randy Howard.”

Over the past two years, Howard had crafted his first-ever gospel album with Hornsby. The producer says the recordings are nearly complete, aside from a handful of overdubs and mixes. Undine DeFilippo, Howard’s media relations manager, says the “gorgeous” record’s release has faced delays after a potential publisher died. She expects it to be released in the near future.

The night before Howard died, Hornsby says he chatted with his longtime collaborator about the death of another friend, Macon guitarist Tim Brooks. Hornsby, now in utter disbelief over the shooting, says he’ll have to plan yet another event to celebrate yet another friends’ life and musical legacy.

“Little did I know we’d be sharing memories of Tim, and within 24 hours of getting off the phone, that we’d be sharing memories of him,” Hornsby says. “It’s strange, the headlines — ‘Outlaw Country Singer-Songwriter Dies in Shootout’ – those words grab your attention. He lived and died in the mold of outlaw country.”