Country music mourning loss of songwriter Bobby Boyd

Country music is mourning the loss of one of its own as singer-songwriter Bobby Boyd passed away last Thursday, June 22, in Spicewood, Texas. He was 69.

Boyd is best known for co-writing Garth Brook's No. 1 country hit, “Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House,” which appeared on Brooks' album, “No Fences.” He also co-wrote “Working Man's PhD” with Aaron Tippin, who took the song in 1993 to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and featured it as the leadoff single on his album, “Call of the Wild.”

Boyd also wrote songs for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Earl Thomas Conley, Billy Dean, Martina McBride, Vern Gosdin, Patty Loveless and many others. In later years, he moved to Spicewood, near Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch, and became well-known in the Austin music scene as a regular performer at Poodie's Hilltop Roadhouse in Spicewood and other local establishments.

He shared the stage with Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Toby Keith, Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Dub Miller, Roger Creager and others as a performer. He also worked with local artists Stephen Bruton and the legendary W.C. Clark.

A native of Dunlap, Tennessee, Boyd started his professional songwriting career in Nashville in 1980. He had begun playing in his first band in Tennessee at the tender age of 12 and cut his teeth in the late 1960s and early 1970s, performing residencies at The Castaways club in Chattanooga.

Early in his career, Boyd also opened shows for several R&B artists, inlcuding Little Richard, The Coasters and The Platters.

A memorial is being established for Boyd and a GoFundMe account has been set up at gofundme.com/bobby-boyds-funeral-and-memorial.