Steve Cash, 'humble' member of Ozark Mountain Daredevils, dies at 73

Correction: This story has been updated with accurate information about family members of Steve Cash.

Steve Cash, the man who co-wrote the most enduring hits by the legendary Ozark Mountain Daredevils — "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" and "Jackie Blue" — died Sunday.

He was 73.

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils released a statement Monday praising their bandmate's 48 years as a songwriter and harmonica player who contributed significantly to the group's chart-topping, hard-to-define mix of Southern rock, country, blues and pop sounds.

"He was our poet laureate, an amazingly talented harp player, but more importantly, he was our friend and brother and that presence cannot be replaced," the band said.

'We called ourselves 'the daredevils''

Cash was born on May 5, 1946, in Springfield, the son of Walter Douglas and Jean Cash.

Kelly Park, who now lives in Dallas, Texas, grew up with Cash. He said the two attended Delaware Elementary and went to Cub Scouts together, along with Parkview High School and the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Park remembered a childhood full of adventures.

“Steve, my brother and I regularly built wooden ramps to ride our bicycles,” he told the News-Leader in a Tuesday email. “We called ourselves ‘the daredevils.’”

Cash was “quite athletic,” Park added, “excelling in basketball, football, track and baseball.”

Park said another childhood neighbor was David Kerschenbaum, who later became an A&M Records producer working with the likes of Joan Baez and Joe Jackson.

In bandmate Michael "Supe" Granda's 2008 memoir of the Daredevils, "It Shined," Cash described Kerschenbaum as "just another kid in the neighborhood."

In fifth or sixth grade, Kerschenbaum had Cash over to play around with "exotic" devices: a tape recorder, an electric guitar and an amp.

'I'm tired of just listening'

In his early 20s, Cash returned to Springfield following a post-college stint writing poetry and listening to the blues in Berkeley, California, according to Granda's memoir.

Cash befriended future bandmate John Dillon, according to another official account. The Arkansas native got Cash learning to play the harmonica.

The '70s-era Springfield scene had a significant effect on Cash and the rest of the band. An upstart music venue, the New Bijou Theater, described as an "old vacant brick warehouse under the Glenstone viaduct" by bandmate Larry Lee, was a highlight beginning in 1971. It was "just a bar and a stage," a place where they could hang out, play music and sip free beer.

"It was the reason I stayed in Springfield," Cash told Granda for his book.

"My influences were all over the place," Cash added. "I was just a kid growing up in the '50s. I didn't play music and I didn't play in any bands. At one point, I said, 'I'm tired of just listening. I want to play.' Once I started, I was influenced by everything. Then, when we started playing, we all just started influencing each other."

In those early days, gigs like a $600 commercial jingle for Stinger Sam's auto parts store seemed like "huuuge money," bandmate John Dillon said in the memoir.

A 'humble' star

By 1972, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils attracted the attention of music executives, Granda wrote. The following year, they started playing Kansas City and St. Louis. Before long, they were whisked off to England to record their self-titled debut album, featuring the hit "If You Wanna Get to Heaven."

As radio station KCUR in Kansas City noted in May, "There was a time, around Kansas City — and the whole country — when the Ozark Mountain Daredevils were the soundtrack of summer."

The '70s became the heyday for the group, which the New York Times portrayed in 1974 as "six genial gentlemen from Missouri who combine down‐home acoustic mountain music with country rock in a generally pleasing manner."

Following a few successful albums, the band fell out of the national limelight, though fans still regarded the Daredevils as star performers.

#VINYLCUTOFTHEDAY

Ozark Mountain Daredevils

'If You Wanna Get to Heaven'

(1973) pic.twitter.com/E8rbX0EJHp — MORNING ROCK SHOW (@morningrockshow) October 15, 2019

In 1990, Cash explained their fortunes this way in a News-Leader interview.

“I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we live here in Springfield and are out of that LA-Nashville-New York connection," he said. "We don’t have a manager in any of those places, and it puts us out of touch. I’ve talked to a lot of record executives who say ‘I didn’t know you guys were still alive.' But also, I think that’s why we’re able to survive. Because we’re on the outside of the mainstream, our songs don’t sound formulated.”

Cash may have been a star, but he didn't particularly act like one, friends and associates said.

John "U-Man" Ulett has been on air with KSHE in St. Louis — a bastion of Daredevils fandom — for 43 years.

He told the News-Leader on Tuesday that to this day, his station's research people test out "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" on audiences — and that it remains a hit.

But Cash was cool about it.

"The times I was around Steve," Ulett said, "he seemed to be a pretty quiet guy, a very nice, low-key gentleman who never ever visualized himself as a rock star in the least. Just a humble guy, who I think seemed very proud of what he and his band were able to do."

Molly Healey, a Springfield-based singer-songwriter, has performed with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils as a guest artist since 2012.

"He never expected special treatment, never felt the need," she said Tuesday. "He was just so personable. Once I got to know him, I could have called him a good friend from day one. He was really, really supportive of me and that was just so mind-blowing to me, when someone who has accomplished so much in their music career was supportive when I was just getting started at the time."

Healey said Cash was also a strong support for her daughter, encouraging her in artistic pursuits like painting and sketching.

In more recent years, Healey said health concerns prompted Cash to slow down. In August, the band announced Cash made a "mutually supported transition to become a non-touring partner" with the group.

"He was just very humble, generous and kind," Healey said. "I don't have enough good words to say about the man."

'He wrote from the heart'

Anne Walls, owner of Savoy Ballroom and a creative talent behind the Thriller on C-Street annual event, said she knew Cash and many of his bandmates for 30 years.

"Fame was not what their goal was," she told the News-Leader Tuesday. "I think they were really more driven to create their music. And you know, you see so many bands these days that are just created to be on stage and create sales. (The Daredevils) were passionate, and the music they created was from their heart, and they were very loyal to each other."

She added, "Steve was the same way. I don't know if he’d ever change anything for anybody. He wrote from his heart."

In the 1990s, she aided Cash with his first novel, "The Meq," a fantasy about a 12-year-old super-being who plays baseball in 1800s America.

"He hand-wrote the entire book on yellow steno pads," Walls said. She and family members helped transcribe and proofread the manuscript, an "agonizing" process.

After years of rejections, Cash finally got the book published in England in 2002.

Shortly before it was picked up by Penguin RandomHouse, a major U.S. publisher, Cash told the News-Leader that he had always wanted to be a writer, "from the time I was 15."

"But," he said, "rock 'n' roll got me sidetracked for about 30 years."

Cash later released two sequels to "The Meq." They remain in print.

Legendary skills

His harmonica skills were legendary, said Daredevils guest artist Healey — perhaps a surprise, as Cash had little formal musical training before joining the band, according to a 2003 News-Leader report.

"I think it's been a general consensus with all us musicians that there's just nobody who played the harmonica like he did," she said. He wore a leather harmonica holster on his waist the way a contractor might strap on a tool belt.

Frequently, musicians use harmonica almost like a filler, Healey said: "It's usually like punctuation for other musicians, but for the Daredevils, it was really part of their sound."

Walls, who helped Cash with his novel, also described Cash as a "renaissance man" who knew his way around a cast-iron skillet.

"He loved to cook — he was an amazing cook — he loved good food, good wine, he loved his Irish whiskey," she said. "He wrote poetry, he wrote short stories, he painted. And he was good at all of that stuff."

"Everyone knows him for the music, but it was much more than that," Walls said. "He was just a really creative individual. He just really appreciated the quality in life."

He loved his children, Walls said, and will be missed by many.

Cody Cash and Star Hargis survive their father; along with Cody's wife, Allison Cash; Star's husband, Mike Hargis; three granddaughters, a grandson; and Cash's sister, Linda Baird.

No formal services are planned, according to an obituary posted by Walnut Lawn Funeral Home. Cash will be cremated.